HM Government

Increasing opportunities for those of working age

Our approach focuses on:

• supporting a dynamic economy by ensuring there are relevant, high-quality training opportunities available, and a talent pool of skilled professionals from which to draw;
• ensuring everyone has a fair chance to access these learning opportunities - at any time in their lives;
• providing second chances for the most disadvantaged in the labour market, including those in low-paid employment and insecure agency work; and
• especially in the current economic climate, providing enhanced support for those out of work altogether, so they can increase their skills and get back into work as quickly as possible

Supporting a dynamic economy

UK businesses have made it clear that investing in skills is a priority to help them compete in a global marketplace. An increase of 10% in employees receiving job-related training is associated with a 6% increase in productivity.³ In the current economic climate, now is precisely the time for businesses to keep investing in the skills and talents of their people. What they need from government, therefore, are the foundations for a training system that ensures they can find the training they need.

Over the last few years, we have transformed the skills landscape, working with Sector Skills Councils, business groups and individual employers to create learning opportunities that develop relevant skills in a flexible and affordable way. Public investment in the further education system increased by 53% in real terms between 1997/98 and 2007/08. By 2010/11, we will be investing over £1 billion for over a million employees to receive training, through our flagship Train to Gain service, giving even more employers the opportunity to upskill their workforce, for the benefit of both their business and their employees. Latest figures show that since it was launched, 43% of Train to Gain learners reported that they had gained better pay and 30% reported that they had gained a promotion as a result of their learning.⁴

We are also giving employers more opportunities to shape the skills system, so they can better access the flexible training they need for their business. There are now 16 employer-led National Skills Academies in operation or in development, which focus on delivering the skills that are most valuable for their respective sectors. These not only benefit the businesses that send their staff, but also help individuals fulfil their potential by acquiring the qualifications that employers value.

These changes to the training system have led to a major increase in the take-up of opportunities. In 2007, UK companies spent some £38 billion on training - up 16% from 2005.⁵

More importantly, they have also made clear their commitment to future training. Over 9,100 employers have made the Skills Pledge, covering more than five million employees. Similarly in Wales, the Basic Skills Pledge has been expanded to double the target number of employers signing up by 2010.

Increasing the talent pool for every profession 

While the barrier of low skills applies across all sectors, there are some obstacles that are more specific to particular types of profession. In certain high-status professions, the chance for individuals to access opportunities can be frustrated by traditional cultures, established recruitment processes and inflexible career pathways. These often longstanding practices and processes can make it hard for people from disadvantaged backgrounds to break into certain sectors, despite having the skills needed to be successful. This is bad for individuals, employers and the country. It narrows the pool of talent that recruiters draw from and in turn makes the economy as a whole less dynamic.

In recent years, the Government and other organisations have worked to address this challenge. Over £4 million, for example, has been invested to support widening access through the Gateways to the Professions programme. Sector- specific reviews, such as the Neuberger Review into access to the legal profession, have also urged - and achieved - important reforms. There remains, however, a long distance to travel.

We will therefore build on the good work to date by establishing, at the request of the Prime Minister, a high- level panel of the major professions. The panel, chaired by Alan Milburn, will work closely with the professions to identify barriers to access, and will propose concrete actions to address them - from both government and the professions themselves. Taking these actions is a win-win situation: employers benefit from fairer access by ensuring they are able to tap into a wider talent pool, while the new opportunities available to individuals will also help raise overall social mobility.

Ensuring fair access to learning

The creation of this panel focused on fair access to specific professions is a logical extension of our ongoing commitment to ensuring fair access to other opportunities. In particular, we have sought to increase the range of opportunities available for lifelong learning and ensure that these are available to all. For example, we have introduced new rights for individuals to access the training they want and need. These rights in particular address those who may previously have been excluded from further development, whether for financial reasons, because they were unaware of the opportunities available to them or because they were unable to benefit from an employer’s support.

For example, we have created a legal right for adults to get training up to a Level 2, a guarantee of free training up to Level 3 for those aged 19-25, and we are in the process of legislating for a legal right for suitably qualified young people to enter Apprenticeships. We have also begun the process of legislation to give 25 million employees the right to ask their employer for time to train.

