A radical new advisory service will combine skills and training advice with practical guidance for people on how to overcome the barriers they face in getting on in life, Skills Secretary John Denham set out today.
For the first time, the adult advancement and careers service (AACS) will provide a one-stop-shop for those seeking training and help into work but who also face problems in areas like childcare, money matters, housing and disability issues.
Publishing a prospectus setting out how the new service will develop, Mr Denham announced the names and locations of ten prototype advisory services across England, one of them across Greater Manchester, whose work will inform the launch of the AACS in 2010.
The service, which will be freely available to all but targeted at those most in need, will play a key role in boosting social mobility - empowering people to access the opportunities they need to realise their ambitions, improve their lives and those of their families.
Mr Denham believes that although for most people, information about training courses and skills development is easily accessible, many such as the low paid and unemployed continue to face barriers which hold them back.
Previous research has shown that many people face significant barriers to accessing opportunities to get into and on at work. These include:
* Women seeking to return to work after having a child who cannot find suitable childcare at an appropriate place and time: 41% of mothers cite time due to work and 74% cite time due to family care as the largest barrier to training;
* Those with full time caring responsibilities: an estimated 1 in 5 carers have left or turned down a job because of caring responsibilities;
* Employees of small firms which can find it hard to provide skills development support for its staff.
He said:
"Everyone deserves the best chance to get on in work and in life - but often people find a range of barriers in their way, whether they are seeking work, trying to get a better job, or worried about redundancy.
"Those barriers are different for everyone - whether finding suitable childcare, understanding employment rights, unblocking problems with housing - and the new service needs to be able to help people tackle them all, changing with them as they change through life.
"To make that happen, services must come together and work in new ways to make sure people seeking advice are seen as individuals, that all their particular needs are fully understood and that advice is provided that draws together everything they need."
The ten prototypes will run for two years, testing a range of different approaches in establishing local partnerships bringing together nextstep services, Jobcentre Plus, unionlearn, local authorities, housing associations, voluntary and community sector organisations, Connexions, Primary Care Trusts, the Citizen's Advice Bureau, Sure Start Children's Centres, and others.
The scheme's primary contractor in Greater Manchester, Manchester Solutions which deals with enterprise jobs and skills, is in talks with the ten local authorities to strengthen the networks between a wide range of advisors under a single approach which means clients can access the help they need no matter which agency they use first.
Carol Jamieson, head of adult careers at Manchester Solutions, said: "In Greater Manchester we have been building this infrastructure for some time already and we have always had pro-active partnerships but they have not been formal. This is an opportunity to build on these networks and focus on some standard approaches to information sharing and referral systems that build on established best practice."
Once that structure is in place clients will see good practice right across the board - no matter which route they take to training and employment. For example, the region's nextstep teams are skilled in spotting 'invisible' obstacles such as available benefits, travel issues or care problems which will improve an individual's chances of success, Carol Jamieson explained: "Ofsted praised nextstep advisors in Greater Manchester for spending more time with clients to help them alleviate the barriers which often the client themselves didn't realise they had."
Research has also shown that accessing learning, improving skills, undertaking work-based training and/or gaining a qualification can have a positive effect on people's lives and those of their families.
Evidence shows that improving the skills of adults with poor reading and writing skills gives their children a better start in education and means they are less likely to fall behind their classmates at school. In a recent evaluation of Train to Gain, the Government's flagship skills service, 43 per cent of people who had completed their training reported a pay rise whilst 30 per cent reported a promotion.
Today, DIUS publishes further research evidence concluding that adults who gain a vocational qualification at GCSE level are more likely to go on to further learning, leading in turn to higher wages. This research adds to a wealth of other evidence that learning new skills and gaining qualifications is an excellent way of getting on in the labour market, increasing people's chances of gaining employment and progressing once in work.
The Government first set out its aim to create a single advice service on learning, work and life last year and when it pledged to establish a nationwide adult advancement and careers service by 2010, working with Jobcentre Plus.
Mr Denham has also pledged that existing careers services would act now to help people facing redundancy in the current difficult time.
He said:
"We have already announced a package of support to help small and medium sized businesses provide training to their employees in the face of the difficult times we are entering. We are also this week publishing a leaflet with DWP showing what support is available now to help people facing redundancy. Our current careers advice services play a key role in this, providing flexible, personalised advice on dealing with redundancy, refreshing your skills or learning new ones, applying for and getting jobs."
