B A R B A R A P O C O C K , N ATA L I E S K I N N E R , D E B O R A H G R E E N, C AT H E R I N E M C M A H O N & S U Z A N N E

P R I T C H A R D

N C V E R W E B I N A R , O C T O B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 0

C E N T R E F O R W O R K + L I F EU N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H A U S T R A L I A

Work/Life interaction, skill development and utilisation in

Australia

Acknowledgements

Co-researchers: Natalie Skinner, Catherine McMahon, Deborah

Green, Jude Elton, Suzanne PritchardNCVER funded project

National VET Research and Evaluation Research Program

‘Increasing VET participation amongst lower paid workers over the life-cycle’ 2008 – 2010

Australian Work & Life Index (AWALI) Funding partner: SafeWork SA, WA Government Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project

Overview

1. The research2. The context

The work, household and educational circumstances of workers and students in lower paid occupations

The work-life picture in 2010

3. Low paid workers, work-life issues & VET1. Key findings 2. Implications for policy & practice

Centre for Work + Life (CWL)

National Research Centre – UniSAMission: To be the place to go for reliable research about the

changing nature of work and its intersection with household, family, community and social life in Australia.

Aims: Generate innovative ideas about work & life to

improve wellbeing Inform and support evidence-based policy Disseminate ideas & information to government,

NGO, research and public audiences

Who we are

Why work-life issues & low paid workers?

Paid work

Community

Home Life

stage

Space

Time

Power

Macrosystem Labour law, education policy,

welfare, migration, social norms, etc.

Individual

Project aims and research questions

‘Work-life lens’

How do changing work, home and community structures impact on the participation of lower educated and low paid groups in VET; and what responses are appropriate?

Are there unique work-life barriers & supports that impact on low paid workers’ willingness & capacity to engage in education & training?

Project team

Multi-disciplinary: Industrial relations Labour economics Sociology Psychology Government policy and administration History

Multi-methodologies Quantitative Qualitative Iterative conversations with experts

Project methodology: overview

Key components:1. Literature review2. Analysis of existing quantitative data:

HILDA, NCVER Student Outcomes Survey, ABS data

3. New quantitative data collection: AWALI 2009

4. Qualitative data: focus groups/interviews non-residential aged care, retail and food

processing industries

5. Qualitative data: stakeholder interviews Government NCVER, industry skills councils, businesses,

unions, academics, VET educators and equity/social inclusion specialists

In OECD, substantial proportion of labour market – 25% in US (and rising), 22% in Germany, 14% in Australia (depending on definition: if include youth and part-timers – 25%).

Literature suggests: Individual aspirations vary over life-course, by sex, age AND institutions matter

Eg the conventional institutions of IR - minimum wage, industrial tribunals, workplace arrangements

But also social norms around care and social reproduction (who should do it), and the money, time and gender regimes in which people put together jobs, education, household and community life

Context: the issue matters, institutions matter

Three kinds of regimes

Inclusive (eg at present Denmark) ie the work, education and social institutional mix creates positive outcomes for

most and is broadly inclusive regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, occupation, industry or form of employment. Minimal opt outs arising from, for example, being part-time, or a carer or a casual

Dualist (eg Germany) At least two tracks exist – most commonly a good track for the full-time, care-free,

full-time, permanent, male, with past positive educational experience, and poorer tracks for others

Exclusionist (eg US) Market-based exclusionary: market power buys inclusion, and approximates

success. Many excluded from good employment, work/life and educational outcomes.

Not fixed or static, but ‘path-dependent’Australia’s ‘Fairness’ norm creates good platform for constant

institutional innovation to create and recreate an inclusive system

To summarise the ‘narrative’

Some individualised adaptions to changing work, life circumstances... Like part-time work, periods out of work to rear children, casual

termsResult in low pay...And in exclusion from quality jobs, careers, quality VET...This reinforces long-term low pay...So a circuit of work/life/care/low pay is created, and

shapes VET access and its outcomes In some cases (eg poorly targetted training subsidies), aspects of

VET provision reinforce and recreate low pay, with minimal real learning outcomes or pay-off in terms of higher pay or better jobs.

We can do better....Better institutional arrangements?

