scholarly journals Vulnerable workers and the demise of adult education in England

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Wallis ◽  
Lizel Nacua ◽  
Jonathan Winterton
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Community Learning ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Socially Excluded ◽  
Vulnerable Workers

PurposeThis paper reviews changing government policy on adult education in England over the past 20 years and the funding regimes affecting adult and community learning and union-led learning, which play a major role in learning opportunities for socially excluded adults.Design/methodology/approachA review and analysis of extant literature, informed by previous involvement in the sector and ongoing collaborations.FindingsTwo decades ago, adult education in England provided a variety of learning opportunities for people who either had limited qualifications or who needed to reskill for whatever reason. Access to those opportunities has been reduced just when it is most needed.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a review and viewpoint paper based on experience in England, the limitations of which are discussed in the concluding section. Notwithstanding the institutional specificities of adult education in England, many of the implications are generic and have wider relevance beyond this country context.Practical implicationsEconomic recovery post-coronavirus (COVID) and Brexit will require more access to adult education so people can prepare for labour market re-integration. The practical implication of extending provision in adult education to support labour market integration of vulnerable workers is relevant to most countries.Originality/valueThis paper takes a holistic view of adult education, with particular attention to adult and community learning and union-led learning.

Vocational bachelor graduates in France: labour market integration and social mobility

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 536-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Calmand ◽  
Jean-François Giret ◽  
Christine Guégnard
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Social Benefit ◽  
Market Transition ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Lower Probability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
Professional Occupation

Purpose – In France, the vocationalization of higher education has resulted in an increase in the number of graduates and created new opportunities. The access of these vocational bachelor graduates to the labour market raises the issue of their professional prospects amid changing economic and social circumstances. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – To provide insights into these issues, the employment situation of bachelor graduates during the first years of active working life will be compared with other tertiary graduates entering the labour market in the same years, using econometric models that estimate the effects of vocational courses “all other things being equal”, incorporating a range of individual characteristics. Findings – Overall, vocational bachelor graduates experienced fewer difficulties in seeking to enter the labour market during difficult economic circumstances. They did not achieve upward social mobility with a lower probability of obtaining a managerial/professional occupation three years after graduation. These results confirm that diplomas continue to play a central and hierarchized role in France. Originality/value – The originality of this paper is to highlight the labour market transition of vocational bachelor graduates during a period of economic crisis, inquiring on the social benefit of this new diploma in France: what were the impacts of the changing economic conditions and influx of vocational bachelor graduates on their labour market transition and their chances of upward social mobility?

The roles of social enterprises in a Swedish labour market integration programme – opportunities and challenges for social innovation

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Kraff ◽  
Eva Maria Jernsand
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
Work Integration ◽  
Set Up

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) in the Swedish establishment programme for newly arrived refugees, and how its set-up affects WISEs preconditions for social innovation. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on a longitudinal and qualitative action research study of a WISE and its work in organising a course for labour market integration, in the context of the Swedish establishment programme. The authors were actively involved in the study as embedded researchers. Findings The exploration identifies a number of roles that WISEs take on in the establishment programme. It illustrates how WISEs hybrid character places participants at the centre of the innovation process, where their opinions and knowledge are considered crucial, and how this positively affects their ability to gain skills and confidence. However, the study also makes visible how issues of coordination between stakeholders in the programme lead to mismatches between course content and participant profiles, colliding activities and sporadic participation. In short, the bureaucracy embedded in labour market integration systems erodes the preconditions of WISEs to foster social innovation. Originality/value The embeddedness of the authors provides in-depth knowledge regarding how complex state systems affect WISEs in practice. Importantly, it also gives insights into the experiences of refugees, a group that is often mentioned in the literature on WISEs, although mainly in passing.