Lifelong learning should be supported by fair chances, fair funding and fair rules. A young person who goes to university soon after leaving school will typically have significantly more spent on their lifetime learning than one who goes from school to work. We believe that those who do not go to university, but who have the desire and ability to study and train throughout their working life, should also be able to access the support they need in order to raise their skill levels.

Therefore, we need to be even more responsive to individual needs in supporting people to get in and set on in work. We have already committed to developing Skills Accounts which will provide a simpler way for learners to identify the funding they are eligible for to help with fees. But in addition, we want to make it just as simple for learners to identify other sources of funding that could support skills development, such as funding for childcare. We will commission a scoping study to report on the feasibility of moving in this direction through Skills Accounts.

To help people understand the opportunities and support available to them, we are taking forward our plans to launch a new adult advancement and careers service. This will provide information, advice and guidance to people on any issue that is preventing someone from getting on - from their skills, to housing or childcare. We are also clarifying guidance for local authorities to ensure support for disabled people who seek education and employment opportunities in new local authority areas.

Together, these steps help to make learning more accessible for all. But we recognise that certain groups need additional support to access learning and improve their skills.

One particular group that may need additional support are those who take time out of work to make a contribution to their family or community by caring for an adult or bringing up children. Many are at a disadvantage when they re-enter the labour market, and often find themselves taking jobs below their skill level. For parents, this in turn could then affect the aspirations of their children.

We believe those caring for an adult or child should be a priority for help with training to enable them to return to work. We will therefore trial a back- to-work entitlement of up to £500 for those who have been carers for at least five years, including parents, to reward their contribution and support their return into the labour market.

This additional entitlement, available to help with course fees, will be trialled through Skills Accounts, and will not be means tested or linked to any requirement to take a qualification at a specific level. Prior qualifications at any level will be no bar to receiving the £500 enhancement.

We will ensure that communications are in place to make those receiving carer’s allowance and child benefit aware of this entitlement and to refer them to careers advice services for further information and help in determining their eligibility. They will also be able to do this online through a Skills Account. The entitlement will be applied automatically when they enrol on their course. It will be tested and evaluated as part of our ongoing trialling of Skills Accounts during 2009/10.

In the current economic climate, many more people will be looking to update their skills or retrain for a new job. Whether it is those who see an opportunity to start a career in an emerging industry or those who have been made redundant and need to retrain, government needs to do more to enable people to invest in their own future. But this is not just about help now in the downturn. Supporting people to move up the skills ladder and to gain the skills that Britain’s future economy will need will also promote increased social mobility.

Career development loans have been available since 1988. They are commercial bank loans supported by the government so that the learner only pays interest once they’ve finished learning. 255,000 people have benefited and the loans have been used to fund a huge variety of courses at different skill levels - from technical qualifications to postgraduate university study. Many people have already used loans to get on the right track in their career - whether it is an MSc in Environmental Management to help someone become a technical engineer or using loans to help get businesses up and running - for example, studying whilst setting up an acupuncture clinic. But the Government believes loans for training have the potential to play a significantly increased role.

In the next two years we will treble the number of loans available from 15,000 to 45,000 as new Professional and Career Development Loans (PCDLs). In addition to increasing the number of loans available, we will offer more generous terms. As now, loans will be offered interest free while people study. The government will pay the interest during this period. But we will make them more attractive in two ways:

• Firstly, by reducing the headline interest rates; and
• Secondly, by allowing people to apply for loans of up to £10,000 to  study at colleges, universities and private training providers, an increase from the current limit of £8,000.
  

We will also proactively promote PCDLs widely to anyone seeking new professional and technical qualifications for whom finance is a barrier. They will be promoted through Jobcentre Plus to appropriate clients who are made redundant. And we will work with unionlearn to agree how Union Learning Representatives can signpost people towards PCDLs as a route to getting better qualifications.

The loans will continue to be provided by three banks - Barclays, Co-operative and RBS. Others have expressed interest in becoming involved and we will continue to work with them in the coming months.

Offering second chances to the most disadvantaged

While the Government's underlying goal is to ensure that there is fair access for all to the learning opportunities available, one of our guiding principles is that no one should be written off. We recognise that there are some groups within the labour market that need additional targeted support to unlock their potential - in particular, these are people who did not manage to fulfil their potential during their school days.

