Written evidence submitted
by The National Skills Academy for Sport & Active Leisure
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 The National Skills Academy's response uses its
experiences from implementing a major FJF programme engaging 120
employers in the creation of 5,500 jobs, and discusses how using
wage subsidy to support job creation can form a successful part
of the government's welfare to work policies.
2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.1 The following are the main points that the National
Skills Academy wishes to make about the FJF and the development
of any similar initiative in the future.
2.2 The National Skills Academy supports a policy
using wage subsidy to encourage the creation of jobs as an effective
bridge between worklessness and employment, provided that formal
training and the development of skills accompany it.
2.3 Employers must lead on the implementation
of any job creation programme. This is the only way to make sure
that young people gain the skills and experience to secure employment
after the funded period. With support, employers should have full
involvement in developing job descriptions, work with JobCentre
Plus on the recruitment process, identify (and sometimes deliver)
suitable training for the role, and provide mentoring and support
for candidates as necessary.
2.4 It has been clear from the initial development
of the programme, right through the phases of its delivery, that
employers in the sector need this programme in order to provide
the "seed corn" funding necessary for them to develop
their businesses and create jobs in line with their growth aspirations.
Because the FJF programme allows employers to employ, train and
develop new employees to the point where they make a net contribution
to the business, new jobs are being created which would not exist
without this programme.
2.5 While it is too early for the success of
the FJF programme to be formally determined, early results for
the first cohort of 280 leavers from the Academy-run project show
that 43% of young people have remained in employment after the
funded work period.
2.6 The National Skills Academy is encouraged
because FJF employees are gaining recognised NVQs as part of the
initiative. The programme has acted as a catalyst, setting young
people on a path of learning and opening the way for them to progress
to higher-level qualifications and apprenticeships.
2.7 As a training facilitator, the National Skills
Academy is also ensuring that those candidates unable to stay
with their FJF employer have routes into apprenticeships or further
training; or have access to other employment opportunities, wherever
possible. The Academy has a service level agreement with employers,
which sets an expectation that they will place 50% of people into
full or part-time employment that they do not retain at the end
of a placement.
2.8 The National Skills Academy is concerned
that the FJF initiative has ended before any sort of replacement
has been fully considered.
2.9 The proposed Work Programme has the potential
to improve welfare-to-work provision. However, it is essential
that wage subsidy to support job creation continues as an economically
viable tool for outsourced providers of the Work Programme to
use in getting young people into work. This viability in part
rests on an adequate settlement in the government's proposed "payment-by-results"
contract with outsourced Work Programme providers.
3.0 Sector skills councils and national skills
academies are an essential link between the unemployed and industry.
It is essential that any Work Programme providers have strong
links with both of these organisations to ensure welfare-to-work
programmes develop skills and qualifications that meet the demands
of the UK economy.
4.0 THE EXTENT
TO WHICH
THE FJF HAS
SUCCEEDED IN
MATCHING NEW
WORK EXPERIENCE
OPPORTUNITIES TO
YOUNG UNEMPLOYED
PEOPLE
4.1 Since November 2009, the National Skills Academy
has placed almost 1,500 people into new employment opportunities
with 46 sport and active leisure industry employers through the
FJF programme.
4.2 The FJF initiative has been extremely successful
at getting young people into work. The National Skills Academy's
own project will work with over 120 employers and by the end of
the programme place 5,500 young people. Even with delivery of
new job opportunities on this scale, the demand from sector employers
outreaches the availability of funding; and continues to grow.
4.3 This level of demand from employers can partly
be explained by the continued growth of the sport and fitness
industry throughout the recession. It is an important point for
the committee to note that programmes such as FJF are most effective
in industry areas or time-periods where economic growth is occurring;
and where employer demand for a larger workforce with greater
skills is not being met. Any judgement on the effectiveness of
FJF should take this fact into consideration.
4.4 The sport and active leisure sector is particularly
suitable for the development of job opportunities for unemployed
young people. Employers in the sector tend to be developmental
in their approach to business delivery and are able to extend
into new business areas when offered incentives to do so.
4.5 In addition, work in the sector is very appealing
to the target audience of 18-24 year olds because sport offers
an exciting, vibrant and youth-relevant employment environment.
Employers have reported that the scheme has been particularly
beneficial to young people who have been put off formal education
due to negative school experiences, and whose interest in training
and personal development has been rekindled.