Context: circumstances of low paid

Small companiesPrivate sectorWomen, part-timers, casuals, young people, lower skilledIn service sectorFor most, not a transitory life-stage

Low paid and VET

Major client group of VET2/3rds of 2007 VET graduates were employers in

lower paid occupations in the 6 months before training (eg in non-managerial, non-professional, non-trades/technical)

Especially women (80% of VET graduates, 55% men)

2/3rds of VET graduates from lower paid occupations Do not move into a different occupational skill level after

training Do not receive higher pay after graduation

Major VET driver: compliance with workplace requirements

Literacy

Half or more of adult Australians have ‘below adequate’ literacy in each literacy domain prose, document literacy, numeracy and problem solving

Strongly associated with low pay workers with poor literacy are 2.15 times more likely to be

low paid for each type of illiteracy Very damaging to women’s earnings Cast a long shadow over the ‘skills to learn skills’.

The work-life context

Measured using AWALI

Random stratified survey of about 2800 employed Australians 2348 employees, 344 self-employed (2009)

CATI (RDD) survey; 50% response rateRepresentative of the Australian labour forceData collected March/April 2009Standard items: social & employment

demographics, work-life interferenceFull NCVER report for 2009:Skinner (2009). Work-life issues and participation in education

and training.

Work-life index – work-life interference

5-item scale Work interference life/community activities Work restrict time family/friends Time pressure Overall satisfaction WLB

Standardised scale 0 (best) – 100 (worst)Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) = .82

Who is negatively affected and how many?

Work negatively impacts on personal, family and community life for the majority of workers For ¼ of workers this is often or ‘almost always’ the case

The same groups of workers continue to have the worse work-life outcomes Long hours workers Women (comparing men and women working same hours) Professionals and managers Those with supervisors and workplace cultures that are inflexible and

unsupportive Those in poorer quality jobs (insecure, low control, low flexibility) High and low paid (comparing those working same hours)

Combining work & care continues to be challenging

Working mothers rushed and pressed for time

Those in service industries also worse

Working fathers not immune

Time is of the essence ...

Little appetite for longer hours for most

Around half of all workers do not have a good fit between actual & preferred hours

Many workers want to work less (by 4+ hours) 32% of women 40% of men

Full-time 35-47 hours: 46% of women & 34% of men

48+ hours 72% of men & 77% of women

A ‘poor fit’ between actual and preferred hours is associated with much worse work-life interference for those who work more than they prefer

What about low paid workers?

Low paid occupations: clerical and administrative community and personal services sales and service production and transport machinery operators and drivers labouring and related occupations

Low paid income: $< 30 000 pa

NCVER Occasional Paper:

Pocock (2009). Low-paid workers, changing patterns of work and life and participation in vocational education and

training.

Low paid workers:

Exist at the intersection of work-life and employment challenges

Poor quality jobs reduce opportunities for good quality of work-life: Insecurity lack of career paths and training unsocial hours repetition and low skill common experience of ‘churning’ between low paid

jobs, punctuated by periods of unemployment lack of time and money

Work-life pressures for low paid

Lower paid workers are more likely to be working in smaller firms less HR capacity, policy, flexible practices?

Poorer conditions less leave (like paid parental leave)

Only a quarter of women in private sector employment had access to any paid parental leave, compared to three-quarters in public sector (2005). Those on lower wages had less access.

Less resources to ‘cushion’ work-life pressures Pre-prepared food, formal childcare, cleaning, gardening, car Spatial alignment of job/home/services more constrained – big

stretch between job and home in big cities. long commutes, less access to private transport resources

AWALI 2009: Education & training focus

16 questionsMix of open-ended & fixed response

optionsTopics:

Current qualifications Current & expected future participation (and level) Reasons for participation Perceptions of future participation

barriers & supports

Terminology: ‘education & training’

Work-life outcomes of participation

Participation increases work-life interference for: Low paid workers participating in education and

training And more than for higher paid workers who

participate

Low paid occupation Higher paid occupation

Participating Not participating Participating Not participating

All

Adjusted for hours 48.6 40.0 44.6 45.2

Men

Adjusted for hours 46.2 36.0 39.7 42.7

Women

Adjusted for hours

51.0 44.0 49.5 47.6

Work-life challenges of low paid work

“I changed from a job of 21 years of rotating shifts, day and night, 12 hour shifts and you’d get every second weekend off but you worked every second weekend……... Therefore you miss out on a lot of what your kids do …... You’d race home in the morning and go and watch them play footy. Then they say, when are you going to come home tonight? But you can’t just push them aside, you’ve got to try....”

