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