Transcript Main presentation title goes here.

Can Apprenticeships save the city? The
civic struggle to achieve social and
economic goals
Alison Fuller, Sadaf Rizvi and Lorna Unwin
LLAKES Conference, Senate House, University of London,
18-19 October 2012
City regeneration – multiple aims
From the 1990s onwards, evolved to encompass three agendas
(Hall 2002):
•urban renaissance (physical and environmental)
•social inclusion (improvement of the social conditions of
deprived neighbourhoods)
•economic competitiveness (productivity and innovation)
Thus, regeneration requires complex co-ordination due to the
involvement of multiple ‘stakeholders’
2
Reconciling goals through Education and Training
• Longstanding tension between pursuit of diverse goals at
different geographical scales – including level of the city
• Apprenticeship increasingly being used as an instrument of
policy to pursue multiple agendas
• Development of partnership-based responses at local level
• Two cases of city-based innovative partnership approaches
to using apprenticeship
Partnership Approaches at city level
• Partnership-based approaches increasingly used as
instrument of national, regional and local labour market
policies and for urban regeneration
• To address social exclusion, unemployment and
competitiveness
• To ‘deliver’ local labour market strategies, to improve
community social, economic and environmental ‘wellbeing’
• To build workforces more representative of the local
community
Apprenticeship as an evolving model of learning
and vehicle for change
• Two cases:
• Public Sector employer-led partnership – improving life
chances for disadvantaged young people, equity and
diversity in workforce, community well-being (city on
English South coast)
• Urban regeneration – vehicle for employer buy-in and
social cohesion (city in North West of England)
Our Research
• Interviews with key informants representing all parts of
partnerships (including city council, Job CentrePlus,
employers, funding agencies, education and training
providers)
• Interviews and focus groups with apprentices, in one case at
start, during and after completion of their programme
• Interviews with workplace managers and supervisors
Role of Education and Training in the
Regeneration of Urban Landscapes
• Regeneration begins as attempt to ameliorate effects of
deindustrialisation – then the 3 agendas emerge:
• Urban renaissance – physical & environmental
• Social inclusion – deprived neighbourhoods
• Economic competitiveness – productivity, innovation,
national goals
• All involve education and training
Cleaning Up ‘Alcohol Alley’
“There was a massive issue about a blight in the area, that’s
why these housing sites ended up being cleared, and I don’t
think I could appreciate fully how bad it was, because when I
arrived - I worked here in 2006 - some of the terraced houses
were still here but they were getting fire bombed and
damaged and everything, and it was horrific apparently. For
people living in those communities at the time, they obviously
had to move on because they (houses) were getting sold on,
people were leaving the area because they didn’t have jobs,
(houses) getting bought by private landlords or other
interested parties and then sold on, and then just not being
looked after. And that saw the decline in terms of those key
communities.” (Regeneration Officer)
Using Planning Powers to Secure
Apprenticeships
• Local authorities 2 key ‘weapons’ in battle to maintain
influence: planning and procurement
• Planning includes statutory power plus ‘softer’ levers (see
Fuller et al, 2010, on www.llakes.org.uk)
• Council provides ‘free’ land to developer to build 400
houses to be sold at relatively low price
• Developer must recruit 2 construction apprentices from
local NEET young people and ensure 10% of workforce on
site is local
Apprentice as Beneficiary
• Robert, 18, previously unemployed for six months after
college course. Connexions identified him and helped him
prepare for the test and interview.
• Supervised by site manager and subcontractor. Attends
college once a week -visited in workplace by assessor from
training provider. Subcontractor carries out a three monthly
review for the developer. Developer also monitors progress
Like I’ve got a good career behind (me), so if
anything happens you’ve obviously got a
career, but I thought I’d go higher like don’t just
want to do joinery, I thought I’d go up, step it
higher, do you know what I mean, my own
business or people working for you.
Its good because it’s (in the) local area and that
and it just helps other people to see like you’re
learning. Kids can do it, do you know what I
mean, it’s not just all about on the streets and
that. It shows that local lads can do stuff.
