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returners. It is built around developing seven pillars of support:
1. Professional flexible roles: quality, professional part-time/flexible jobs within a reasonable commute and/or with opportunities for remote working.
2. Professional work placement opportunities: e.g. the ability to work on a temporary basis.
3. New career direction programmes: providing access to opportunities to retrain.
4. Professional re-entry programmes: e.g. programmes that refresh the skills of qualified professionals.
5. Technical and professional training: e.g. access to technical training to update skills.
6. Confidence, soft skills and career coaching.
7. Signposting to business start-up support.
For example, Capability Jane has worked with the wealth advice firm Towry Law, which takes on six Return to Work candidates at a time and puts them on a structured training programme to become wealth advisers. The six-month training programme runs for three days a week and incorporates classroom teaching, leading to five modules of examinations, in addition to practical work alongside established advisers. The training programme leads to the Certificate in Financial Planning.
Recommendation 74: Professional bodies and professional regulators should encourage businesses in their sector to ensure that they meet best practice in mid-career changes and career interchange routes. Regulators should publish information on how successful professional employers are being in providing more flexible entry and progression routes.
Such schemes have a clear wider benefit to the economy and society. For instance, the evidence suggests:
Re-entry of professional women to the workplace will make a significant contribution to GDP:
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increased women’s participation in the labour market could be worth between £15 billion and
£23 billion or 1.3% to 2.0% of GDP.7
Greater participation by women in the labour market could help to offset the effects of an
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ageing, shrinking population, and hence support growth.8 There may also be an economic and social case for government providing targeted support for such schemes, in order to capture the full benefits.
Recommendation 75: The Government should review how best to support return-to-work programmes for mid-career changes and professional re-entrants, for example through incentives for employers who adopt such schemes early.
9.3 Encouraging more flexible working patterns
We have received evidence highlighting the importance of flexible working patterns for social mobility. A number of arguments have been put to us:
If flexible arrangements are not available, many people will be dissuaded from applying for
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professional positions in the first place.
Without flexible arrangements to balance work and home commitments, it can make it harder
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for many groups – women in particular – to progress once in work.
The evidence suggests that flexible working patterns are important to a significant proportion of professionals – for instance:
Part-time work is a particularly significant part of women’s lifetime patterns of employment,
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with 42% of women in employment working part time.9 While the majority of jobs up to 2014 will be part time,
• 10 those working part time do not always
receive equal training opportunities.11
Over 3.1 million people work from home, of whom 2.4 million are teleworkers.
• 12
We believe the lack of good-quality part-time roles is frustrating for the individual and a personal financial cost. It is also not using the full potential of the workforce and represents an underuse of experience and skills for the economy. Flexible working patterns are important for many people – not just parents with children under the age of 16, who currently have the right to request flexible working from their employers.
In April 2009, the right to request flexible working was extended to parents and carers with children up to the age of 16 (from the previous right for parents and carers with children aged up to 6 years old). These rights need to be balanced with their potential impact on businesses and employers – but in time could be extended to other employees.
Recommendation 76: Once economic circumstances allow, the right to request flexible working should be extended to all employees.
9.4 A new demand-led training system that empowers learners
We have heard compelling evidence that people seeking to progress up the career ladder are faced with a training system that is increasingly complex and inflexible. At the simplest of levels, the current training system means that a classroom assistant who aspires to become a teacher would have to give up work, possibly find childcare, and sacrifice income in order to retrain and then progress. Of course, professionals – and would-be professionals – often need to make such
In the first place, it is highly complex and difficult to navigate:
There are different funding systems for different courses. For example, young people on the
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New Deal or on any government-supported training scheme are not eligible for Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs), whereas young people on Learning and Skills Council-funded courses or in full-time further education courses are eligible.
There is no common standard to recognise the value of different qualifications: for example,
•
some qualifications (such as BTECs) are recognised for university access, while others (such as NVQ Level 3 qualifications) are not.
Secondly, current training regimes tend to be inflexible, as funding is directed towards institutions rather than meeting individuals’ requirements. For instance:
Part-time learners in higher education do not receive as much support as full-time learners:
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part-time students are not eligible for student loan support
Those wishing to follow vocational entry routes are substantially less supported than those
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following higher education routes into the professions: those taking vocational training routes typically receive around £12,000 in course entitlement and maintenance support, compared to over £33,000 for those studying through higher education routes (see figure 9c)
There are fixed eligibility rules by qualification and age. For instance, NVQ Level 2 and 3
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qualifications (such as Apprenticeships) are only funded for those aged under 25 (and who have not already gained an equivalent-level qualification).
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Figure 9c: The financial support that a ‘typical’ student doing vocational and academic training might expect to get13
This may explain why vocational qualifications have much lower levels of take-up in the UK than do traditional academic courses (see figure 9d).
Many aspiring professionals would benefit if training and professional qualifications were more flexible and tailored to their circumstances – for example, those returning to work after a period of time off who may want to change career, or those who need to complete qualifications on a part-time basis.
Women are likely to be particular beneficiaries of a more flexible system.
Our Call for Evidence provided much detail on why a more flexible training system could improve access to the professions.
For instance, in our consultation with the Professional Associations Research Network, a number of professional bodies suggested a widening of accreditation routes and the provision of more flexible support for them.
Respondents also noted that the flexible learning routes currently available to students and professionals need to be supported.
These include e-learning options, flexible accreditation practices, support for part time higher education, and support for mature students to enter or change professions.