What employers want from an aligned employment and skills system
This research focused on what employers want from an aligned employment and skills system, and the extent to which employers, currently think it is joined up.
The study comprised of a review of existing research on employer perceptions, plus qualitative research comprising of 41 in-depth interviews with stakeholders in government and public sector agencies, employer representative bodies and employers of varying sizes and sectors across England.
The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills commissioned Ipsos MORI to undertake research on what employers want from an aligned employment and skills system, and the extent to which employers, employer representatives and stakeholders in the system currently think it is joined-up. The study comprised of a review of existing research on employer perceptions, plus qualitative research comprising of 41 in-depth interviews with stakeholders in Government and public sector agencies, employer representative bodies and employers of varying sizes and sectors across England.
Since this research was conducted, some Government organisations or services cited may have been dissolved, renamed or rebranded, or had their responsibilities deferred elsewhere. The findings should be considered in this context, although the messages behind what employers want from an aligned system remain relevant.
Report recommendations:
On the basis of these findings, we have made recommendations on how to improve employers’ views of the employment and skills system:
• To improve joint-working, stakeholders should consider developing joint aims and objectives across existing employment and skills services. They should also attempt to coordinate how they talk about services, how they share employer contacts, and their feedback and handover processes, all of which may keep employers engaged without the need to offer additional services. Across all services, policy teams should highlight local good-practice examples of this kind of joint working for others to replicate.
• To make existing joint-working more visible, Jobcentre Plus should try, as a matter of course, to signpost employers to local colleges and training providers and to any funding available. This may require investing in further guidance for existing national account managers to ensure they have an overview of skills as well as employment services. Jobcentre Plus should also aim to develop a more consistent filtering service across its offices and consider charging for this.
• To have an identifiable first-stop-shop for services, DWP and BIS should consider having an existing service that employers are familiar with become the default first-stop-shop for SMEs. Advisers in this service should be interpreters of the system, who can assess business needs and then guide employers to the relevant specialist service.
• To signpost employers who prefer not to engage with the prescribed first-stop-shop, stakeholders should use employers’ existing relationships with HMRC and with employer representative bodies as a low-cost way of engaging employers.
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/report_abstracts/rr_abstracts/rra_74...
