On Making Education and TrainingMore Responsive to the needs of the local Labour Market

JobTown Learning Module n. 2May 2014

This document has been written by Ian GoldringLead Expert of the JobTown URBACT network anddirector of ProjectWorks association, withcontributions from:

Lucy Pyne, from the OECD Local Economic andEmployment Development (LEED) Programme

Simon Harper, Training & Development manager,Port of Tilbury (UK)

Matthias Vogelgesang, from the EconomicDevelopment Agency WFK, Kaiserslautern(Germany)

Hans-Jürgen Sponhauer, Division Manager ofLabour Market and Integration, and Andrea Gräbel,Jobcenter Kaiserslautern

Monika Hackel, Federal Institute for VocationalEducation and Training –BIBB (Germany)

Rita Petry, Division Manager of Vocational Training,Chamber of Skilled crafts and Small Businesses ofPalatinate (Germany)

The partners of the JobTown URBACT network

Contact the author at iangoldring@gmail.com

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About this Learning Module

1. Skills-related issues

2. International overview of approaches to building and matching skills

3. Skills – The Employer’s Perspective

4. Mentoring

5. Youth Employment Agency – ‘all under one roof’

6. The German VET System

7. Transfer of the Dual Education System

8. Concluding remarks

Table of contents 3

JobTown is a network of 11 localities across Europe, co-financed bythe European URBACT programme for promoting sustainable urbandevelopment.The JobTown network believes that youth unemployment, poor employment and inactivity need to be understood as structural problems pre-dating the economic crisis (though severely worsenedby it), and as such must be treated by systemic approaches.The network understands efforts for the creation of youthemployment and opportunities, and local development strategies, asultimately two sides of the same coin.In keeping with the URBACT approach, each JobTown locality hasestablished a Local Support Group, as a basis for developingsustainable Local Partnerships.http://urbact.eu/http://urbact.eu/en/projects/active-inclusion/jobtown/homepage/

About this Learning Module4

This Learning Module is the second of a series of5 Learning Modules to be produced by theJOBTOWN network, each one dealing with one ofthe following themes addressed by the network:• Developing effective models of

cooperation1

• Making education and vocational educationand training responsive to the needs of thelocal labour market

• Matching employment and demand byimproving analysis and forecast of labourmarket evolution and needs

• Entrepreneurship - support for businesscreation and development, self- employment

• Social economy and resource management:Innovation and how to do more for less.

This topic – Making Education and Training MoreResponsive to the Labour Market – is the subjectof JobTown Second Transnational Workshop, heldin Kaiserslautern, Germany 16-17 October2013. This publication builds on the contents ofsaid Workshop, and is also informed byNovember 2013 ‘New Skills and Occupations inEurope: Challenges and Possibilities’ WinterSchool, organised by the InGRID2 project and theCentre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) inBrussels3.

So why this topic?

In a nutshell, it’s about the seemingly paradoxicalphenomenon – encountered to various degreesand in different ways throughout Europe –whereby young people without jobs coexist withemployment positions going unfilled.

Clearly, too many young people have pooremployment experiences and prospects,stemming, in no small part, from training andeducation that doesn’t adequately equip themto succeed on the labour market and in jobseeking. Consider the OECD diagram below,neatly summarising the main factorscontributing to rising youth unemployment –among which skills, guidance and educationissues figure largely.

And of course, large scale youth unemploymentand poor employment is – aside from anobvious problem (think scarring and hysteresis,depression, stifled adult autonomy, and so forth)for those young people directly affected – asocietal and economic problem, affectingcapacity for growth, innovation, thesustainability of public finances, and a longetcetera.

1 The first Learning Module focused on developing effective local partnerships for the advancement of youth employmentand opportunity – How to evaluate partnerships effectiveness, How to structure a partnership, etc. – and can bedownloaded in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek, Polish and Hungarian fromhttp://urbact.eu/en/projects/active-inclusion/jobtown/news/?newsid=1216

2 https://inclusivegrowth.be/about-ingrid 3 http://www.ceps.be/

Caveat:

There is debate aplenty around the role andrelative importance of supply or demandfactors, in creating and in recovering from ourcurrent economic and employmentcircumstances. That debate won’t be settledhere, or even addressed, except insofar as itseems obligatory to point out a risk that has tobe kept in mind.

