We need to change our approach to workforce development, says IOE Professor

The Changing Work Centre, a joint initiative from the think tank Fabian Society and the trade union Community, have launched a report that places workers as the focus for industrial strategy.

‘People Power: Building an Industrial Strategy with Workers at its Heart’ is a collection of essays by 12 experts and MPs proposing workforce-centred policies to improve the UK economy.

The report's foreword states that, in the last decade, both productivity and pay have stagnated, and inequality has grown as certain regions, towns and cities feel the effects more acutely. 

In order to tackle these three interrelated challenges, The Changing Work Centre’s report calls for shifting the focus of industrial strategy towards workers themselves as the key drivers of economic success.

In her essay ‘Better Partners’, Professor Unwin advocates a partnership that brings together businesses, government, trade unions and education and training providers. Together, these groups can develop bespoke and adaptable development programmes that meet the needs of employers and employees alike, and that in turn contribute to inclusive industrial growth.

Top-down, ‘one-size-fits-all’ policies, on the other hand, have had "limited impact on skills and productivity, sustained rather than challenged poor quality and deadweight training, and left many employers out of the conversation or as passive ‘customers’ of training products", according to Unwin.

Many employers, Unwin continues, are constricted in their freedom to invest in workforce development because of bureaucracy, external regulations or short-term cash flows. They may also struggle to appreciate the long-term benefit of training workers because they are busy ‘firefighting’ on a day-to-day basis, or are confused by complex and inconsistent policies on the matter. 

But partnerships can help employers to identify the most suitable training options and the steps needed to harness the potential of their employees.

Perhaps most radically of all, she contends, government will have to adopt a more active role in removing barriers to partnership and supporting employers in workforce development – for the good of the entire nation.

Lorna Unwin is the Professor Emerita (Vocational Education) at the IOE and an Honorary Professor at the Centre for Research on Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES).

Links 

• Professor Lorna Unwin 
• People Power: Building an Industrial Strategy with Workers at its Heart
• LLAKES
• Department for Education, Practice and Society