Winning Ways:Into Employment

Winning Ways: Into Employment

• The National Skills Academy

• Working with Employers

• Meeting Employer Needs

• Welfare to Work

• Case Studies

- developing suitable job roles

- routes into employment

- pre-employment training

- volunteering opportunities

- utilising physical activity

• Future Interventions

• To develop the training environment for sport and leisure in order to help create a highly skilled workforce fit for current and future purpose

• To complete the continuum from workforce development planning, through qualifications, to training provision Skills Active National Skills Academy

• To provide a one-stop shop for quality-assured training provision for employers and individual learners

• To provide sport and active leisure employers with

access to ‘Better, Cheaper and Easier’ training

The National Skills Academy

• Led by employers:– National Board– Consultation Groups– Network relationships– Employer ‘solutions’ led

• Working within SkillsActive Group to provide:– Workforce planning– Roles, Competencies & Qualifications– Analysis of training needs

• Quality assured training solutions– Fit for purpose– Responsive to employer need– OFSTED plus other QAA

• Reduced Costs– Economies of Scale / aggregated demand– Increased access to public funding

Working with Employers

Easier

Better

Cheaper

• National network of quality assured training providers

• Online Academy

• Apprenticeships

• Funded programmes

• Innovative targeted programmes

• Active Passport system

• Registers

• Learner Management Systems

Meeting Employer Needs

• Future Jobs Fund

– Contract size - £38 million

– 5,000 jobs created

– 150 contract partners involved in bid

(87% SMEs)

– Programme of interventions:

• Constructive relationship with JCPs

• Stimulate sustainable entry level jobs

• Advise on job specifications

• Create and deliver pre-employment training

• Provide on the job vocational training

programmes

• Support employers from recruitment to retention

• Exit routes into further training (Graduate

Gateway)

Welfare to Work Delivery

Case Studies

• Issues– Ensuring employers understood and bought-in to the programme

– Creating job roles suitable for long term unemployed / disenfranchised

candidates AND employers

• Solutions– Worked closely with JCP network to understand target groups and most

attractive job roles

– Targeted employers who work with hard to reach groups

– Provided ‘example’ job roles / job descriptions across employer sectors

– Created direct links between employers and JCPs

• Impact– Roles created matched the skill level of potential candidates

– Allowed candidates to ease back into employment

– Easier recruitment and greater sustainability

Case Study 1: Developing Suitable Job Roles

It was especially good to have an

Academy person in our region

to go through the benefits and

challenges of adopting the

government-funded

programme, and our specific

issues as a business, That

definitely cut down on

paperwork.

 

Sport For Life

““

• Issues

– Attracting candidates to available roles

– Providing meaningful employment and progression opportunities

– Ensuring sustainability

• Solutions

– ‘Promotion’ to candidates at JCPs

– Easy access to recruitment days

– Motivational recruitment process

– Ensuring roles delivered business objectives

• Impact

– Higher percentage of applicants taken on

– Candidates have visisble long term progression route

– Franchise model offers opportunity for low skilled candidates to grow business

Case Study 2: Routes into employment

We’ll also be helping them

develop a business plan and

action plan, and provide them

with any other support they

need.

Premier Sport

“ “

• Issues

– No skills = No job and No job = No skills

– Long term unemployment eroding job ready skills

– Unemployed young people not a homogenous group – no ‘one size fits all’ approach

• Solutions

– Pre employment assessment to identify candidates skills gap

– Interventions created to meet both individual candidate need AND employer

expectation

– Training packages include basic skills, employability skills and early job relevant skills

• Impact

– Candidates given basic transferable skills as needed

– Candidates job ready at entry point

– Sustainability of employment improved by early investment in pre -employment

interventions

Case Study 3: Pre-employment training

Every one of the 120 young

people we have taken on have

just been looking for a chance

to make something of

themselves. At the time of

writing not one person has

dropped out of the Future Jobs

Fund programme working for

Fit for Sport

Fit For Sport

““

• Issues

– Long periods without meaningful activity has negative impact on likelihood of

employment

– Long term unemployment eroding self confidence and skills

• Solutions

– Provide volunteering opportunity as part of route to employment

– Tie in volunteering / work placement to job opportunity

– Guarantee interview as part of process

• Impact

– Helps the candidate develop / retain / improve job skills

– Opens door to potential employment

– Increases sustainability through experience - ‘try before you buy’

Case Study 4: Volunteering Opportunities

Attractive for Candidates

I was going for about four job interviews a

week but not getting anywhere so I

thought I’d see what the Academy

could do for me.

Attractive for employers

I’ve never employed anyone straight from

unemployment before but I was

pleasantly surprised. The four we

selected were enthusiastic and reliable

young men, wanting to work and willing

to learn. They have been excellent.

Mayor’s Legacy and Sport For Life

“ “

“

“

• Issues– Lack of life structure, lower confidence and self esteem are factors of long term

unemployment

– Poorer health / lack of physical activity reduces learning ability

– Significant impact on readiness for employment

• Solutions– Provide physical activity as part of wider training interventions

– Carry out all types of training in leisure centre and fitness venues

• Impact– Candidates more motivated, fitter and more work ready

– Greater impact of training interventions and long term retention of learning

– Greater likelihood of recruitment and ‘lasting the course’, i.e. sustainability of

employment

Case Study 5: Utilising Physical Activity

I work with a programme

coordinator to shift the boys’

focus from crime to football

and help them see all the

other possibilities available to

them in life. The boys are at a

very impressionable age and,

if even a handful of them

listen to us, we’ve achieved

something.

Case Study 5: Charlton Athletic

““

Future Interventions

• The Work Programme

• Development of pre-employment training

• Pre-Apprenticeships

• Work Academies

• Targeted funded programmes

– ESF funding for engagement of NEETS

– Sport England Volunteer support programmes

– Regional funding;• Mayor’s Legacy

• Regional Growth Fund

Future Interventions