4.6 While it could be said that the FJF initiative
has been successful at matching young people to work experience
opportunities, the real measurement of success sits with the proportion
of people who then enter permanent employment when the wage subsidy
ends. From the National Skills Academy's programme, it is still
too early to be able to prove conclusively the full extent of
permanency of job creation. This is because not enough young people
have gone through the programme or time elapsed after placement
to assess the proportion in permanent employment. However, of
the 280 young people to go through the programme so far, 120 are
now in permanent employment (43%). This represents a very positive
indication of the scheme's ability to propagate long-term improvements
in the job landscape.
4.7 Long periods of unemployment for a young person
can have a continued negative impact on their earning potential,
sometimes for their entire working life. Swift action to reduce
worklessness can therefore have a significant, although hard to
measure, long-term benefit on an individual's increased earnings
and tax contributions. In the short to medium term, young people
who successfully stay in permanent work will reduce their claims
for welfare benefits. As a statistically significant number of
young people complete the National Skills Academy's FJF programme,
research will be conducted to determine the returns made by the
government's investment of £6,500 per person who participate
in the FJF.
4.8 Lastly, the National Skills Academy believes
that the FJF programme should not be considered as a work experience
programme. The intention from the outset was to use the programme
to create job opportunities and the sector's employers responded
positively to this. Additionally, the Department of Work and Pensions
required these jobs to be new opportunities, rather than seasonal
or previously existing roles. This approach means that young people
are filling a genuine and sustainable need in organisations. We
would therefore ask the committee to be clear in its mind the
difference between work experience and the FJF.
5.0 STRENGTH
AND WEAKNESSES
OF THE
FJF PROGRAMME FROM
THE PERSPECTIVE
OF PROVIDERS
(INCLUDING IN
THE THIRD
SECTOR), EMPLOYERS
AND YOUNG
PEOPLE, AND
PARTICULARLY TO
THE LONG-TERM
SUSTAINABILITY OF
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Strength: The FJF is led by the needs of employers
5.1 The National Skills Academy programme is employer-led
and this is a great strength in maximising the chance for sustainable
long-term employment following any wage subsidy. Employers define
job descriptions, the pre-requisite skills needed to start work,
as well as the skills to be learnt over the funded period. They
also interview applicants in the same fashion as for any other
job. All this ensures that any use of the FJF remains firmly anchored
to employer need and not any government target. The National Skills
Academy believes that such an approach is essential because if
the FJF does not develop people to have the skills and experience
that are needed in the workforce, then the chances of permanent
employment are that much reduced.
5.2 Many participating employers in the Academy's
FJF programme are small organisations, so the potential impact
of gaining even one or two new members of staff can be significant.
There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that this has helped the
economic growth of employers who were previously not able to risk
an initial outlay of costs to hire new staff. For example, Charlton
Athletic Community Trust (CACT), a small community organisation
linked to Charlton Athletic FC, took on 12 FJF employees, five
of whom were placed into permanent roles with CACT even before
they had completed their funded placement. CACT has been so pleased
with the impact of FJF that it is now looking to staff a new community
project with a further three FJF employees. While not the primary
purpose of the Future Job Fund, its impact on smaller organisations
cannot be ignored or understated.
5.3 However, the need for bids to DWP to be for over
30 jobs, while understandable from a desire to reduce bureaucracy,
limited the opportunity for these smaller enterprises to participate
in the scheme. To reduce the impact of this high participation
threshold, DWP allowed consortia bids. Through this facility,
the National Skills Academy programme was able to bring together
over 120 employers from across the sector - many of whom would
have been otherwise ineligible to take part. The sport and active
leisure sector, which the National Skills Academy serves, is over
90% made up from micro and SME-sized organisations. Without the
work of the National Skills Academy, the sector would have been
largely excluded from the FJF initiative.
5.4 The National Skills Academy is therefore concerned
that, as the new government develops its welfare-to-work policies,
similar opportunities should be available to ensure that SMEs
are included, either directly, or through organisations such as
the National Skills Academy taking a similar bid management approach
as it has with the FJF.
5.5 It is essential for the FJF programme that it
creates actual jobs and not simply "work experience".
It is the performing of a specific role within an organisation
that gives a young person the skills and experience that they
need to enter sustainable employment. An important element in
achieving this has been that there is no direct payment to employers
to participate. This has encouraged them to make sure that any
placed young people are in roles that give maximum benefit to
their organisation. If there were no organisational need or benefit
to an employer's business then there would be no demand for the
Fund. If they had received payment for just taking someone on
then there is less of an incentive to engage the young person
in profitable work because the employer benefits from just having
them turn up to work. Therefore a lack of direct payment to employers
encourages the establishment of roles that have a long-term future.