That is, much of the problem underlying thecurrent situation clearly has to do with demand –a fundamental lack of it. By extension, manymeasures and policies based on improving supply(e.g. education and training) – when the problemis one of demand and has perhaps becomestructural – could have limited potential forimpact; they might be essentially positive ineffect, but lack the calibre to be ‘game changers’.

Such a consideration must be taken on board, notin the sense of discouraging the taking of action,but rather:

• As part of better identifying which actionsmake most sense, in one’s own specific localityand situation.

• To temper expectations, particularly for theshort-term.

Cautionary statement made, it remains self-evident that education and training are linked toemployment prospects and employability, andthat a skills base is one of the determinatefactors for any business or growth strategy.

So why Kaiserslautern, Germany?

It was no coincidence JobTown held itsTransnational Workshop on ‘Making Educationand Training More Responsive to the Labour

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Taken from the OECD LEED programme’s presentation at the October 2013 JobTown Transnational Workshop(‘YP’ = ‘Young People’)

Market’ in Germany, which is an obviousreference in linking education, training and theworkplace. In particular the German DualEducation System is well regarded as an effectiveapproach, and is receiving a lot of attention in thecurrent environment, as many countries – inreaction to the economic crisis, but also tolonger-term shifts in demand and paradigm – aretaking another look at how they doapprenticeships and vocational education andtraining (VET).

Furthermore, the city of Kaiserslautern itselfprovided a particularly conducive setting for theregenerative aspirations of the Workshopparticipants. Kaiserslautern is a city that haspulled itself from an old and decaying economicmodel to a new one with a more promisingfuture; in the past the city was run down, had apoor image and depended on outdated industrialactivities, and now the place is visiblyregenerated. Kaiserslautern has become anattractive city with a much healthier economyand labour market – now much more based on ITand knowledge intensive businesses.

‘Seeing is believing’, and a concrete example ofa real city coming from a situation which wasfrankly not so good, and succeeding in remakingitself into happier circumstances is obviouslyencouraging to others, particularly at a timewhen the morale of many is challenged.

So what’s in the following document?

• A review of key skills-related issues andconcerns, and the primary arguments as to theimportance of the skills

• An overview of different approaches to skillsbuilding and matching – largely taken from theOECD LEED programme’s internationalresearch.

• A selection of insightful cases and effectivepractices taken from within the JobTownnetwork

• An overview of VET practice and the ‘DualSystem’ in Germany and the possibilities fortransferring said system.

• Some concluding remarks, drawn from thewhole, on what works.

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1. Skills-related issues

Competition, growth, jobs, recoveryBusinesses depend on an adequate skills supplyto stay viable, to compete and to grow.

The following on ‘Why Skills Matter’ is quoted(with minor editing) from a presentation, madeat a February 2014 JobTown Workshop, inRennes, France, by Kieran Ferran, of OxfordEconomics (founded by Oxford University’sbusiness college), an international firm specialisedin advisory on economic forecasting andmodelling.

Why skills matter:

• Skills are the 21st century ‘raw material’ ofadvanced economies

• Globalisation and growing competition fromemerging economies – advanced economies

must compete on skills to stay ahead, cannotcompete on costs – emerging countries arecatching up fast on skills

• Free movement of labour in Europe –countries and regions are competing

• New growth sectors are increasingly skills‘hungry’

• Skills are important for economic rebalancingand export-led growth

• Skills are an important location factor forinward investment

• Skills are vital for R&D and innovation

• More highly skilled economies have higherGDP per capita and productivity

• More highly skilled individuals earn higherwages and are more likely to be employed

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EU Policy prioritiesIn terms of European policy, improving skills andcombatting skills mismatches and failure ineducational and training pathways to work isfundamental – to Europe 2020 goals forincreasing the active population, more innovationand R&D, improving educational outcomes andreducing poverty.

