UKCES

Praxis, a new occasional series of policy think pieces, aims to challenge, inspire and stimulate discussion and debate.

Over the coming months the UK Commission will publish a series of articles authored by a variety of employment and skills experts, and we hope that these will provide a starting point for further discussion and exploration. Over time our website will develop to offer a space in which our readers can join this debate.

Professor Francis Green argues that job quality should be a policy priority, and warns that during a recession, the quantity of jobs can receive a disproportionate focus. He argues that improving the quality of work in the UK will both improve the lot of individual workers, and make positive contributions to productivity and therefore recovery. His paper explores whether job quality in the UK is rising or falling, how it compares internationally and how public policy can affect the quality of work in the UK.

At a time where the effects of recession and global economic forces are increasingly being experienced at a local level, Dr Anne E Green makes a plea for recognising the importance of sub-national policy in our second paper ‘Geography Matters’. She argues that employment opportunities vary in different places and that this geographical inequality is made worse by the lack of physical mobility demonstrated by the most disadvantaged within these communities.

In this paper, McQuaid, Lindsay and Johnson explore the policy implications of this research and construct a policy framework shaped around the key barriers to learning faced by adults working in the UK. They argue that in order to effectively engage the UK workforce in lifelong learning there is a need for better quality and integrated information, advice and guidance and financial support; flexible provision; and a greater use of peer-based support systems.

The UK’s policy response to globalisation centres on building a highly skilled population and competing in higher value market places: this is not enough. The UK needs to move beyond a ‘national-centric view of the world’ and to place a greater emphasis on active demand side policy that engages with employers and focuses on job creation, job quality and labour supply.

More adults engage in learning at work than anywhere else, and given that businesses with fewer than 25 workers account for over 90% of all employers in the UK, both the quantity and quality of the training available is of critical importance.

An increasing number of individuals work in ‘networked’ organisations’ where the boundaries between, and hierarchies within, organisations are challenged as a result of outsourcing, subcontracting and collaborative working. As a result the nature of the employer/employee relationship is increasingly ‘complex and ambiguous’, with implications for people’s experiences of employment, skills, training and careers.