We have already invested extensively in improving basic skills, enabling those who missed out first time round an opportunity to get on, with over 2.25 million people improving their literacy, language and numeracy skills since 2001. This isn’t just a target. Helping parents to read their children a bedtime story or help with the homework is invaluable.

Low income families

Low incomes often reflect low attainment at school. But people on low incomes also traditionally face more limited progression prospects than most other groups in society.⁶ In particular, they are less likely to receive training from an employer. This then affects their children who are more likely to have low aspirations and suffer financial and other disadvantages.

To do more to help working adults on low incomes to progress, we will trial new rights for low-income families on tax credits by raising awareness of their existing entitlements and offering an additional entitlement of up to £500 to those who need support. This will be piloted through the ongoing Skills Account trials in 2009/10. We will also ensure that employers are supported to offer training to this group under Train to Gain. This targeted support will help them take up training both at college and at work, giving them a fairer chance of success in the labour market.

There are currently over 20,000 trained trade union learning representatives (ULRs) who have helped over 600,000 workers back into learning since 1998. We will work with ULRs to support and encourage those low-income individuals that claim tax credits to make the most of the training opportunities and entitlements available to them This will help ULRs to build on their outstanding track record of reaching out to those groups of workers most disadvantaged in the labour market.

Agency workers

All too often, agency workers miss out on the benefits of permanent employment - in particular additional in-work training. Temporary work provides important benefits to the economy, allowing firms to adjust to fluctuations in demand, and it is important that there is a skilled pool of agency workers to draw from. However, while some agency workers are highly qualified or ‘temp’ out of choice, some are in a vulnerable position in the labour market and would prefer permanent contracts of employment.

To enable these vulnerable agency workers to achieve their potential and access new opportunities, we need to make it easier for them to get the training they need. We want to introduce changes that will particularly benefit agency workers who are on low pay, who we know are less likely to have any qualifications, making it harder for them to progress in work or in a sustainable job.

We will encourage companies to use Train to Gain funding to invest in training agency workers they hire, even though they are not the permanent employer. We will also relax the funding rules so that agency workers can access financial support for Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications, regardless of their previous qualifications, giving maximum flexibility and opportunity.

In addition, to making a better package of training available, there are some successful employment agency models that include training as part of their core offer for temporary workers. We will look at lessons learned from existing schemes and explore ways of growing these.

Disabled people

Evidence shows that many disabled people experience a range of barriers within the labour market, including limited specialist skills training, low aspirations, discrimination and geographical barriers. In particular, adults with moderate to severe learning disabilities have a lower employment rate than any other disability group.

The Government will publish a new cross-government strategy focused on helping people with moderate to severe learning disabilities. In addition, we will introduce ‘support brokers’ into existing pilot programmes to help this group access the most relevant employment support for them. The brokers will help the people they work with use their social care personal budgets, alongside appropriate disability employment funding.

We will also improve employment support for those with severe mental health conditions. As well as encouraging the use of personal budgets to fund employment support, we will actively challenge the expectation that those with severe mental health conditions are not able to work, and ensure that reforms to government disability employment  services benefit this group. Our plans for this group will be included in a broader mental health and employment strategy to be published in spring 2009.

We recognise that the public sector needs to lead by example in its recruitment of those with moderate to severe learning disabilities and severe mental health conditions, as well as other groups. The Department of Health is leading work to help the NHS employ more people from these groups, and the Civil Service will modify its recruitment practices to do the same.

Increasing support for those out of work

The changes outlined above build on a long-term shift which has seen government policy encourage more people back into work, more employers to invest in training and more learners to achieve higher levels of qualifications after leaving school. In the current economic climate it is even more important that we maintain our focus and take specific actions to address additional barriers that the downturn creates.

We have announced a package of additional support for those who are still unemployed at six months to help them back into work, become self-employed or gain new skills through work-focused training. We are enhancing support offered through Jobcentre Plus personal advisers to help unemployed people review their jobsearch, work-skills and how they can more effectively apply for the vacancies available.

