APPENDIX 2

 

ANNUAL REPORT FEBUARY 2004

 

PSA Target 11 – Over 50s Employment

 

 

Introduction

 

  1. The Isle of Wight Economic Partnership has been contracted in September 2003 by the Isle of Wight Council to deliver a project to meet the demands of the PSA target 11. The target is to get 120 people who are in receipt of benefit back into employment by the end of March 2006. This is part of a larger package of activities which the Council is carrying out under the banner of PSA Targets.
  2. This area of activity is a new one for the Isle of Wight Partnership. In fact, it is a new area for the Island as a whole. This meant the initial stages of the project have been researching the size of the problem, identifying the barriers to employment for these clients, exploring possible solutions – including looking at schemes elsewhere in the region and nationally, setting up the networks to support these solutions and exploring possible other funding schemes to provide the requisite level of resource.
  3. From this research a working group of organisations with interests in this area of work has been pulled together to consider the wider picture of older learners, identify a way forward and to seek funding for a range of activities.
  4. In parallel to this, the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership has been preparing and commissioning a portfolio of activities to provide a level of support to older learners, which will lead to outputs which will satisfy the requirements of PSA Target 11. By their nature, these are initially pilot schemes so they may be evaluated for their impact, before commissioning a longer programme.

 

Background to Older Learners on the Isle of Wight

 

The Isle of Wight has the largest percentage of population over 50 years in the UK (42.8%) vs. 33.4% in the South East and 32.8% in the UK. The IW has high levels of unemployment (3.7% vs. 1.6% in the SE Region), and there is a need therefore to target unemployed people in this area. It has been identified through the ‘Voice of the Learner’ research, undertaken by the IW Learning Partnership, that this is a group who lack confidence, and for whom there is inadequate, ongoing, independent, IAG (Information, Advice and Guidance).  The project will target ethnic minorities in their entirety.  By reaching people in their own communities, the project will help to reach disadvantaged individuals and those lacking in confidence who would otherwise participate and whose need to improve skills may be greatest.

 

These views are reinforced by the experiences of Job Centre Plus – the agency with the highest level of day to day contact with this client group - who feel that the best approach is that of IAG to best match the needs of individual clients. They have identified this as a real need, but it is not a route that is currently available to them. It was this service which interested them the most. Often older workers have a range of skills which they have developed over their working life, but have become unemployed due to a change in circumstance – for example this could be redundancy from a traditional industry which is in decline or health problems. By use of IAG, a new career direction can be identified and the client can be directed to any training that is required to fill any gaps in their skills.

 

Activities to date

 

Broadly these have fallen into three areas:

 

  1. Research into the scope of the problem and possible solutions.
  2. The establishment of a portfolio of services which will achieve the outputs required to satisfy target 11 within the PSA agreement by March 2006. In the first instance, these will be pilot projects with an emphasis being put on those which show the greatest level of success. This approach is forced upon us by the limited resources available for delivering the target.
  3. A fuller evaluation of the needs and requirements of older learners. This follows a course of the establishment of a working group to assess the needs and requirements, the development of a suitable solution and the search for suitable funding to deliver this programme. The obvious outcome of any such programme would be enhanced services which would ease the burden of delivering the PSA Target 11, as well as creating a more sustainable service aimed at the needs of older learners.

 

With regards to meeting Target 11 we have

 

  1. Established an agreement with Jobcentre Plus for them to act as a source of suitable 50+ candidates for special training initiatives and as a tracking mechanism for 50+ candidates whom we have assisted via other initiatives.

 

  1. Set up special training courses in partnership with B&Q aimed at improving skill, confidence and motivation, to improve employability. Candidates – normally 10 per course to allow for optimum individual attention - are referred via the Jobcentre for a course of training and skills related to tools; work attitudes; confidence building and customer care skills. The response has been highly positive, with the course having a 100% attendance record and 3 people being offered positions with B&Q.

      Evaluation has been excellent and so, in addition to 3 more planned B&Q       sessions, we are using this course as a model for similar planned courses with      other major employers on the Island.

