Sustainable employment: supporting people to stay in work and advance, thirteenth report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence

This report examines the reasons why people are unlikely to stay in work; the contribution which education is making to improving employability; and whether employment programmes reflect the needs of business and local markets. Although the UK has high employment levels, many people have difficulty staying in work. Of the 2.4 million Jobseeker's Allowance claims made each year over two-thirds are repeat claims. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills have been slow to develop suitable shared objectives and targets for sustained employment. The DWP has used 13 weeks in work as a yardstick for sustained employment, but it now accepts that this measure is too short. The Government has set targets to be achieved by 2020: 95 per cent of adults to achieve functional literacy and numeracy skills (the levels needed to get by in life and at work) and 90 per cent to achieve a first full Level 2 qualification (equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C). The Departments hope to achieve these goals by introducing skills screening for benefits recipients, relaxing rules that restrict access to training provision for people on benefits, promoting better integration and take-up of pre-work and in-work training, increasing government funding for basic skills training, and launching a new Skills Account to give adult learners greater choice and control over learning. Through Skills Accounts, learners will be able to purchase, using public money, relevant learning at an accredited, quality assured provider of their choice. Around a third of employers do not invest in training, although the number of employers who say that they are training their staff has increased slightly. People with the lowest skills are the least likely to be trained by their employers.