Rendering the hidden visible: subjected to “work on the self” in a local labour market measure

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Sunnerfjell
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Self ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Labour Market ◽  
Local Labour ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Socially Excluded ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to complement the literature understanding present labour market measures as infused by a so-called neoliberal rationality, fostering self-managerial selves by means of self-inspection. It does so by providing a much-needed illustration of how such “work on the self” is achieved in practice.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork tracing the “active society” at the local level, depicting practices aimed at activating welfare clients in a local labour market measure organised in a rural Swedish municipality. Here, the author was offered to undergo a method aimed at enhancing participants' employability. As a result, data consists of ethnographic as well as auto-ethnographic accounts from this experience.FindingsThis analysis shows how destabilisation of subjectivity was central to the remoulding of individuals into employable and self-reliant selves. Moreover, by dispersing responsibility to the individual, it is shown how the organisation was able to refrain from accountability, hence reducing the levels of uncertainty and ambiguity that is part and parcel of people-processing welfare organisations.Practical implicationsThe article concludes with the warning that, in the wake of “local worlds of activation”, municipalities may sometimes draw on questionable assumptions of the human mind and behaviour, as well as the vulnerability of individuals' self-understanding, as a way of managing the “active society” at the local level.Originality/valueThe literature on activation lacks ethnographic accounts depicting concrete practices of turning the socially excluded into active and employable selves. Here, this article offers an illustrating example of such practices in action.

A tool to systematise discrimination in labour market integration

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 567-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Naegele ◽  
Wouter De Tavernier ◽  
Moritz Hess ◽  
Frerich Frerichs
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Analytical Process ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
Five Phases

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discourse on labour market discrimination by introducing an analytical process model that offers a template for the systematic analysis of discrimination within the process of labour market integration. Its usage and contribution to the field is exemplified by applying the proposed model to the case of ageism in labour market integration. Design/methodology/approach Five phases and four actors are distinguished that, added together, compose the proposed analytical process model. In the following, the model is used as an analytical framework for a mapping review, aimed at identifying and critically evaluating the vast and extensive literature on ageism in the process of labour market integration. Findings The paper concludes that ageism occurs in all five phases of the integration process, pinpointing potential areas for policy interventions. Furthermore, the authors conclude that the existing literature on ageism in labour market integration is fragmented, with some elements and/or actors within the process so far having received little attention. Originality/value The analytical process model developed in this paper provides the scientific community with a tool to systematise the literature, detect underlying mechanisms and uncover existing research gaps, not only for the case of ageism presented here, but for a vast variety of other –isms. In addition, policy makers, trade unions and employers can use the model to better target and tailor anti-discrimination measures in labour market integration.

Classifying difference in organizing, or how to create monsters

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 614-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Diedrich
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Job Seekers ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
Validation Procedure ◽  
Empirical Context ◽  
New Perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the operation of classification mechanisms in organizational life, and how they construct the skills and knowledge of initially marginalized client groups. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an ethnographically inspired case study of a Swedish labour market procedure, which was designed to validate the skills and knowledge of non-western immigrant job-seekers. Qualitative data were generated through observations, in-depth interviews and document analysis. Findings – The study found that, contrary to policy-makers’ intentions, the validation procedure ended up dissociating the non-western job-seekers’ heterogeneous experiences, skills and knowledge from the organizing processes of the labour market, displacing them beyond the boundaries of legitimate knowledge, and reproducing their marginalized position on the labour market. As non-western skills and knowledge were found unclassifiable according to the validation procedure, they were deemed too different and monstrous. Research limitations/implications – The research approach and the specific institutional context of Swedish immigration and labour market policy means that the research results are not readily generalizable to other empirical contexts. Therefore, studies outside of Sweden are needed to generate knowledge about similar policies in other countries. Practical implications – The classification of skills and knowledge and the organizing of difference does not primarily require new tools and methods, but a whole new perspective, which recognizes the multiplicity and heterogeneity of unusual skills and knowledge as an important part of labour market integration. Originality/value – The paper examines the monstrous aspects of classification mechanisms within the empirical context of labour market integration efforts, which is hitherto underexplored in the literature on the management of difference and diversity.

scholarly journals The integration of young workers into the labour market in France

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Stephen Bazen ◽  
Khalid Maman Waziri
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Young Workers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Market Experience ◽  
The Unemployed

Purpose Using a representative survey of young persons having left full-time education in France in 1998 and interviewed in 2001 and 2005, the purpose of this paper is to examine the process of their integration into normal employment (a stable job with a standard employment contract) and the extent to which job matches are inefficient in the sense that the pay in a job is below an individual’s potential earnings. The latter are determined principally by diploma level and educational specialisation, although other forms of training and labour market experience are relevant. Design/methodology/approach A stochastic earnings frontier approach is used in order to examine workers’ ability to capture their full potential earnings in labour markets where there is inefficient job matching (due to the lack of information, discrimination, over-education or the process of integration). Findings The results suggest that young workers manage to obtain on average about 82 per cent of their potential earnings three years after leaving full-time education and earnings inefficiency had disappeared four years later. The results are robust to the treatment of selectivity arising from the exclusion of the unemployed in the estimation of the frontier. Originality/value The stochastic earnings frontier is a useful and appropriate tool for modelling the process of labour market integration of certain groups (young persons, migrants and the long-term unemployed) where over-education due to inefficient initial job matches occurs. Over time this situation tends to be rectified as job mobility leads to improved matching and less inefficiency.

