UK Unemployment & Training

For UK Adults who have suffered an extended period of unemployment, breaking back into the job market can seem a near impossible task. The rapidly changing nature of the market over the last few years and the lack of awareness over the available government support has left the UK workforce comparatively under skilled compared to our closest European competitors.

The lack of awareness is a slight failing of our education and welfare systems to properly invest in marketing for the available funds. However, regardless of this minor lack in awareness, there are funds available to get Brits back on track with the skills they need to re-enter the workforce.

List of some funds available:

-?????????ReStart Scheme

-?????????Kickstart Fund

-?????????Adult Education Budget (AEB)

-?????????City & Guilds free courses

Whether these funds have deep enough pockets to support the official and unofficial unemployment numbers of the UK is not a concern out-of-work Brits need to worry about. According to a report from the UK Gov in 20019, 1 in 4 UK adults do not access further education funding that’s available for them and in low-tax bracket classes this percentage is even steeper, with 49% of these adults not taking on any training at all after school age. These numbers probably aren’t so surprising if you consider the relative lack of investment to make the public aware of the funding available for adult education.

None of this is to say that these low skilled workers are unable to access work, of the 9m Brits classified as unskilled, 5m of these are in regular work. However, simply reducing unemployment is not where the success of the country’s economy ends. Studies have shown that a skilled workforce is critical to the long-term success of a country’s economy. Which means there is a direct long-term benefit to a country’s success in investing in its workforce.

An effort to raise the awareness profile of available funds and reduce the official unemployment figure of 1.25m will bring the UK greater economic success, but the country faces a larger, less publicized challenge beyond this figure.

According to data available through the DWP’s StatXplore platform, a UK publication identified a figure that serves as a decent estimate of the UK’s unofficial unemployment rate. The investigation found that 5.3m Brits are receiving a form of unemployment support from the government but aren’t classified as unemployed as they’re considered either unable or unsuitable for work.

That brings the unofficial unemployment total up to around 6.58m. Over 12% of the adult population. With the lions share of these out-of-work Brits not considering entering the workforce anytime soon.

The pressure caused by Covid and knock-on effect of Brexit are blamed for the current labour shortage in the UK, this shortage as you might expect is hitting those industries with the highest level of risk hardest; hospitality, healthcare, and social work. Stephen Evans, chief executive of thinktank the Learning and Work Institute, says there are 1.1 million fewer people in the workforce than there would have been had pre-pandemic trends continued.

This labour shortage should provide the UK government with the motivation required to kick-start a more considered effort to reenergize these out-of-work adults and provide clearer routes to training and employment. An effort the UK falls a considerable amount short, compared to our European neighbours. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/774085/Adult_skills_report_2019.pdf

Of those taking advantage of enterprise and government training in the UK, only 6% are undertaking work with the reason to enter or re-enter the workforce, with most being in work already and upskilling for wage and career progression.

So, the picture of the UKs unemployment problem starts to take shape. Funding is available, the Government announced as recently as 2022 a ￡2b fund aimed at a specific high risk factor demographic:

Kickstart scheme

Kickstart is a ￡2 billion fund which creates paid, 6-month work placements for over 200,000 young people who might be at risk of long-term unemployment. If you are 16 to 24 years old and on Universal Credit in England, Scotland, or Wales.

Read more about available routes to work under the Government Jobs Plan.

The problem is not seemingly the willingness of the UK Government to provide reasonable support for jobseekers. This support is available under a variety of forms, but as we’ve seen from investigations by other agencies, the awareness of this support and processes for driving out-of-work people toward skills training are clearly lacking.

In addition to this relatively easy fix, is a not so simple problem to solve over public perception. A 2017 survey showed that less than 5% businesses employing “low-skilled” workers (organisations with a “low-skill” employee workforce of 80% or higher) believed their workers need training to improve their skills. A sentiment reflected by these workers themselves where a significant 70% saw no benefit to undertaking skills training. This lack of engagement is caused in part by poor perception of potential benefits to both parties. ?

One logistical barrier noted by the government preventing adults upskilling is a lack of access to decent hardware to conduct studies and tasks. The Government estimated around 1.2-1.8m are without a computer or internet access. Of this group a good amount will still be in employment and fortunately having noticed the access gap, the government has a scheme in place to ensure fair access to digital tools, though school aged children are the priority target for this initiative. https://cityandguildsfoundation.org/what-we-offer/resources/digital-poverty/

With a range of funding available and being left on the table by out-of-work Brits, and an imminent labour shortage. The emphasis has seldom been higher on the need for the UK to make a concentrated effort to get those who can work up to standard and into the workforce.?