5.6 There is always a need to balance Government
investment in skills development, particularly when it is seeking
to achieve social objectives, against the needs of employers and
their drive to meet business objectives. It is important therefore
that the FJF programme, or whatever replaces it, fulfils this
balance and truly meets employers' requirements. In the current
economic climate, it is essential that any future welfare-to-work
programme includes both wage subsidy and training elements, to
ensure that employers' work to create new jobs, and invest in
the candidates' long term future.
Strength: The FJF includes both employment and
training
5.7 FJF jobs include both formal and informal training
and the gaining of qualifications for participants. The National
Skills Academy believes that this will significantly improve the
success of the programme than if the Fund had only involved funding
for wage subsidy. Such an approach would also not have met employer
demand - who as well as trying to attract new people to work for
them, also need higher levels of skills than is currently available
within the sport and active leisure sector. Employers are able
to shape training and this means young people are therefore getting
skills that employers want them to have. This increases their
future employability even in the cases where an employer does
not retain them after their FJF placement.
5.8 All young people employed through the National
Skills Academy's FJF programme are given the opportunity to undertake
a nationally recognised qualification including an NVQ or a National
Governing Body coaching or fitness instructor qualification. They
also receive an employability skills training package (if their
personal circumstances require it); and those with hands-on jobs
(for example as a coach or gym instructor) are provided with first
aid and health and safety instruction. Any that work with children
also receive safeguarding training.
5.9 The development of qualifications and skills
as part of the FJF contributes to the progression of young people
gaining level 2 qualifications and progressing to higher levels
through the use of apprenticeships. Unemployed young people often
do not have the basic numeracy or literacy skills needed to start
an apprenticeship. However, through the FJF they can get those
skills and become ready to start an apprenticeship on completion
of the FJF funded period. Achieving such a progression is a stated
objective of the new coalition government's skills policies. The
National Skills Academy has just received additional funding from
the Skills Funding Agency for 545 apprenticeship places to encourage
this progression of FJF employees to higher levels of skills and
qualifications.
5.10 A great advantage of the FJF is that it recognises
that the development of highly necessary, but basic, soft skills
can only really be embedded at work. These are as much behavioural
habits as any formal skills - such as punctuality, a proactive
nature, team work or communicating effectively with colleagues
- all of which can only really be learnt through experience. There
is also a big boost to young people's confidence. Many people
who are out of work for a long period of time lose their confidence
and face mental health challenges - often building bigger barriers
to return to work. It is the development of these "soft"
but vital skills, confidence, gaining the habit of work while
also learning formal skills and qualifications, that makes the
funded job creation proposition such a powerful one.
5.11 There are many young people who get locked into
a cycle of short-term and low-skilled employment followed by extended
periods with no work. To get more stable employment individuals
need to get more skills and experience. The National Skills Academy
believes that wage subsidy, accompanied by training, breaks the
cycle because it provides both work and training at the same time.
5.12 Many employing organisations utilise sport and
active leisure as a vehicle for achieving social and community
goals and the sector can offer a significant number of attractive
entry-level job opportunities. In many cases however, the employers
cannot afford to invest the initial salary and training costs
needed to develop young people to the point where they are contributing
to the delivery of business or income objectives. The FJF scheme
has offered the support where it is needed, allowing candidates
to become fully work ready, and making a net contribution to the
business.
Strength: The FJF benefits the wider community
5.13 The Academy's FJF programme has also brought
significant community benefits. A key criterion of the FJF programme
was that participating employers needed to demonstrate the wider
benefit to the community of any placement. Sport and active leisure
as a sector has plenty of scope in this regard. Community sports
clubs exist across the country and provide the foundation for
national sporting excellence. The programme will, on completion,
have placed a significant number of young people in such community
organisations. Increasing and improving the number of people working
in leisure centres and fitness clubs impacts the health and wellbeing
of communities. Also, a number of organisations that participated
are charities that use sport and fitness to give young people
a second chance to learn new skills and to get them into work.
Using sport and fitness careers as a way to give purpose to young
people who may not have achieved at school has a powerful track
record.
