Association of Colleges

24 January 2012

A new AoC study shows that the average college provides training for more than 1000 unemployed people a year.

As unemployment climbs to 2.6 million, including more than one million young people, colleges are working harder than ever to give people the skills they need to get a job, according to a report published by the Association of Colleges.

‘Back to Work: Colleges Supporting Sustainable Jobs’ will be launched at the House of Commons and outlines the innovative programmes colleges are developing, often alongside Jobcentre Plus (JCP), and details some of the barriers jobseekers face in getting the training they need.

AoC surveyed¹ its member colleges to assess how they are helping unemployed people gain the skills essential to finding work. Colleges have been providing training which results in sustainable employment for decades and can respond swiftly to changes in the employment market. The survey found:

• 95% of colleges offer provision for the unemployed
• 64% of colleges have changed their provision to better meet the needs of jobseekers; this has been aided by the Government’s relaxation of a number of rules and regulations
• The average college provides training for 1,003 unemployed people a year – 12% of the survey respondents were helping more than 2,000 people annually
• This equates to 220,000 unemployed people gaining work-related education and skills at colleges across England

The launch event will be hosted by Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd, who co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning and sits on the Work and Pensions Select Committee. He said: “This report offers valuable insight into the sterling work that colleges, including Sussex Downs College in my constituency, are doing to help people find jobs.

“It is important in these particularly challenging times, that many colleges report a strong relationship with Jobcentre Plus and are running courses that adapt and respond well to local employers. However, the report also identifies areas where the system can be streamlined and improved to remove barriers to training in order to ensure people are given good access to the skills they need to find employment.”

AoC Chief Executive Martin Doel said: “Colleges are integral to the local communities they serve and are well-placed to provide responsive programmes to help people into employment. Our members are showing real flexibility and initiative in this area and their links with employers and JCP mean that those candidates they put forward for jobs are ready for work. Not only are they providing people with the skills they need, but they are helping increase their confidence with personal advice and tailored support.”

The report includes case studies of the work colleges do and stories from the unemployed people they have helped to find jobs. It also gives examples of - and offers some solutions to - the barriers both colleges and individuals face in getting people into employment. These include:

• Perhaps unsurprisingly, the key barrier is the lack of job opportunities
• Tracking student progression due to data protection rules; JCP can access progression data but, to date, colleges are unable to do so (see West Cheshire College, pg 12)
• Skills Funding Agency restrictions on funding can hinder provision – for example, there is very little funding available to support unemployed people below level 1 (see Swindon College, pg 8)
• Limited knowledge among some JCP staff about college provision (see Hackney Community College, pg 15)
• JCP rules which can restrict the offer and its fit to the claimant – for example, job centres report vacancies for heavy goods vehicle drivers but the college can’t get funding to provide the HGV training needed to get a licence (also see Hackney Community College case study as above)

Martin Doel said: “Colleges have welcomed the greater freedoms ² provided by Government relating to how they can use their adult skills budgets and in the way that they can teach units, rather than whole qualifications, to meet specific skills gaps.

“But more work needs to be done; many of these barriers are not insurmountable and can be addressed if colleges and job centres work together to share information, develop personal solutions and work with employers in order to more efficiently tackle the scourge of unemployment. All of the colleges featured in this report have a good relationship with JCP, but can see ways in which it can be improved and offer possible solutions.

“I hope policymakers will take these findings to heart as this partnership develops in the months ahead.”

For further information contact Helen Galley National Press Officer 020 7034 9973 helen_galley@aoc.co.uk

About Colleges

• Every year colleges educate and train more than 3.3 million people, including 2.4 million adults
• 59% of large employers who train their staff do so through a college
• 83% of people think that colleges make an important contribution to their local communities as an educator and employer

Editor’s Notes: ¹‘Back to Work: Colleges Supporting Sustainable Jobs’ (attached) includes data from an AoC survey conducted in November 2011 examining college provision for the unemployed. 88 colleges (25%) of the 346 colleges in England responded. The case studies included in the publication detail the work of colleges across England to help the unemployed find work and comments about the challenges and successes they experience in doing so. The report will be launched in the House of Commons at 4pm on 24 January 2012. ² Since August 2011, JCP has been mandating Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance recipients to gain the vocational and generic skills they need to find work. Details of the SFA’s guidance for funding training for the unemployed is available on the agency’s website: http://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/providers/programmes/pfu/

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