Self-evidently, the issue is key to any sustainablerecovery from the ongoing economic crisis andany credible attempt to keep the EU competitivein a globalised world.

Furthermore, establishing and implementing anEU quality framework for Dual Education andapprenticeships is a self-declared Commissionpriority.

DemographicsThe simple fact that Europe is aging is widelyknown, however the nature and impact ofdemographic change is complex:

• Age structure varies a lot across Europe. E.g.In Germany the aging and projected reductionof the workforce (unless immigration can andis allowed to mitigate it) is quite significant –less in France, and still less in Poland.

• In of itself, a shrinking workforce puts anupward pressure on wages; all things beingequal wages should go up, and tax revenuewith them4. Of course, other factors do comeinto it – e.g. Italy and Poland have shrinkingdemographics but no correlating wagegrowth.

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4 Hilmar Schneider (director CEPS-INSTEAD, Luxemburg http://www.ceps.lu/) et al, ‘The Consequences of DemographicChange on Labor Demand, Wages and Social Security Systems in Europe’, presentation of November 25th 2013, atCentre for European Policy Studies, Brussels

• Many, not immediately obvious, socio-cultural factors affect demographics – e.g.gender, spouses tend to retire together,leading to women on average retiring a year ortwo earlier than men5.

• The damage to productivity inflicted by ashrinking active population can potentially becompensated, to some degree, by the risingskill rates of the younger workforce.

• Targeted EU labour mobility – i.e. internalmigration of EU citizens with the right skillssets – emerges as an obvious possibleapproach to bridging skills gaps; one in whichthe revised Eures European job portal wouldlogically seek to play a role. However, thepotential impact of such internal shifting of EUpopulation is limited, as skills shortages areoften repeated in the same sectors acrossEurope. This inadequate internalcomplementarity logically shifts attention tothe possibility of immigration from outside theEU.

• Migration is a wild card affectingdemographics; any predictions, of its futurenature and scale, are likely of dubiousreliability.

Inequality and polarisationWhile not a simple or homogeneousphenomenon, growing inequality, and labourmarket ‘polarisation’, seems to be a trend acrossthe developed world.

Michael Ta°hlin, of the Swedish Institute for SocialResearch (Stockholm University)6 charts out thefollowing key characteristics of this generaltrend:

• Youth employment has strongly declined inseveral countries in recent decades

• Anxiety over future prospects among Swedishyouth are found to be rising

• The gap between core and ‘marginal workers’(e.g. youth and migrants) keeps growing.

• Recessions lead to permanent losses indemand; with each recession, full employmentseems to decline, even after ‘recovery’.

The panorama painted is one where the wagespread – and thus inequality – between thehigh and the low skilled only grows. The futurescenario evoked is one of many low skilled jobscontrasting with a more fortunate layer of highskilled positions, and a shrinking middle.

However, this simple image complicates whenone digs – as does Tomas Korpi, also of theSwedish Institute for Social Research (StockholmUniversity)7. He has graphed data that shows afairly stable skills demand picture over the last 15years in Europe. Generally he finds a sort of humpin the middle, with demand tapering down onboth sides for high skilled and low skilled people(see chart below) – i.e. the bulk of jobs are stillvaguely at a middling skill level.

For young people too, he finds little shift in thelevel of skills demanded, though for the youngthe ‘hump’ is more to the left, meaning a greaterpreponderance of lower skilled, lower autonomyjobs.

It’s possible this relative stability disappears whena longer-term view is taken – i.e. that thepolarisation is taking place but slowly. Whateverthe case may be, there are significant variables inskills demand and conditionalities to consider:

• There can be significant variation acrosscountries, and even regions.

• Trends for ‘Polarisation’ (more highs and lowsin skills demand) and ‘Upskilling’ (generalraising of skills levels) vary greatly by sector.

