Blog posts for tag:job outcomes

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Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Friday 07 December 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

It’s the second biggest economic event in the Government’s calendar and this week George Osbourne made a series of important announcements in his Autumn Statement. Notably, the Chancellor stated that the Government will miss its own debt targets as the tougher economic conditions mean that it will take 4 rather than 3 years for debt to fall. However, he remained confident about the future and opened by saying that “it’s taking time but the British economy is healing” and that Britain is “on the right track.” He also reminded us that the UK has a greater proportion of people in work than the US or the Eurozone average.

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Can the Work Programme succeed?

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Wednesday 28 November 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

Official figures this week show that the Work Programme has missed its main target for getting people sustained jobs - only 3.53% of people on the programme have found a job for 6 months or more (the coalition's target was 5.5%). The programme provides tailored support for claimants who need more help to undertake active and effective job-seeking. Joining the work programme is mandatory for people aged over 25 when they have been out of work for a year and for under-25s after 9 months.

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BIS report on Apprenticeships highlights need for change

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Tuesday 13 November 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

By David Grailey, Chief Executive An 11 month review into Apprenticeships has concluded that urgent reforms are required to the government’s Apprenticeship programme in order to boost economic growth.

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Apprenticeships: Reform needed for success?

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Wednesday 07 November 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

An 11 month review of apprenticeships carried out by The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has concluded that urgent reform is needed to the Government's apprenticeships programme. The report suggests that quality standards need to be improved and schemes need to be better monitored in order to provide the skills needed to boost economic growth. It calls for schemes to be more ambitious and apprenticeships to be seen as equal to university. Following the publication of the report, the Chairman of the BIS Committee, Adrian Bailey, has stated that apprenticeships are capable of creating a more skilled workforce, increasing employment and ultimately solving “some of this country's most pressing issues”.

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Looking for a job – a job in itself?

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Tuesday 30 October 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

A new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has highlighted the huge task faced by young unemployed people looking for work and has reinforced the need for rigorous preparation and active job search, in order to be successful. The research was carried out across 3 UK cities, one with a weak supply of jobs, one with a better supply and one in-between. Researchers sent 2,000 job applications from fictional learners with at least 5 good GCSEs and relevant work experience to 667 real vacancies (sales assistants, cleaners, office administrators and kitchen hands).

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Students to rate colleges online

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Monday 24 September 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

Further education students are being invited to rate their college on a new website, ‘Learner View’, run by education watchdog Ofsted. The questionnaire particularly focuses on how well college courses prepare students for their next steps in work or study. The initiative stems from Ofsted’s Skills for Employment report, which suggested that some college courses aren’t challenging enough and are too focused on the achievement of qualifications rather than providing learners with job specific skills.

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Tackling youth unemployment - what’s the answer?

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Thursday 20 September 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

According to a report this week by the Work and Pensions Select Committee, the Government's youth contract is “insufficient” to tackle the scale of youth unemployment on its own. The youth contract provides £1bn for a range of initiatives aimed at getting young people into employment. Measures include providing 160,000 employers with a "wage incentive" of £2,275 to take on an unemployed 18-24 year-old, 250,000 work experience placements and also additional support from Jobcentre Plus.

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Apprenticeships: what could we learn from Switzerland?

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Wednesday 29 August 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

With the steep rise in tuition fees, increasing amounts of young people are applying for Apprenticeships rather than turning to higher education – the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) says applications are up 53% on last year. Yet in the UK, the vocational route is not always as highly valued as the academic alternative. In Janet Murray’s recent article, she explores the education system in Switzerland – a country with one of the most successful apprenticeship systems in the world with a youth unemployment figure of just 7.5% (in contrast to 21.9% in the UK).

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Work Programme – a positive impact on employment

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Tuesday 17 July 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

Data published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) this week suggests that the Government's flagship welfare-to-work scheme, the Work Programme, has had a positive effect on the long-term unemployed. The figures reveal that 48% of people who joined the Programme at its launch in June 2011 had a break in benefit claims by the end of 9 months, and almost 25% had stopped claiming benefits for at least three months. The latest stats are encouraging after a National Audit Office (NAO) report earlier this year indicated that only 15% of over-25s would get jobs through the Work Programme in contrast to the official government estimate of 40%.

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Delivering employment outcomes in FE – what’s the answer?

By Lindsay Plumpton, Communications Leader, Friday 13 July 2012

Lindsay Plumpton

It’s hard to ignore the challenges faced by unemployed people in the UK today – we’re confronted with an almost daily stream of bad news related to the issue. This week, Ofsted published its report Skills for Employment.  The report was a direct response to the government’s plans for FE providers to offer work-based training to help the unemployed into work and was critical of FE providers. According to the report, only 19% of students were successful in finding a job when leaving college.

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