Blog: Helping providers to deliver high quality education, vocational training and employability programmes

In our recent blog Addiction is a serious mental health condition – and should be treated as such in the workplace – Forward Trust, we stated there are many reasons why people are out of work at any given time: insecure work, zero-hour contracts, a lack of job flexibility, lack of support/reasonable adjustments, and low pay.

Our experience of delivering The Restart Scheme is that the number of people who are economically inactive due to long term sickness is rising, but many individuals are keen to work. However, if they come from disadvantaged backgrounds that are more likely to face multiple barriers, for example they are more likely to have been out of work for longer, suffer from mental health problems, lack confidence, a lack of hope and have limited role models in their lives.

It is encouraging to see that the Labour Party has recommitted to its plan to widen the apprenticeship levy into a Growth and Skills Levy and has singled out traineeships and wider reforms as part of its Youth Guarantee for 18- to 21-year-olds. We welcome the ideas relating to combining job centres with a career’s services and enhanced support for people with health conditions and disabilities.

The Conservatives have also announced measures including a National Service Scheme, levelling up funds for more towns and to raise the number of people in ‘high-skilled apprenticeships’ by 100,000 per year by the end of the next parliament.  We welcome the focus on levelling up in more towns and the focus on encouraging volunteering and social action.

The Forward Trust support the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) Manifesto with its focus on five principal themes, including sustainable commissioning, a fairer labour market, access to provision, meeting the needs of employers, and health solutions for work,. This manifesto offers concrete proposals to address current issues and drive better outcomes for all.

We also support The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), a national membership body that represents organisations operating in the skills sector’s, latest publication, particularly this statement:

“…ensuring learning opportunities for all is crucial for fostering social mobility and creating a more equitable society. Education and training serve as powerful tools to break the cycle of generational inequality by providing individuals from all backgrounds with the chance to acquire knowledge, skills, and qualifications that can help them get on in life.”

What are the key areas for the employability sector to monitor during the 2024 General Election?

Essential in helping individuals that are long term unemployed or NEET are organisations like The Forward Trust and other charities, training and employability providers.

What will be some of the big issues for organisations providing education and employability services?

Stable funding

We need stable funding that enables us to invest and innovate. Payment by results can incentivise better performance but can also encourage the wrong behaviours to get paid i.e. focusing on job entries rather than sustainable job outcomes. Payment models need to take into account that charities and smaller providers will  have tighter cash flow to manage and plan for, particularly if learner or client volumes are not coming through as forecast. More disadvantaged learners or clients are often harder to engage, and it takes more resources to help them remain on programmes and progress. However, funding programmes and the way they are paid to providers do not often acknowledge this and penalise providers who do not meet planned volume targets or quotas. It acts as a perverse disincentive to engage with people furthest away from the jobs market.

Unfortunately, the new funding rates for adult provision from the funding year 2024 to 2025 is based on funding each guided learning hour that is assigned to the qualification. Funding at an hourly rate may reduce the funding available to providers in particular those delivering lower-level qualifications

The Institute for Fiscal Studies in its 2024 General Election Report highlights that public spending on adult education and skills is down by 31% since 2011. The number of adults on further education courses has declined by about 50% since 2010, from about 3.5 million in 2010 to 1.8 million in 2023. It’s imperative that this trend shifts – not only to address long term unemployment, but also to address skills required for a lifetime of work.

Embed the right type of compliance to generate better quality and value for money

The recent  Evaluation of the DWP Restart Programme 2024 stated “the DWP should further review the effectiveness of Customer Service Standards (CSS) and performance management to ensure future programmes deliver a minimum service standard to all participants”

Customer Service Standards, funding rules are important, but we question whether they are the right levers to generate better outcomes and impact for learners and clients. We spend a lot of time focusing on the minutiae of things, for example an audit of SMART goals in an action plan but then miss the overall impact of a programme that enables an individual to progress into sustainable employment, self-employment or an apprenticeship. Often `the rules’ do not take into account the high-quality relationships and hope/aspiration staff have and give to clients,  as stated by the DWP Restart evaluation “the advisor-participant relationship was central to whether outcomes were achieved”.

Learn from previous programme to improve future offers

Traineeships and the Youth Guarantee could be important for young adults, but often governments seem to want to re-invent the wheel without properly asking  providers what worked and didn’t work under previous programmes. Government would benefit from listening to providers and ensure any future programmes  can be improved to achieve excellent outcomes for people as well as providing funding stability for organisations delivering on frontline. If we just tweak previous programmes that may not have worked, then we risk wasting public money and the expertise of providers that have major insights about the right way to deliver the best outcomes.

Help employers to do the right thing

In previous blogs we have said that sustainable employment does not equate to insecure work, low pay and hours, zero hours contracts. Too often individuals from low skilled and disadvantaged backgrounds end up in these types of jobs. We know many employers want to do the right thing and pay the Real Living Wage, offer decent contracts, good terms and conditions, as well as supporting individuals in their workforce. Forward does this through its Partners and Employers Network, often encouraging employers to improve terms and conditions, tailoring recruitment practices and educating them about the needs of specific groups e.g. ex-offenders or people in recovery.  

Apprenticeships

As a provider and also levy employer staff and clients have benefited from apprenticeships. A new Growth and Skills levy could increase flexibility  for employers but it could reduce the pot available for apprenticeships training, particularly for those from disadvantaged groups and young people.  Government needs to consider the barriers facing people from these groups in starting  an apprenticeship, including the levels available (insufficient level 2 apprenticeships), study skills support, unrealistic Maths and English expectations, delays in end point assessment and low funding levels for some apprenticeship standards. This leads to providers not wanting to deliver them, particularly in occupations where there are large vacancy levels. 

Conclusion

There is a huge opportunity to rebuild the adult training, apprenticeships and skills landscape. If we get it right, we can learn lessons from current and past delivery and provide the hope of secure, engaging work for a generation.

Has this blog resonated with your or maybe someone you know?

The Forward Trust offers a range of services to support individuals in overcoming barriers to employment, such as our Adult Education Budget (AEB) programme offering tailored educational opportunities to help adults gain new qualifications and skills, enhancing their employability and career prospects, Restart Scheme which is provides intensive employability support to help unemployed people in Thanet find sustainable employment and our new IPS Employment Service in Medway providing tailored employment support to people that have issues with drugs and/or alcohol