At the Observatory's 2008 Annual Conference, Rosie Paskins illuminated some of the challenges facing the West Midlands if it is to close the £10 billion output gapand perform more in line with national averages (download speech audio and slides).
Rosie demonstrated that 20% of the output gap can be attributed to ‘economic exclusion’ or, in other words, the effects of certain people not being able to fully engage in the labour market.
This economic inclusion workshop picked up on this issue and focused on two subjects: labour market issues for older people and addressing worklessness.
Labour market issues for older people
Barbara Watkins from The Age and Employment Network delivered the first presentation, exploring policy and research associated with the UK’s older workforce (PDF, 86KB).
Historically, labour market conditions have not been conducive to an older workforce but various policies now aim to improve older people’s experience, such as the Equality Employment (Age) Regulations Act in 2006, which made it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees or jobseekers on the grounds of age.
The second presentation, a summary findings of research into labour market and training experiences of older workers (PDF, 99KB), by Katie Jenkinson from VT Research cast some doubt over how far such policy truly translates to practice “on the ground”.
Her research into labour market and training experiences of older workers in the West Midlands picked up on an “uneasiness” amongst employers to speak candidly about their views on older employees, and the majority did not see targeting older people as a solution to HR issues.
The remainder of the workshop was attributed to solutions: “what approaches to worklessness are effective in our region?”
Worklessness policy and challenges
Jon Wright from Jobcentre Plus spoke about the “new era” of welfare reform (PDF, 62KB) which has already begun to take effect.
In response to targets such as the aim to get one million people off Incapacity Benefits by 2015, Jobcentre Plus is changing how it works. To a greater extent than ever before, benefit claimants will be sanctioned if they do not look for work; more support and incentives will be provided for jobseekers, and payment to service providers delivering contracts will be conditional on successful employment outcomes.
WorkDirections
The final presentations were delivered by Stuart Wills (PDF, 110KB) and Collette Carr (PDF, 139KB) from WorkDirections.
WorkDirections is a provider of welfare-to-work programmes, offering clients tailored, one-to-one support to find work and then stay in work. Stuart and Collette spoke about the ethos of Work Directions, which differs in many ways from traditional approaches; for example, by viewing clients as “partners” a “natural trust” develops between advisors and clients, allowing more sensitive issues such as clients’ motivation to be addressed.
A full report from the workshop will feature on this site soon. PowerPoint slides for this workshop are available on the downloads tab at the top of this page.
These presentations were all delivered at the Observatory's Annual Conference on 13th October 2008.
Barbara Watkins, The Age and Employment Network
Policy and research associated with the UK’s older workforce (PDF, 86KB)
Katie Jenkinson, VT Research
Summary findings of research into labour market and training experiences of older workers (PDF, 99KB)
Jon Wright, JobcentrePlus
Worklessness, policy and challenges (PDF, 62KB)
Stuart Wills, WorkDirections
Welfare to work: WorkDirections approach to worklessness (PDF, 110KB)
Collette Carr, WorkDirections
Economic inclusion and sustainable outcomes (PDF, 139KB)