New Approaches to Employability in the UK
Combining 'Human Capital Development' and 'Work First' Strategies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2114909 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Colin Lindsay (0000-0002-5087-3358, Edinburgh Napier University), Ronald W Mcquaid (0000-0002-5342-7097, Edinburgh Napier University), Matthew Dutton (Edinburgh Napier University) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 539-560 |
| Publication date | 2007-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Social Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0047279407001171 |
| OpenAlex | W2171045795 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 72 |
| References cited | 15 |
This article analyses recent developments in policies to promote the employability of unemployed and economically inactive people in the UK. It discusses the extent to which these policies reflect the dominant approaches of 'Work First', where programmes focus mainly on compulsory job search and short-term interventions to facilitate a quick return to work, or human capital development (HCD), where programmes tailor services to promote longer-term skills and personal development. Specifically, the article reports on case-study research into two recent pilot initiatives: Working Neighbourhoods (which targeted a range of intensive services in neighbourhoods characterised by high levels of inactivity) and Pathways to Work (which combines employability services and cognitive behaviour therapy-type approaches to help clients to manage health problems). While both pilots have retained strong Work First features, they potentially represent a shift towards a more HCD-oriented approach, through the delivery of more holistic 'coping and enabling' services. However, there remain concerns that, as with previous progressive policy initiatives, the positive lessons of these pilots will not be fully mainstreamed. We conclude that, if the UK is to balance Work First compulsion with high-quality services delivering progress in the labour market and HCD, a strengthening of 'coping and enabling' interventions is required, alongside a renewed commitment to training
Active labour market policies · Business · Coping (psychology) · Economic growth · Economics · Employability · Human capital · Political science · Psychological intervention · Public relations · Unemployment · Work (physics) · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Higher Education and Employability · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Retirement, Disability, and Employment
Dinámicas contextuales, recursos individuales y empleabilidad
Welfare Administration and Its Reform
Beyond Social Investment. Which Concepts and Values for Social Policy-making in Europe?
Mapping At-Risk-of-Poverty Rates, Household Employment, and Social Spending
Debating conditionality for disability benefits recipients and welfare reform
Who Benefits from Investment Policies? The Case of Family Activation in European Countries
Reconciling Work and Poverty Reduction
Social Redistribution, Poverty, and the Adequacy of Social Protection
Identifying the Skeleton of the Social Investment State
The Redistributive Capacity of Services in the European Union
Steering with Sticks, Rowing for Rewards
Activation policy
Reconceptualizing sustainable employment
The enabling role of employment guidance in contemporary public employment services
Long‐term ill‐health, poverty and ethnicity
Working With the Whole Person’
In a Lonely Place? Social Networks, Job Seeking and the Experience of Long-Term Unemployment
Some useful sources
Inter-agency Co-operation in Activation
Between cooperation and competition
Conceptualising service integration for inclusive activation
Towards standby‐ability
Learning basic employability competence
The paradox of the social investment state
A capital or capabilities education narrative in a world of staggering inequalities
Beyond administrative burden
The Rights and Responsibilities of Working-Age Sick and Disabled Benefit Claimants in Austerity Europe
Precarious Transitions and Labour Market Disadvantage
“You have to work…but you can’t!”
On ‘Activation Workers’ Perceptions’
Adult literacy practitioners and employability skills
Devolution, social democratic visions and policy reality in Scotland
Women's disconnection from local labour markets
A hand up or a slap down? Criminalising benefit claimants in Britain via strategies of surveillance, sanctions and deterrence
Effects of vocational training on unemployed youths' work motivation and work engagement
Training to raise unemployed youth's work commitment in Tianjin
The quest for sustainable employment
Inter‐agency Cooperation and New Approaches to Employability
Unemployment services for newly arrived migrants in Sweden
The Role of Non‐profit Organizations in the Mixed Economy of Welfare‐to‐Work in the UK and Australia
Changing the culture of social care in Scotland
Work Activation Regimes and Well‐being of Unemployed People
Using candidacy theory to explore unemployed over‐50s perceptions of suitability of a welfare to work programme
A Capability Approach to Unemployed Young People's Voice and Agency in the Development and Implementation of Employment Activation Policies
Local Worlds of Marketization – Employment Policies in G ermany, I taly and the UK Compared
The integration of activation policy at sub‐national level
Employability through health? Partnership-based governance and the delivery of Pathways to Work condition management services
Towards (un)sustainable employment? Exploring policy responses to work-welfare cycling
Creating sustainable employment opportunities for the unemployed
Integrating employment and skills
Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda
A Gramscian analysis of the employability agenda
Remodeling Street-Level Workers With Quasi-Markets
What works? Policies for employability in cities
How and why does relational welfare work to support young people not in employment, education or training (Neet)? A realist evaluation
Social Assistance and EU Poverty Thresholds 1990-2008. Are European Welfare Systems Providing Just and Fair Protection Against Low Income
Reproducing Social Conditions of Poverty
Making markets with active labor market policies
Property and capital in the person
Fit for Purpose? Welfare Reform and Challenges for Health and Labour Market Policy in the UK
Medicalization of unemployment
Identity work and the 'unemployed' worker
Legitimating collaboration, collaborating to legitimate
First step and last resort
Unemployment, sanctions and mental health
Contrasting Supply-side, Demand-side and Combined Approaches to Labour Market Integration
Re-examining British Welfare-to-Work Contracting using a Transaction Cost Perspective
They really get you motivated
Regulating Inflow or Outflow
Welfare-to-work, Agency and Personal Responsibility
Welfare-to-Work and the Responsiveness of Employment Providers to the Needs of Refugees
Equal Rights and Equal Duties? Activating Labour Market Policy and the Participation of Long-term Unemployed People with Disabilities after the Reform of the German Welfare State
'An offer you can't refuse'
The welfare we want?
Administering welfare reformInternational transformations in welfare governance
Ready to work? Understanding the experiences of people with multiple problems and needs
Different routes, common directions? Activation policies for young people in Denmark and the UK
The “Employment‐first” Welfare State
New Deal for Young People
The Concept of Employability
Work First as a European model? Evidence from Germany and the Netherlands
Exporting workfare/importing welfare-to-work
Putting Workfare in Place
Market Means and Welfare Ends
Re-conceptualising Welfare-To-Work for People with Multiple Problems and Needs
| Unique citing works | 72 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2026 (19) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 71 |