Skills Funding Agency and
National Apprenticeship Service
Manchester City
Council
Connexions
Training Provider
Apprentice
The College
TP Construction
Unit
Sub contractor
Developer’s
Head Office
Developer
Who are the beneficiaries?
• Developer selling houses (tough in current climate) +
satisfying its corporate social responsibility + ‘growing skills
for the sector’
• Local young men have jobs (for now) + locals have better
housing
• City Council able to reduce its NEET list
• College has more students
• Alcohol Alley gets cleaned up
Theorising the value of partnerships
• Social capital theory helps explain the (un)likely
sustainability of partnerships – the value that inheres and
has grown in the social relations of the network, trust,
reciprocity, mutual engagement around collective LOCAL
goals
• The leverage of local authorities and capacity of
partnerships to secure new sources of funding is critical to
the sustainability and expansion of new forms of
apprenticeship scheme and generation of social, economic
and environmental outcomes.
• Importance of ‘linkages’ (Woolcock 1998)
An employer-led partnership
• An employer-led partnership in a large city in the
south of England – 4 public sector employers,
Chief Exec level
• City Council, University, NHS hospital trust, NHS
primary care trust and Job Centreplus, Learning
and Skills Council
• Our focus is on the partnership’s apprenticeship
scheme
The apprenticeship scheme
• To provide FT, fixed-term 12 month employed-status
apprenticeships (Level 2) in Health and Social Care, and
Business Administration in the 2 participating employers
• Target group unemployed 18-25s eligible for support from Future
Job Fund (min. wage, 25 hours a week for six months)
• Supported recruitment and application process including preemployment training, assessment centre and taster days
• Training and qualifications associated with sector frameworks
leading to possibility of permanent employment on completion
Purposes and concept
• An ‘action-oriented’ approach to address local employment, skills and
social issues: “we were interested in how did you get action happening
on the ground that would make a difference” (KI1)
• Social and economic goals: “in terms of actually the economic and
social regeneration of [city], we needed …to support this as a major
employer” (KI2)
• High involvement: “we all took a mutual responsibility for developing
the employment and skills escalator right from entry level jobs and
moving people who are economically inactive into work, right the way
through to high level…GVA skills that would attract inward investment
and wealth.” (KI3)
Rationale for the Apprenticeship scheme
• Recognition that apprenticeship as a route to skills and
employment can improve life-chances and community wellbeing:
“[employers] could work with partners to raise that
[educational attainment] a part of social justice…we can
improve people’s education, they [apprenticeships] would
get them potentially opportunities into work, which would
reduce the pressures of other things such as housing needs
but also in health needs.” (KI4)
Recruiting ‘non-standard’ applicants
• Standard criteria include sector relevant work/employment experience
and reasonable educational attainment
“…if you look at all of our person specifications, they all ask for a logical
and consistent working career history, which most of this group of
people don’t have…” (KI4)
• Mitigating the risks (funding and workplace buy in)
“…bit of resistance at middle managerial level to do this from a risk
perspective. What the FJF money allowed…we can bring in additional
resources to help you do this… What they got were people they weren’t
expecting to get. Because on paper they may have been weak, but in
reality were generally very willing to learn and keen to actually do a
good job (KI5)
Key Features
• Partnership reflects public sector employers’ social and
economic interests (skills, workforce diversity,
responsibilities to local community, in health of local
community)
• Importance of employer involvement in all aspects of
scheme from concept to implementation; contributions in
kind and direct funding of (part) salaries
• Working with the grain of government policies and funding
opportunities – partnering with Job Centreplus and Skills
Funding Agency to lever funds and resources
Apprenticeship as source of change
• Lots of small-scale initiatives + greater aspiration required
• Local authorities key to urban improvements – act as ‘hubs’
– planning and procurement are powerful levers
• Apprenticeship provides framework for development of
skills + identity + maturity
• BUT – must be good quality – bad experiences quickly kill
off initiatives
‘linking social capital’
• ‘Top-down resources and bottom-up capacity
building need to be in a dynamic and cooperative
relationship in order to assemble the range of
people and materials capable of overcoming
problems or to take advantage of opportunities.’
(Woolcock 1998: 185)
• Importance of vertical and horizontal ties
24