Skills and Employment Bulleting

National Policy

Employment boost for older workers  (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government is calling on employers to boost the number of older workers and ensure they are not writing people off once they reach a certain age.  As part of the new Fuller Working Lives strategy, ministers and business leaders have set out the social and health benefits of working longer, highlighting the need for businesses to ‘retain, retrain and recruit’ older workers.

Apprenticeship targets ‘poor value for money’, says IFS  (BBC News)

The government’s target to rapidly increase the number of apprentices risks being “poor value for money”, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The institute argues the government has failed to make a convincing case for the rapid expansion of apprenticeships, casting doubt on the use of public money and warning that young people may miss out, impacting the long-term effectiveness of the strategy.

Cut to disability benefits may make return to work harder, claim MPs (Guardian)

The government has been warned that cutting benefits by almost £30 a week may push many disabled people into poverty, instead of back into work. The Work and Pensions Select Committee questioned whether cutting benefit rates would incentivise ill and disabled claimants to get a job, concluding that the evidence was “at best, ambiguous”.

News and Views

Work visits result in fewer young ‘Neets’ (BBC News)

Young people who have regular contacts with employers while at school are much less likely to become so-called Neets – “not in education, employment or training”, according to research by the Education and Employers charity.

It’s time for a national adult learning strategy (FE Week)

‘Compulsory under-19 education alone cannot address the UK’s growing skills shortages; we must take the opportunity to work with government to develop a national lifelong learning strategy’, says Ruth Spellman, Chief Executive of the Workers’ Educational Association.

Now Microsoft’s pledged to train the UK in digital skills for free (City A.M.)

Microsoft is the latest tech giant to make a pledge to help train the UK in digital skills.  As well as offering free digital training to everybody in the UK, It will also aim to train 500,000 people with advanced training in cloud technology by 2020 and create 30,000 new digital apprenticeships.

The Apprenticeships and Skills Minister outlines his thoughts on the future of careers. (FE News)

The Apprenticeships and Skills Minister, Robert Halfon, outlines his thoughts on the future of careers, looking at what works, including improving the prestige of careers, expanding careers provision, meeting the needs of a skills economy, supporting the most disadvantaged,  and job security.

Publications

Fuller Working Lives: A Partnership Approach (Department for Work and Pensions)

Full report setting out the social and health benefits of working longer, highlighting the need for businesses to ‘retain, retrain and recruit’ older workers.

Contemporary transitions: Young Britons reflect on life after secondary school and college (Education and Employers)

The findings from a survey of 1,744 young British adults aged 19-24,  focusing on work-related activities commonly undertaken by schools and colleges to help prepare students for the world of work, relating specifically to employer engagement in education.