Activating work transitions A reflection on the scope of employment advice and guidance in comparati

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Activating work transitions?A reflection on the
scope of employment advice and guidance in
comparative perspective

• Sharon Wright

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Outline

• Research methods
• Context
• Employment/careers information, advice and
  guidance
• Typology of guidance
• What is guidance for?
• Elements of cross-national consensus
• Country-specific approaches
• Illustrations of type-specific outcomes
• Key tensions

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Research Methods

• 36 month qualitative project
• UK
• France
• Spain
• Slovenia
• Case study approach
• Social actor perspective
• User focus - if you need advice, what help can
  you get and what does it do?
• Broad scope skills, lifelong learning and
  activation services

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Our definition

• Employment and careers information, advice and
  guidance services (IAG) for out-of-work adults
  are defined as
• mediating services aimed at increasing the
  employability and the mobility of out of work and
  in-work individuals

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Research Methods

• Phase 1
• Literature and documentary reviews
• Phase 2
• Interviews with policy makers and stake-holders
  (total 145)
• Phase 3
• Interviews with managers, advisers and users
  (total 308)
• www.guidanceineurope.com

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Context

• Employment security ? transition security
• Individualisation of labour market insecurity
• Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)
• Increasingly plays strategic role
• institutional backbone for the enactment of this
  transfer of responsibility to individuals
• encouraging/obliging individuals to subscribe a
  kind of individual insurance policy ( raising
  their employability) against unemployment and
  exclusion

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A cross-national typology of guidance

• What is delivered to whom, how, and what for ?
• access
• status of user
• marketisation and managerialism
• professional characteristics
• territorialisation

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Key Dimensions of IAG Typology
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Guidance Profile, by Country
Mandatory Activation
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What is a successful outcome?

• Employment
• Training/education
• Social inclusion/participation
• Making an informed decision
• Skills, ability and confidence to get and keep a
  job
• Work-ready attitude
• Construction of a professional project
• What the user needs (wants?)

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Diversity of actor perspectives

• Evidence of consistency in the perspectives of
  policy makers, managers and advisers in Slovenia,
  Spain and France
• In the UK, these perspectives were more diverse
• There were a range of examples of divergence in
  the expectations of users and advisers

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What is a successful outcome?

• Overall, a strong consensus that the role of an
  adviser is to motivate the individual
• Distinction between
• Intermediate goals
• Final outcomes

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Country-specific definitions of successful
outcomes for users

• Slovenia
• recognition of wider societal influences on
  personal experiences of unemployment
• Emphasis on wider social inclusion, rather than
  just labour market participation
• Importance of individually-tailored services and
  holistic approach
• Focus on intermediate goals rather than final
  outcomes

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Country-specific definitions of successful
outcomes for users

• UK
• Focus on final outcomes rather than intermediate
  goals
• Concentration on work-first approach
• Spain
• Despite having less emphasis on mandatory
  activation than the other countries, the general
  aim was short or medium term labour market
  placement

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Type 1 Open Resources providing what the client
needs Adviser, UK A successful outcome is when
a user walks out and has got something tangible
in hand Adviser, Slovenia
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Its when youre able to allow somebody, maybe
through a bit of a counselling approach, to
actually open up and start to think and use you
as a sounding board . . .. Its providing
people with this base where they can explore
ideas that in other situations can be cramped by
other peoples agendas. So, youre providing an
impartial . . . setting for them to carry out
this exploration and to arrive at a decision that
is well-formed and researched. Adviser, UK
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• Type 1 Open Resources
• Successful outcomes achieved through
• a holistic approach tailored towards individual
  needs
• Adviser, Slovenia
• empowering and motivating the individual
• Adviser, UK

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Type 4 Mandatory Activation We employ personal
advisers in Jobcentre Plus on behalf of the state
to get people into work as quickly as
possible Policy Maker, UK
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Type 4 Mandatory Activation One of our
weaknesses is that we have not got enough time
for guidance. Actually, I am not sure that is
our job. The heart of our mission is placing job
seekers. Manager, France
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Type 4 Mandatory Activation Somebody who is a
skills coach or a careers adviser is rather more
an advocate of the individual, they are rather
more on the individual's side and helping them to
navigate their way through the system and get
what they want . . ..  I don't think we will
ever get in the position, and I don't think we
should try actually, where the welfare to work
system is actually delivering advice and guidance
to individuals. Policy Maker, UK
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Transforming users towards successful outcomes

• Changing attitudes
• Altering (lowering) expectations
• Facilitating a realistic view of the problem
• Increasing motivation
• Increasing acceptance of individual
  responsibility and preference to work
• Upgrading skills
• Changing behaviour
• To adapt the user to fit the labour market

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Job seekers often do not know what they need.
The advisers work consists in showing them that
their expectations do not match their real
needs. Manager, France
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Front-line advisers mediatekey tensions

• Balancing needs of employers/local labour markets
  and needs of users
• Balancing the needs of users with the reality
  of their situation in the labour market
• Balancing the expectations of users with what the
  service can offer

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Conclusion

• These tensions are negotiated through front-line
  adviser-user interactions
• inter-subjective processes of accomplishment
• All types of IAG aim for users to be more
  autonomous in the management of their
  transitions an exercise in the production of
  the active job seeker

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Appendices
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Table Two Suitable jobs, by country
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Summary of Interviews Conducted, by Country
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Adviser-user relationships

• Different forms
• Watchful proximity
• Recognition of autonomy
• Control and job placement

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Constructions of the user

• Rational partner
• Patient in need of diagnosis
• Product to be adapted to the market