Skills support for those who are out of work
This package of support extends to people both in work and out of work. However we recognise that those out of work may need additional help to get into long-term employment. Employers are playing an increasingly important role in preparing people to enter work.
Recognising the vital role skills can play in helping people move into work, we are already working towards making skills a key part of the welfare system. When someone is on benefit, Jobcentre Plus will automatically check whether a discussion about how to improve their skills is relevant, and will signpost people to the support on offer, or make the appropriate appointment with the adult advancement and careers service for those needing extra help. If necessary, an adviser at the service will then undertake a full face-to-face skills health check and design a personal action plan setting out the training and wider support the individual needs to get them into sustained employment.
We will also consider how we might refresh key training provision. Many people already combine part-time training to improve their skills with their efforts to find a job, and the LSC funds a wide range of training courses for adults. Around £1.5 billion is spent each year on courses below Level 2, of the kind that would help those who are low-skilled and out of work to gain the skills they need, especially the basics of being able to read and add up. Our aim through the reforms announced today is to make more use of existing flexibilities, both in the rules governing receipt of benefits and in what training is offered and how.
As we move into the new phase of Skills for Life, working towards the targets set out in World Class Skills, we will refresh the Skills for Life Strategy to ensure that its focus and implementation best support those with the greatest need to progress, with Jobcentre Plus customers a priority group. We will refocus mainstream Skills for Life provision by designing delivery around what people need and what fits in with their lives. Employability skills and numeracy will be among the priorities for the refresh. The Employability Skills Programme (3) is a good example of how provision can be targeted at the needs of Jobcentre Plus customers. Since August last year, over 8,000 Jobcentre Plus customers have signed up to developing their basic and employability skills. It is timely to consider how, perhaps through even greater flexibility, the programme might better support more workless people in developing their skills and securing sustainable employment.
For most people, the improved support will be a welcome aid to getting into and on in work. In exchange for this additional help, our expectations of people claiming benefits are changing. It is not acceptable that a lack of skills should prevent someone claiming Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) from getting sustainable employment; nor that someone starting to claim Incapacity Benefit should expect to stay on that benefit instead of retraining and getting a job that reflects their abilities. Nor is it acceptable that a lone parent should wait until their youngest child turns 16 before they get ready to return to work.
We will take the legislative powers needed to require JSA customers to address their skills needs as part of the conditions of receiving benefits. We have already committed to skills screening for jobseekers making a new JSA claim. From autumn 2008 we will begin to test requiring jobseekers to attend a full skills health check where the screening has identified a need. Where a need for training is identified, attendance at an appropriate course will also be required.
We want to encourage everyone on out-of-work benefits to take advantage of the support that is available to address their skills needs. Over the summer, we will consult on taking the legislative powers needed to make addressing skills needs a condition of benefit receipt for those on inactive benefits, where skills needs are a significant barrier to finding employment. This will include lone parents claiming Income Support and those individuals starting a claim for Employment and Support Allowance.
Depending on the results of that consultation, we'll start pilots in 2010-11 to establish what works for these groups.
Employers are already playing an important part in helping people back to work. In return for agreeing to provide opportunities for people out of work - by signing up to a Local Employment Partnership with Jobcentre Plus - we work with employers to identify the skills they need for their workforce. We then work with local colleges and training providers to develop the skills of local people who are looking for employment. This ensures there's a pool of job-ready candidates, from the local area, who have the core skills they need to fill vacancies. Through LEPs, over 1,000 employers have already recruited 10,000 people from the groups often overlooked in local labour markets.
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