employment research institute skills and employability professor ronald mcquaid employment research...

Employment Research Employment Research InstituteInstitute

SKILLS AND EMPLOYABILITY

Professor Ronald McQuaid

Employment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh

Intelligence Network CPD Conference

Leeds, 27th & 28th September 2006


Some Context - Labour Market Trends

• Globalisation and emphasis upon productivity

• Ageing workforce

• Moved from mass unemployment to ‘fuller’ employment

• Fight against poverty (“Workfarism”) - ‘work is best way out of

poverty’

• Changing labour market policies

• Increasing emphasis upon employability


Labour Market Policies

• 1980s - 2000s progressive tightening of policy

• ‘active’ and ‘deterrent’ policies

• often supply-side emphasis

• increasing targeting of certain groups

• recognition that inappropriate targeting of active labour market

policies can lead to inefficiencies of displacement, deadweight

and substitution


Employability and Policy

• EU - One of 4 Pillars in EU Employment Strategy 1999.

• Revised European Employment Strategy, formulated in 2003 -

The promotion of employability in the workplace and among

young people, the unemployed and other potentially

disadvantaged groups in the labour market remains an

important goal.

• UN, 2001 (one of its four priorities for national policy action on

youth employment ); OECD, 1998.

• UK, employability emerged as a central tenet of so-called ‘Third

Way’ policies. New Deal was defined by the principles of ‘quality,

continuity and employability’ (DfEE, 1997).


Workshops Questions

• What do you mean by the term What do you mean by the term Employability? Employability?

• What is the role of skills in understanding and assisting with Employability?

• How do different agencies handle employability policies?

• So what? Are there implications for the Skills Business network?


What is Employability? (1)

• “Employability is .. the combination of factors and processes

which enable people to progress towards or get employment,

stay in employment and move on in the workplace” (Health Dept.

and Scottish Executive Employability Framework, 2006).

• Employability is the relative capacity of an individual to achieve

meaningful employment given the interaction of personal

circumstances and the labour market (Canadian Labour Force

Development Board, 1994, p. viii).


What is Employability? (2)

• Employability means the development of skills and adaptable

workforces in which all those capable of work are encouraged to

develop the skills, knowledge, technology and adaptability to

enable them to enter and remain in employment throughout their

working lives (HM Treasury, 1997, p.1).

• Employability is the possession by an individual of the qualities

and competencies required to meet the changing needs of

employers and customers and thereby help to realise his or her

aspirations and potential in work (Confederation of British

Industry (CBI) , 1999).


So what is Employability? (3)

• Is Employability fundamentally about:

a) Job readiness – and especially the individual’s characteristics

b) factors influencing a person getting into a job, moving jobs,

or improving their job?

• Historically (e.g. Gazier, 1998, 2001) it is about:

- Labour Supply (looking for work and in work)

- Labour Demand

- Both


Workshops Questions

• What do you mean by the term Employability?

• What is the role of skills in What is the role of skills in understanding and assisting with understanding and assisting with Employability? Employability?




Components of Employability

• Hillage-Pollard framework - a useful model for discussing employability and barriers to work among the LTU?

• employability assets: baseline assets (basic skills and attributes); intermediate assets (job-specific skills); and high level assets;

• presentation of assets: communication, presentation, etc.;

• deployment: strategic awareness of labour market; job search skills;

• context factors: personal circumstances and the labour market


A Broad Approach to Employability

• INDIVIDUAL FACTORS

• PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES

• EXTERNAL FACTORS

AND THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THEMSee:McQuaid, R.W. and C. Lindsay (2005) “The Concept Of Employability”, Urban Studies,

Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 197-219.

Also in: McQuaid, R.W., Green, A. and M. Danson, joint editors, (2006) Employability and

Local Labour Market Policy, Routledge, Abington and New York (ISNB 0415375959)


INDIVIDUAL FACTORS

• Employability skills and attributes

Essential attributes

Personal competencies

Basic transferable skills & Key transferable skills

High level transferable skills

Qualifications

Work-knowledge base

Labour market attachment

• Health and well-being

• Job seeking

• Adaptability and mobility


PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES

• Household circumstances

Direct caring responsibilities

Other family and caring responsibilities

Other household circumstances

• Work culture

• Access to resources

Access to transport

Access to financial capital

Access to social capital


EXTERNAL FACTORS

• Demand factors

Labour market factors

Macro-economic factors

Vacancy characteristics

Recruitment factors

• Enabling support factors

Employment policy factors

Other enabling policy factors


Workshops Questions



• How do different agencies handle How do different agencies handle employability policies?employability policies?



Conclusions

• Meanings of the term vary considerably, but what is important is

that we are clear what we mean in a particular case, rather than

squabbling about the ‘right’ definition

• Employability of different segments of the labour market is a key

issue

• A broad approach offers useful potential policy and theoretical

insights

• Danger that it loses some of meaning due to breadth – so need

to be careful

• Local policy interpretations?


Workshops Questions




• So what? Are there implications for So what? Are there implications for the Skills Business network?the Skills Business network?


Contacts

Employment Research Institute

Napier University

Craiglockhart Campus

Edinburgh EH14 1DJ

http://www.napier.ac.uk/depts/eri/home.htm

Telephone: +44 (0)131 455 4310

e-mails: [email protected]

[email protected]

employment research institute skills and employability professor ronald mcquaid employment research...

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