5.14 Many of our employers work within schools and
youth groups through School Sports Partnerships and the Youth
Sports Trust. They have found that well-trained, enthusiastic
and motivated FJF employees make excellent role models for children
and young people. A significant number of FJF employees have also
been placed with community outreach charities who work with disadvantaged
groups - particularly young people, those with disabilities and
ethnic minority groups - to engage them in sport and active leisure
activities that meet their diverse needs. Community sports clubs
such as County Football Associations have been able to increase
the use of public spaces and promote community cohesion through
participation and attendance at sports events.
5.15 The government's public health agenda including
Change4Life has also been supported by the National Skills Academy's
Programme. FJF Employees in the private sector (primarily leisure
centres and fitness clubs) have become trained in health and wellbeing
skills, which they are now able to pass on to others in their
communities as part of their work.
5.16 The FJF programme is supporting entry and career
progression in the third sector and social enterprises. At a time
when government is encouraging greater use of community groups
to lead in the delivery of public services, growing the available
workforce in this area converges the policy objectives of tackling
worklessness and making the Big Society a reality.
Weaknesses: The FJF can be improved
5.17 The Future Job Fund, however, is not without
weaknesses. These fallings rest not with the principle of wage
subsidy as a way of getting people back into work, but with limitations
in its integration with broader welfare-to-work support; and certain
policy restrictions on who is eligible to participate in the scheme.
5.18 The National Skills Academy, in its successful
bid, has the responsibility for monitoring what happens to candidates
at the end of the funded period, and for facilitating their route
either a) into long-term employment with that employer, b) employment
with another organisation, or c) into an apprenticeship or other
further training. The National Skills Academy has in place a mentoring
package for candidates to support this, which is provided from
existing FJF funding.
5.19 However, support for young people, both during
the initial six-month placement and after, needs to be far more
integrated with both the JobCentre Plus and the National Apprenticeship
Service than it currently is. The National Skills Academy alone
lacks the broader awareness and access to interventions available
to JobCentre Plus advisors so there is a lack of integration with
wider welfare-to-work initiatives. A further option would be for
organisations such as the National Skills Academy to have a wider
capability to deliver other welfare-to-work schemes. This would
allow individual young people working with the Academy to get
better access to the full remit of support that is available to
them to help them into work.
5.20 Getting a young person into sustained permanent
employment is an involved process that does not end when someone
first starts work. A flexible approach is needed, with tailored
mentoring support provided before, during and after a person successfully
gets a job in order to keep them on track. Such an approach increases
the chances of any intervention being successful - including schemes
like the FJF. An integrated approach also allows for any issues,
such as a need for more intensive training for someone to be work
ready, to be flagged up. This reduces the chances of a problem
that could be quite easily overcome with the right intervention
from de-railing an entire welfare-to-work programme for an individual.
5.21 A further issue is that if an FJF employee leaves
work and goes back into unemployment, they enter as if they have
only just become unemployed and cannot access any FJF or similar
scheme until they have been unemployed for a further six months.
Such a situation halts any momentum created through their original
employment with FJF. If an integrated approach was taken with
other interventions then such a situation could be avoided.
5.22 The 18-24 age restrictions applied to whom is
eligible to enter the FJF are too prescriptive. Age does not determine
the success of job creation. Older people and returners to work
have additional skills which many employers find valuable. The
age restriction, whilst understandable, is essentially a political
decision and, in our view, consideration should be given to removing
this restriction in any future scheme.
5.23 As already highlighted the FJF can be a successful
way to break the cycle of low-skilled, short-term work followed
by long periods of unemployment. However, the wage restriction
of 25 hours per week at minimum wage poses a challenge for individuals
to stay for the entire investment period. Young people often have
to earn a basic wage because they have to support themselves or
only get limited help from family members. So the offer of a job
elsewhere at a 35-hour working week at minimum wage can seem more
attractive than what the FJF can offer.
5.24 While on the surface this may seem like a good
thing for the government as it gets someone into full-time paid
employment, this is often in fact a false economy. Many of these
jobs are low skilled and in effect keep the young person within
the low-skilled/unemployment cycle. Desirably, any funded programme
should be for a 35-hour working week, set at minimum wage. While
a young person may still receive other job offers, these would
need to be above the minimum wage they currently earn for them
to be attractive. Many "dead-end" jobs do not pay higher
than minimum wage so by raising the hours worked to a standard
working week, the risk of a young person going back into low-skilled
short-term work followed by unemployment is reduced.