Institutional aspects of competence-based integration of retired military officers into the civilian labour market

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vidmantas Tūtlys ◽  
Jonathan Winterton ◽  
Odeta Liesionienė
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Systemic Factors ◽  
Institutional Aspects ◽  
The Military

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight systemic factors of competence-based integration of retired military officers into the civilian labour market in terms of the perspective of the institutions and institutional settings of competence involved in the formation and deployment. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 25 retired military officers in Lithuania. Findings The main institutional problems and challenges of the competence-based labour market integration of retired military officers involve are concentrated in the fields of deployment of skills in the military service, and as well as in the adjustment of acquired skills to the requirements of the civilian labour market. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of the research is the absence of perspectives and attitudes of other stakeholders such as policy makers, employers and providers of education and training. Practical implications Research identified expectations of retired military officers concerning improvement of training and labour market integration services. Originality/value The paper is focused on the institutional aspects of competence-based labour market integration of the retired military officers from their perspective.

Employment patterns and family satisfaction in Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 394-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Böhnke ◽  
Isabel Valdés Cifuentes
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Family Satisfaction ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
Country Comparison ◽  
Cross Country

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between labour market integration and family satisfaction in a cross-country comparison perspective and takes important intervening factors into consideration such as the social policy and flexibility strategy as well as the cultural context of 27 European countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors rely on data from the European Quality of Life Survey 2012 and conduct multi-level analyses using both the one-step random intercept Model with cross-level interactions as well as a two-step hierarchical model. The country-specific framework is addressed with indicators for the level of social security, for external flexibility labour market characteristics, and for the predominant family solidarity norm of a country. Findings The paper provides empirical support for the thesis of social disruption according to insecure labour market attachment. This link is weakened in countries where flexible labour market conditions are accompanied by strong efforts on state-provided social security. High family support norms can only partially compensate a lack of social protection covered by the state. Research limitations/implications The paper reveals the increasing social vulnerability of people who are not or not completely integrated into the labour market. These risks cannot be convincingly weakened by social security measures. To know more about these mechanisms, the link between labour market integration and the quality of family life should be studied in more detail in a cross-country comparative perspective to develop ideas and give advice on reducing the potential insecurity of flexible employment. Originality/value The paper complements previous research by providing empirical findings about the link between insecure labour market attachment and the integration into family networks in a cross-country comparison perspective.

Activated and included? The social inclusion of social assistance beneficiaries engaged in “public works”

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 738-751
Author(s):  
Silvia Girardi ◽  
Valeria Pulignano ◽  
Roland Maas
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
The Social

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss how employment regulations and stigma, arising from working for welfare in “public works”, limit the social inclusion of social assistance beneficiaries. Activation in “public works” is meant for those beneficiaries unable to participate to the unsubsidised labour market because of range of work impairments. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on qualitative interviews concerning the perspectives of social assistance beneficiaries in Luxembourg who work in “public works” activation schemes in exchange for social assistance support. The paper uses an encompassing definition of social inclusion based on the idea of social rights. Findings Access to legal employment status and to social rights are fundamental conditions to foster social inclusion and labour market integration. People in “public works” schemes consider their inclusion hampered by the lack of a legal status that could allow them to access social rights, basic social services and economic life – such as decent housing or access to credit – and the presence of stigma related to working for social assistance. Social implications Ensuring social protection of work and lifting stigma aside labour market integration are key for a social inclusion strategy that could support social assistance beneficiaries’ social inclusion. Originality/value Debate on activation, including that arising from social investment, stress the centrality of labour market integration for social inclusion but does not take into account institutional factors – such as the social protection of work – and stigmatisation practices that can directly undermine the social inclusion of social assistance beneficiaries working for welfare.

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