Minimum and preferred entry qualifications and training provision for British workers

Miller, Linda; Acutt, Bruce; Kellie, Deborah

doi:10.1111/1468-2419.00157

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A study by Miller, Acutt, and Kellie (2002) questions the proposition that employers are either recruiting workers with qualifications or they are training them within the firm. Their survey of UK employers found that for most occupational groups those who recruited without qualifications were also less likely to subsequently train.…”

Section: Recruiting Qualifications?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recruiting for fitness: qualifications and the challenges of an employer‐led system

Lloyd

2008

Journal of Education and Work

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Current UK skills policy is centred on the need to drive up qualification obtainment and make the system more employer-led with Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) being given the role of articulating the 'voice' of employers. Through a study of recruitment and selection processes in the fitness industry, this paper explores employers' attitudes to existing qualifications and whether their skill needs are being identified by their SSC. It also considers the broader implications of an employer-led system. The research is based upon interviews undertaken in 17 gyms, focusing on the occupation of fitness instructor. The findings reveal that managers adopt a wide range of approaches in how they recruit, train and value qualifications in the labour market. Although qualifications in this sector are important, the over-supply of 'qualified' workers means there is little incentive for most employers to tackle low wages or improve opportunities for training and development.

show abstract

Section: Recruiting Qualifications?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recruiting for fitness: qualifications and the challenges of an employer‐led system

Lloyd

2008

Journal of Education and Work

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In some communities, a significant proportion of the employment opportunities available may be low paid, casualised and insecure, locking families into a low pay/no pay cycle and recurrent poverty (see McQuaid, Fuertes, & Richard, 2010;Metcalf & Dhudwar, 2010: Ray, Hoggart, Vegeris, &Taylor, 2010Shildrick, MacDonald, Webster, & Garthwaite, 2010;Tomlinson & Walker, 2010). Entry into these jobs is often via recruitment and selection processes that afford limited importance to qualifications (see Atkinson & Williams, 2003;Bates, Gifford & Johnson, 2008;Bryson, James, & Keep, 2012;Bunt, McAndrews, & Kuechel, 2005;Jackson et al, 2002;Miller, Acutt, & Kelly, 2002;Newton, Hurstfield, Miller, Page, & Akroyd 2005;Shury, Davies, Riley, & Stansfield, 2008;Spilsbury & Lane, 2000;UKCES, 2012). Moreover, the emphasis some employers place on recruiting on the basis of soft skills may work to the disadvantage of those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, as the soft skills being sought are often a proxy for class attributes (Payne, 2000;Warhurst & Nickson, 2001).…”

Section: Reality Fights Backmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inequality – ‘wicked problems’, labour market outcomes and the search for silver bullets

Keep

Mayhew

2014

Oxford Review of Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years concerns about inequality have been growing in prominence within UK policy debates. The many causes of inequality of earnings and income are complex in their interactions and their tendency to reinforce one another. This makes inequality an intractable or 'wicked' policy problem, particularly within a contemporary context in which many of the established policy responses from previous eras are at best discussed in muted terms and more normally deemed to be unavailable. This reflects the eclipse of 'equality of outcome' models and the concomitant rise of 'equality of opportunity' as the new policy mantra from Thatcher onwards. As traditional policy responses have withered, the role of education and training as a 'silver bullet' that can address a host of economic and social challenges has come to the fore. This article outlines policy makers' beliefs that improving the educational attainment of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds can enable them to compete more effectively for elite jobs, and also that increasing the supply of educated employees can transform the level of demand for skills from employers. These beliefs are then critiqued, with reference to occupational congestion, over-qualification and the evidence that skills supply does not always create its own demand.

show abstract

“…This tends to be caused by two reasons: many of the social and generic 'skills' required by employers are uncertified; and the formal skill levels needed in many lower-end jobs are often limited (see Miller, Acutt, and Kellie 2001;Newton et al 2005;Bates, Gifford, and Johnson 2008;Shury et al 2008). The widespread use of informal methods of recruitment and selection, such as word of mouth recommendation or work trials, further serves to weaken the role and impact of qualifications (Keep and James 2010a).…”

Section: Recruitment Selection and The Wage Effects Of Vqsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bermuda triangle of policy? ‘Bad jobs’, skills policy and incentives to learn at the bottom end of the labour market

Keep

James

2012

Journal of Education Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A focus of Government policy has been the need to ensure that those at the lower end of the labour market invest in their human capital through re-engaging with learning, which has been assumed to enable progress into better-paid employment. This article explores the problems created by 'bad jobs' and the evidence for the existence of a set of mutually reinforcing factors that reduces the incentives acting on individuals in such work, and in many cases their employers, to participate and invest in education and training. Each of these factors, on their own, would be sufficient to cause problems at the lower end of the labour market. Acting in concert, as a mutually reinforcing matrix, they produce powerful reasons why many individuals perceive that the incentives to engage in workrelated learning are weak. More broadly, our argument suggests that the fundamental causes of low pay and low-quality employment have been misdiagnosed and the subsequent public policy solution of up-skilling interventions is relatively ill-fitted to achieving the desired policy goals. Imaginative re-thinking on how policy might help those in low-wage, dead-end jobs is necessary.

show abstract

Minimum and preferred entry qualifications and training provision for British workers

Cited by 11 publications

References 8 publications

Recruiting for fitness: qualifications and the challenges of an employer‐led system

Recruiting for fitness: qualifications and the challenges of an employer‐led system

Inequality – ‘wicked problems’, labour market outcomes and the search for silver bullets

A Bermuda triangle of policy? ‘Bad jobs’, skills policy and incentives to learn at the bottom end of the labour market

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About