To encourage employers to take on the newly redundant, people who are long-term unemployed and those on inactive benefits, we have also relaxed the Train to Gain funding rules. Now, when employers recruit  someone who has been unemployed, they can access funding with extra flexibility for those who already have qualifications (allowing, for example, free training in the workplace for a full NVQ Level 2 qualification, even if the individual already has a qualification at that level). Jobcentre Plus will ensure both employers and customers are aware of this guarantee. In addition, we have made it clear that small businesses will be a top priority for funding to help them continue to invest in their people during the downturn. The Welsh Assembly Government has also recently announced ProAct, a training scheme to help businesses and their employees during the current economic downturn, before the need for redundancy arises.

While these initiatives will benefit adults both in work and outside it, we have also specifically moved to change the welfare system so that rights to benefits are accompanied by responsibilities. This reinforces our commitment that no one is written off, and that those who can work have a responsibility to equip themselves to find a job - an agenda being taken forward through the Welfare Reform White Paper published in December 2008. Our new Integrated Employment and Skills Service, which is currently being piloted to roll out across England in 2010-11, will focus on better identification of skills needs  amongst Jobcentre Plus customers, helping people to address those needs and progress to higher skilled and sustainable employment.

Focusing on sustainable employment

Our goal is not simply that people get into work, but that they receive the support they need to get into sustainable employment and to progress in work. Currently large numbers of workless people on benefit are undertaking education and training programmes to gain qualifications that give them the skills they need for employment. As part of our new performance assessment framework for colleges and providers (Framework for Excellence) we are finding out more about the destinations of these learners, so that we can better understand how effective they are in enabling sustainable employment, and thus improve courses and choices for future learners.

In responding to the economic climate, we have announced that we want to work with colleges and other training providers on how they can use their existing budgets more flexibly to support learners into sustainable employment and to progress in employment.

Supporting self-employment

One route to fulfilling potential for benefit customers is through self- employment. As part of the new offer of support for those unemployed for six months, we are ensuring there is a straightforward self-employment offer for benefit customers, joining up provision offered through Jobcentre Plus with business start-up packages offered through Business Link in England and working with Business Gateway in Scotland and Flexible Support for Business in Wales. We will ensure that Jobcentre Plus advisers are able to support people to make the right choices about self-employment, together with support from private and voluntary sector providers. For those who have been on Jobseeker’s Allowance for more than six months and show a real interest in taking this option, we will offer financial support during the first few months while they get their business going. We will also explore whether we can include self-employment in the Job Outcome Target.

Where appropriate, those moving into self-employment should also receive the in-work training equivalent to that of a conventional employee. We will work to ensure that the self-employed can benefit from the Train to Gain offer and procure relevant training programmes to help them and their business on the path to success.

Helping offenders

We will also take further steps to help and support offenders to secure employment, achieve their own potential and make a positive contribution to society. This will make a substantial difference not only to their own lives, but also to the wider community. Key steps include better direction to training opportunities so they can continue learning started  in the community or during custody, and strengthening the links between colleges and the probation service.

We will work to help offenders into sustained employment and seek to expand the number and type of employers prepared to work with offenders, and broaden the range of ways in which they do so.

We will aim to increase the proportion of offenders under probation supervision who live in settled accommodation. We will encourage joint working between the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and local housing partners to achieve positive housing outcomes for offenders.

Increasing opportunities for those of working age

As elsewhere in this document, the policies we announce here are an extension of our overall approach. Our aim is to enable everyone to fulfil their potential: in the workplace that means ensuring that high-quality training opportunities are available and that we address whatever barriers exist to prevent people from accessing those opportunities. That is why we are particularly addressing those who have earned the right to training through their contribution to society, those whose income inhibits them taking up training, and those with disabilities or learning difficulties that make getting on in work that much more of a challenge. It is also why we are making a commitment to identify barriers that exist within specific professions.

Our approach is to make the opportunities available, and to support people to take up those opportunities. As set out throughout this document, the choices are not only for the Government but for the whole of the UK.

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Notes

3. Dearden, Reed and Van Reenan, The impact of training on productivity and wages: evidence from Briton panel data, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, V68 (4) (2006)
4. Learning and Skills Council, Train to Gain Learner Evaluation, 2008
5. Learning and Skills Council, National Employer Skills Survey, 2007

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