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The EES and employability policies in the UK: towards a ‘quality at work’ agenda? Colin Lindsay Employment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh. Structure of the presentation. The EES and employability policies in the UK UK’s employability policies: priorities and results

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Structure of the presentation

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  1. The EES and employability policies in the UK: towards a ‘quality at work’ agenda? Colin LindsayEmployment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh

  2. Structure of the presentation • The EES and employability policies in the UK • UK’s employability policies: priorities and results • Policies to promote quality at work agenda • Challenges for the quality at work agenda • Employability policies: recent developments • Implementing EES: conclusions and questions

  3. EES and employability policies in the UK • Key role of employability EES and UK policy • OMC: policy learning and legitimation • 2003 EES: ‘employability’ and quality at work • EES and UK policy: reinforcement not inspiration • EES and UK policy: one influence among many • Implementing EES and progress towards ‘quality’

  4. UK employability policies - New Deal • New Deal - 18-24, unemployed six months (1998) • Extended to: LTU; lone parents; partners; disabled • Previous approach - passive; ‘benefit policing’ by ‘signing on’; ‘stricter benefit regime’ (1986-97) • New Deal features: ‘Gateway’/Personal Adviser - client-centred approach; choice of training options; employment option/subsidy • Reflects EES focus on ‘fresh starts’ for young/LTU

  5. New Deal (Young People) - Results • 2002 target: 250,000; 257,000 by October 2001 • “Youth claimant LTU has been virtually eradicated” • Unemployment <45,000; employment >20,000 • 955,000 participants to end of 2003 • 40% job entry (30% unknown); 80% sustained • Positive impact of PAs/client-centred approach

  6. New Deal- Issues and problems • Declining job entry rates and ‘the revolving door’ - 20% of participants repeating • Tightening of sanctions and ‘unknown destinations’ • A ‘real work’ focus? 4% on employment subsidy • Low cost programme - low skills equilibrium • Geography of labour markets - demand problems?

  7. Promoting the ‘quality at work’ agenda • ‘Overarching theme’ of 2003 EES • Strong focus on lifelong learning/employability • Building on work-life policy agenda • Impacts on working time and leave policies • Childcare policy agenda gradually developed • Making work pay in the UK - NMW; WTC; CTC

  8. Challenges to the ‘quality at work’ agenda • Exclusion of young people from NMW and WTC • 250,000 young people on less than adult NMW • 1/4 working households <60% median income • Turnover: up to 40% in key service sectors • Insecurity: 2/5 JSA claimants repeating (6 mths) • Job seekers’ negative views of key service sectors

  9. Employability policies: recent reforms • StepUp (2002) • Piloting job guarantees and ILMs in 20 areas • Punitive workfare for New Deal ‘failures’? • Working Neighbourhoods (2004) • Area-based New Deal targeting 12 sub-regional areas • Revival of the ‘dependency culture’ thesis? • Employment Retention and Advancement (2004) • ‘Jobcentre Plus’ and ‘a Work First approach’

  10. The EES and employability policies • EES - validation not inspiration • OMC and ‘norm entrepreneurship’ • Mutual reinforcement of supply-side analysis • Shift towards ‘quality at work’ agenda • Continuing influence of: policy inheritance and institutions; policy choice and political change

  11. Conclusions… and questions • Welcome shift towards quality at work agenda • Apparent (limited) success of employability policies • Has New Deal reached its logical conclusion? • Labour market geography matters • Dependency culture: exploded myth re-assembled? • Low pay; insecurity; progression and advancement

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