 

  1. We have set up a monitoring and reporting system for projects being funded by IWEP in which we have made a significant intervention with skills & training; confidence building; assisting with recruitment, and/or improved access to transport. This will highlight relevant candidates for referral to Jobcentre Plus for this initiative.  We have identified 10 such projects at this juncture and are working with Project Managers to screen out the names of the 50+ candidates from the many attendees on their projects; and there will be other such projects coming on line in the year ahead.

 

  1. We are currently developing new pilot projects to influence and encourage (via small start-up grants) self-employment for suitable candidates.

 

5.      We are working with Chamber of Commerce and others to influence Employers’ attitudes to the recruitment of candidates from the 50+ cohort. A Code of Practice has been developed and plans are well advanced for a seminar-style event in April/May to launch the Code and to seek commitment to its adoption, from employers.

 

  1. A Steering Group led by IWEP and comprising of:-
    1. IWEP
    2. IW Learning Partnership
    3. IW College
    4. VT Careers Management Southern
    5. Community Solutions
    6. RCC
    7. IWC
    8. Job Centre Plus
    9. Link2Learn

 

has been established to develop mechanisms to link Adult Guidance and Learning and Skills Development for the 50+ age group, and then to provide the service to match their skills to job opportunities. The group had identified a funding stream through ESF to take forward their broader proposals and a bid was submitted in September 2003.  This will provide much greater resources and enable us to have a greater impact on 50+ employment than just the delivery of the PSA target.

 

The project was aimed at people over the age of 45 (to fit the ESF specification) and was summarised as follows:

 

“The project shall provide a mechanism for bringing coherence to IAG and learning opportunities for those over 45 on the Isle of Wight. The key aim shall be to enable access to appropriate and effective information, advice, guidance, learning and development opportunities for over 700 beneficiaries a year for three years.

 

The project shall uniquely add value to existing services and develop new provision for needs that are identified throughout project development, adopting a learner led approach to development of provision.

 

Through raising the capacity of the IAG and Link2Learn network, Experience Works on the Isle of Wight will effectively engage employers, and those over 45, both unemployed and employed, who have not recently accessed learning or development opportunities. The project shall deploy a strong partnership of agencies who are each able to deliver a specific aspect of provision. In this way, the diverse needs of a large beneficiary group shall be met effectively.

 

The project shall engage with 200 employers to raise awareness in the private sector on the Isle of Wight on the Isle of Wight of the benefits of employing those over 45.”

 

We worked in            partnership, via a SEEDA Consultant, with a similar group in Berkshire on our initial bid but the process has stalled due to a change of bid criteria. However, the money is still available and we are continuing to work with our partners and SEEDA to progress a bid.

 

The steering group are also looking at other ways to progress their ideas, such that even if the bid fails we are confident of meeting this PSA target.

 

  1. We are also continuing to look at innovative approaches that have been used elsewhere to see if we can adapt them for use on the Island. We have looked at an under 40 self-employment initiative in Wales to evaluate its cost versus benefit figures and to see if/how it might be adapted for a 50+ age group on the Island. We have worked with Portsmouth’s “Under the Hill” project to see if it can be adopted for use on the Island.

 

Outputs to Date

 

 

Planned Activities for 2004- 5

 

 

 

The courses, during 2004-5 should give us contact with the order of 100 clients and it would be reasonable to assume that at least 70% of these will obtain employment, giving an estimated output of 70 people as eligible outputs for PSA Target 11. Moreover our other activities will boost this number. It should also be realised that the translation of a client attending a course to them obtaining a job will take some time, so this should translate to a steady growth of numbers during the year. These numbers, in association with the other activities should produce the outputs required to satisfy the PSA Target 11 of 120 people back to work by March 2006.

 

Conclusions

 

The programme to deliver the PSA Target 11 has made a strong start. It has established a sound infrastructure and has set in place a portfolio of activities which will deliver the outputs required by March 2006. Moreover the wider issues of older learners are beginning to be addressed and funding is being sought to support those aspirations.