A year after the first lockdown started, the success of the vaccine programme means thoughts are turning to reopening the economy.
Economic support, particularly the furlough scheme, has helped limit the rise in unemployment. Nonetheless, long-term unemployment is already up 25% in the last year and I was pleased this was something former Prime Minister Gordon Brown highlighted. Recovery will be a multi year task: it’s taken up to seven years for the labour market to recover after previous recessions.
And, while the death of the office may be exaggerated, it’s likely structural economic change has been accelerated. Helping people retrain as a result is something our exciting New Futures programme, funded through the Covid-19 Support Fund, will address.
But our ambition shouldn’t be limited to simply returning to business as usual. We should look to tackle the structural shortfalls we had before the crisis too. That includes an apprenticeship system that offers too few opportunities to young people; falling participation in learning by adults after a decade of cuts; unequal access to employment and a need to focus on good work; and inequalities in access to both learning and
work.
Overall, the Budget did the right thing in extending support for jobs and there’s lots of (too often siloed) schemes to help people back to work, but we need to go much further in planning for recovery and renewal.
We’ve also announced a great line up for our free online Employment and Skills Convention in July, including Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey and Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green. Last year saw more than 1,200 of you join us, so sign up early for this year.
Stephen Evans Chief Executive
Updates from L&W
One year on from the start of the first lockdown
Marking a year since the start of the first national lockdown, our new research explores the labour market impacts of Coronavirus and recommends five areas where the Government should focus to make sure everyone shares in the recovery. Read the full report here.
Disconnected – The UK’s digital skills gap
In partnership with Enginuity and WorldSkillsUK, we’ve published new research exploring digital skills in the UK. Based on new large scale surveys of young people and employers, the report explores the growing demand for digital skills, and warns of the growing threat posed by digital skills gaps
Festival of Learning shortlist announced! We’re delighted to announce the nominees
for our Festival of Learning awards for 2021! We were incredibly impressed with the standard of applications, which highlight just how lifelong learning can transform people's lives. We would like to congratulate everyone who made the shortlist. Find out who’s been shortlisted here.
New Futures – supporting workers through retraining and reskilling
Covid-19 has led to unprecedented economic challenges. Unemployment continues to rise and as the labour market changes, many workers will need to retrain and change careers. This calls for high quality career changer support and training opportunities to help people adapt to change in the labour market.
Through our New Futures programme, we will be working with partners to develop five place-based pilots across the UK to support reskilling for career change. The pilots will focus on:
Tailored and targeted outreach to those most affected by the pandemic
High quality careers advice and coaching
Flexible models of training delivery
Building the capacity of local voluntary and community sector organisations to provide sustainable career change
support.
Building a robust evidence base of what works
If you have delivered or are working on a career change initiative which has shown promise, we would love to hear from you - please get in touch. More information is available on our website.
Cost and Outreach pilots - Testing approaches to engaging adults in learning
The Cost and Outreach pilots were established by the Department for Education to explore different approaches to engaging adults in learning, and to inform the development of the National Skills Fund.
Our final evaluation of the Cost and Outreach pilots has now been published. The evaluation examines the effectiveness of different approaches to engaging adults, and the impact of course fee subsidies in boosting take-up.
New toolkit to support evaluations of online adult learning providers
We are working with Nesta and Department for Education on the CareerTech Challenge, which aims to developinnovative approaches to supporting workers in shrinking sectors and occupations to retrain.
As part of the evaluation we’ve created a step-by-step toolkit to help organisations consider the best ways to evaluating online learning interventions. The toolkit can be used by any organisation looking to understand and increase their impact.
New research on decision making of adult learners below level 2
We have recently released new research looking at how adults with qualifications below level 2 make decisions about whether or not to take up learning. The research includes suggestions from participants about how to engage more adult learners. You can read the report here.
Events
Employment and Skills Convention 2021 | Recovery and renewal
Tuesday 1 July | 9.30am
The coronavirus pandemic has triggered the sharpest fall in economic output since records began. Despite unprecedented intervention to support businesses and jobs, we have seen a record rise in redundancies and rising unemployment.
As we start to emerge from the pandemic, this year’s Employment and Skills Convention will consider how we can drive the recovery after the crisis.
We’re delighted to announce keynote speakers Rt. Hon Thérèse Coffey MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Kate Green OBE MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education. Book your FREE place
here!