THE LIKELY
IMPACT OF
THE DECISION
TO END
THE FJF IN
MARCH 2011 RATHER
THAN MARCH
2012
5.25 The National Skills Academy FJF programme is
not directly impacted by the decision to end the initiative a
year earlier than originally planned because it has always intended
to complete its programme by the March 2011 date. However, the
Academy is concerned about the potential ongoing impact on reducing
unemployment if no job placement programme replaces it. The Academy
strongly supports the use of seed corn funding for wages and training
and would like to see this continue, in whatever form the new
government's welfare-to work programme takes in future.
6.0 HOW THE
TRANSITION FROM
FJF TO THE
WORK PROGRAMME
WILL BE
MANAGED, INCLUDING
THE PART
TO BE
PLAYED BY
THE GOVERNMENT'S
PROPOSALS TO
FUND NEW
APPRENTICESHIPS
Transition from FJF to the Work Programme
6.1 The NSA is concerned that the FJF will end before
any other initiative replaces it. The use of subsidised job creation
schemes is an excellent way to bridge young people from worklessness
into employment and needs to be an option for those people that
are ready and able to complete a placement.
6.2 The establishment of a single Work Programme
has the potential to overcome the weaknesses of the FJF outlined
in this submission. It should be up to a person's advisor to take
a holistic view of what interventions will work best with an individual,
regardless of age or any other limit that is not based on their
abilities. The Work Programme, in giving freedom to external providers,
has the potential to achieve this.
6.3 Work Programme providers will be paid by results
in getting people back into work. Ensuring the appropriate level
of remuneration for them from government for achieving this will
be a critical factor on whether schemes such as paid wage subsidy
are used as a welfare-to-work tool. If remuneration is too low
then this will financially restrict the options available to Work
Programme providers to use to get people back into work and limit
their chances of achieving a successful intervention.
6.4 The National Skills Academy is keen to ensure
that a strong link to skills and qualification development is
maintained as part of welfare-to-work programmes. Sector skills
councils and national skills academies have been established to
ensure an employer-led system in the development of vocational
skills, work relevant competencies and qualifications. It will
be important that Work Programme deliverers work within this employer-led
principle and use the knowledge and experience gained by sector
skills councils and national skills academies to do this. If employers'
needs are not being met through a welfare to-work initiative (such
as being able to ensure someone gets the relevant training) then
the chances of achieving sustained permanent work is that much
reduced.
The Government's proposals to fund new apprenticeships
6.5 Apprenticeships have been shown to be an effective
way to build vocational qualifications and the National Skills
Academy welcomes the Government's increase in provision in this
area. However, it is important to note that not all people in
welfare-to-work programmes are ready for an apprenticeship and
employers do not always require staff trained to that level. Many
employers prefer shorter periods of training on specific skills
for their staff.
6.6 As with the use of wage subsidy, apprenticeships
should be undertaken by people who are ready and would benefit
from them. In deciding the value of training it is important that
employers lead the agenda by indicating the skills that they need
from their staff.
6.7 There is a risk that the use of apprentice training
becomes supply driven rather than needs led by either employers
or individuals. By stating a specific number of apprenticeships
that will be delivered within a time period the government risks
developing a system that will deliver this target - regardless
of whether that piece of training is of value to individuals or
employers. Apprenticeships should be just one government-funded
option with an unemployed person's advisor free to decide what
training is most appropriate in consultation with employers. The
government's recognition of this issue in its recent consultations
on the development of a new strategy for skills, due to be published
in autumn 2010, is viewed as a positive sign by the National Skills
Academy.
7.0 CONCLUSION
7.1 The early figures from the National Skills Academy's
FJF programme are extremely positive in the proportion of young
people staying in permanent employment following an FJF placement.
However, the Academy accepts it is still too early to give conclusive
figures on the success of the initiative or its return on investment.
The Academy would like to offer the committee more conclusive
evidence as its programme progresses.
7.2 There has been a view promoted that the FJF is
a false economy and only serves to mask unemployment figures and
places young people in "non-jobs". The National Skills
Academy disagrees with this view. The jobs that are being created
in the sport and active leisure sector are real jobs. They have
been developed in most cases for the long-term, deliver business
growth and contribute to the national economy and enhanced GDP.
There is also significant benefit to social enterprises and the
third sector in delivering community services; and in establishing
a workforce for the future in this important area of society.
7.3 While the National Skills Academy accepts the
ending of the FJF, it is equally concerned that the successful
combination of work-subsidy and training is not lost in future
welfare-to-work initiatives.
14 September 2010
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