The Comparative Effectiveness of Different Delivery Frameworks for Training of the Unemployed

Abstract

This article examines the in uence of institutional funding arrangements on different forms of training provision for long-term unemployed people, relating the ndings of ve case studies to earlier debates on the evaluation of labour market programmes. It con rms and extends previous criticisms of output-related funding, and shows how the nature of nancial incentives for training providers may affect the balance between skills training, job search support and work experience and also the additionality of job outcomes. Evidence is derived from comparing training organisations nanced by the output-related funding system (ORF) associated with the Training for Work programme (TfW) and the input-based funding system used by the European Social Fund.

Local Economic Development Initiatives and the Transition From Training and Enterprise Councils to New Institutional Structures in England

“…This was partly the legacy of the period when the TECs were established, which was characterized by a priority to reduce high levels of unemployment (Bennett et al ., 1994;Huggins, 2000a). However, the output-related funding mechanism used by TECs was also blamed for causing provision to be driven by the provider rather than the learner (Felstead & Unwin, 2001;Gray, 2000).…”

Conditionality and the Financing of Employment Services – Implications for the Social Divisions of Work and Welfare

“…Financing providers on the basis of employment outcomes has implications for the type of services provided to unemployed groups, and the extent to which those services address the needs and interests of particular groups. An emphasis on employment outcomes has been found to encourage providers to focus on types of provision which are more likely to enhance the attainment of these outcomes, involving a shift away from education and training, such as language courses, vocational training and work placements, towards job search provision (Dockery and Stromback ; Felstead ; Gray ). Within the former Action Teams for Jobs programme in the UK, funding on the basis of employment outcomes was perceived by private providers as incentivizing them to get a participant any job, regardless of whether or not it was the most suitable job in the medium to long term for the participant, or something in which he/she was interested (Casebourne et al .…”

“…Financing providers on the basis of employment outcomes has implications for the type of services provided to unemployed groups, and the extent to which those services address the needs and interests of particular groups. An emphasis on employment outcomes has been found to encourage providers to focus on types of provision which are more likely to enhance the attainment of these outcomes, involving a shift away from education and training, such as language courses, vocational training and work placements, towards job search provision (Dockery and Stromback 2001;Felstead 1998;Gray 2000). SOCIAL POLICY & ADMINISTRATION, VOL.…”

Welfare-to-Work and the Responsiveness of Employment Providers to the Needs of Refugees

“…Second, these performance measures have been found to encourage providers to orient their services to finding the ‘fastest way into work’ for service users (Struyven, 2004), with implications for the type of services that are delivered. An emphasis on job outcomes in employment-related training programmes funded by the former Training and Enterprise Councils (TEC) in the UK led to the provision of types of training oriented towards a limited range of jobs in which these outcomes could more easily be achieved (Felstead, 1998; Gray, 2000). In the case of TEC programmes targeted at minority ethnic groups specifically, this incentive structure encouraged providers to focus on placing minority ethnic participants in work in the short term, rather than assisting participants to acquire skills and qualifications, which might have greater impact on improving employment outcomes over the long term (Ogbonna, 1998).…”