Max, food processing worker

work-life penalty: women

Future participation?

75.7% not studying at time of survey

Of these, 51.3% “not at all likely” to participate in next 12 months

E&T is viewed positively

% of workers not currently in education or training

Employer provide support Training provide rewards 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

61.858.3

65.6

58.257.5 58.4

All %Men %Women %

Not enough time for E&T

% % %All Men Women

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

67.863.6

72.7

% of workers not currently in education or training

E&T not fit with family & other life commitments

% % %All Men Women

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

54.9 53.3 56.6

% of workers not currently in education or training

What to do?

+

40% wanted help with

financial costs

20% want more time

% of all workers (in E&T or not)

Question: What are the main things for you about participation (in VET) in the future?

“I’d say financial. I’m trying to pay off a house and cars and things like that. Every cent counts. That and the time factor. I work about 45 hours a week at the moment and that’s pretty ongoing so by the time I get home and cook some tea and collapse in a chair. Even if I had that work to do I’d be too tired to do it, as much as I’d want to.”

Sally, retail worker in SA

Motivations for training shaped by

Work-life context (job, care, household, health...)Life-course stageRegulatory requirements of jobEmployers attitude to and support for trainingPrevious educational experiencesLiteracy and numeracyEducational pedagogy and support (pastoral care

vital)Potential returns on investment in education –

LOW!

Learning, ‘good jobs’ and power41

Kelly, 19, hardware store, timber specialist ‘I’m not sure if I’m supposed to but… [when] I’ve cleaned

everything I’ll just sit down and I’ll just get my product knowledge up there and I’ve done [every possible on-line course]: forklift driving, gardens, barbeques, special orders, tiles, roofing, everything that’s there’.

Learning, ‘good jobs’ and power42

‘I had a gentleman the other day, wanting some timber cut and I’d only just recently learned how to use the docking saw. And he goes ‘Isn’t there enough males here to do that?’ And I go ‘Well, that’s why I learn, so I can do it’. He goes ‘Oh well, it’s usually the males’. I’m like ‘Well, I’m here. Do you want me to do it or not?’ And I did it and finished it, and it was all done. Sometimes I like getting those customers just so I can stick it to them’.

Factors that work against participation

In VET: Fees and costs Time to travel to VET Poor quality teaching Course content that does not relate directly to job Absence of ‘wrap around’ support (e.g. counselling) Lack of computer literacy or equipment Poor literacy or numeracy

Factors that work against participation

At work: $ reward for learning (ROR) Lack of learning opportunities in paid work time Training not linked to job Casual or part-time employment Employers who do not support training Long working hours Lack of quiet study space Lack of access to on-line learning

Factors that work against participation

At home Dependent parents/grandparents/other Dependent children Long commutes Slow internet, no internet Poor transport options No/poor household technology (e.g. computer) Unaffordable, inaccessible, low quality care options

Factors that work against participation

In community: Community activities that take time Community that is not supportive of training or

advancement ‘why would you do that?’

Poor technology (e.g. Computer, web, libraries) Poor transport

Factors that work against participation

Across domains Poor spatial alignment of work/family/community and

VET Poor transport options (cost, timing, regularity, no cars) Limited local educational opportunities (e.g. VET, uni) Poor local facilities (esp. libraries, education, care) Poor technology hardware (e.g. computer) Slow internet, no internet

Skill utilisation

30% have skills that exceed those needed in their jobs, esp vocationally qualified (rather than degree) workers (Linsley 2005; Cully et al 2006, Watson 2008)

Why are they underutilised? A problem? For whom?Explained by

life-course stage (older, tired, can indulge interests more) household situation (need money NOW, can’t shop around for job) Personal health (burn out, injury) Don’t want the stress (of management, professional job) Not right jobs available Qualifications not recognised (overseas, or manager resists) Inflexible job conditions (IT example)

What to do?

Implications for policy & practice

1. More say for workers about their training Eg ‘learning accounts’ attached to an individual

and that are portable between jobs

2. Workplace learning representatives1. To give voice and ensure greater relevance

3. Community-based resources and support4. Workplace cultures around training

1. ‘Food x’ and ‘Food y’; ‘Retail x’ and ‘Retail y’

5. Study leave or ‘education sabbaticals’6. Higher, fairer rates of return for skills

http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/default.asp