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5 H. Schneider, ibid6 M. Ta°hlin, “Why is youth employment falling? A comparative analysis of skill matching and labor demand in Europe”,

presentation of November 25th 2013, at Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels7 ‘Changing skill requirements - fact or figment?’, presentation of November 25th 2013, at Centre for European Policy

Studies, Brussels

• Employment and poverty don’t correlateclearly; even when unemployment was lower,EU poverty rates still stayed rather flat8. Thiswould seem to indicate lots of working poor,or a stable population just not accessing work(e.g. from workless households, etc.), orperhaps some combination thereof.

• ‘Over-education’, ‘over-qualification’, ‘skillsdemand inflation’ – perhaps difficult conceptsfor many to accept. However, consider:

- The rising share of low-skill jobs occupiedby high-skill workers9.

- Education levels are widely rising morestrongly than employment levels, whichcould indicate many people are ‘over-educated’ or have followed a mistakeneducational path to work.

- Young people studying as a second choiceto having a job; in many cases it is a weaklabour market that drives education, notdemand for educated labour. In such cases,rising education levels become an indicatorof labour market dysfunctionality, notprogress.

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8 E.g. see: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tessi012&plugin=1 9 M. Tahlin “Why is youth employment falling? A comparative analysis of skill matching and labor demand in Europe”,

presentation of November 25th 2013, at Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels

Tomas Korpi (Swedish Institute for Social Research – Stockholm University), ‘Changing skill requirements - factor figment?’, presentation of November 25th 2013, at Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels

– The ‘hump’ more to the middle, in the second graph, indicates lower average levels of job complexity foryoung workers than for the general average (above). The trend is fairly constant over time.

Dual education system• Across Europe there are statistics showing

long-term rises in education surplus– i.e. evermore educated people who areunemployed or overqualified for their work.

• In Germany and Denmark however, levelsof deficit and surplus in demand and supplyof educated workers remain fairly stable (theline for ‘gap’ stays relatively flat, see graphbelow) – i.e. education is consistently betterlinked with employment in these countries.Both of these countries practice the ‘Dual

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M. Tahlin (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University), “Why is youth employment falling?”,presented Nov. 2013, CEPS, Brussels

* Ed = education/supply, occ = occupation/demand, gap = gap between skill supply & demand

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• Problem: Establishing a Dual System can only bea long-term project (though it is perhaps agood one); it can’t be a short-term solution forEurope’s immediate youth employment problems.

Education System’ (see chapter 6 below onthe German VET System) and it would seemcredible that this differential is part of anexplanation for their differing performance.

M. Tahlin (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University), “Why is youth employment falling?”,presented Nov. 2013, CEPS, Brussels

* Ed = education/supply, occ = occupation/demand, gap = gap between skill supply & demand

2. International overview of approaches to building and matching skills

• Strong contacts with employers

• Bringing together employment agencies,career advisors, education and training bodiesand industry

• Horizontal links across sectors via ‘careerclusters’ at a local level (see example)

Good practice example, ‘Career Clusters’:

• In the United States the Department ofEducation through a career clusterinitiative, mapped job profiles across entireindustries so learners and workers couldsee how different careers interact.

• Within each career cluster there are severalcareer pathways from secondary school tocollege, graduate schools, and theworkplace.

• Maryland started working on careersectors and clusters in 1995 so as todevelop programmes extending from highschool to colleges, universities andbeyond.

• 350 business executives in ten differentsectors were brought together to informeducation policy makers about theirbottom line – how they made money andwhat they needed to be successful.

• Cluster Advisory Boards were set uparound each cluster to advise on what skillswere needed in each, and build educationalcurricula around these.

See:http://www.oecd.org/industry/Local%20Strategies%20for%20Youth%20Employment%20FINAL%20FINAL.pdf

Andhttp://skills.oecd.org/useskills/documents/careerpathwayandclusterskilldevelopmentalocalcasestudyfromtheus.html

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10 See LEED’s mission: http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/

The JobTown network has enjoyed the support ofthe OECD’s Local Economic and Employmentdevelopment (LEED) Programme10 inidentifying case studies and best practicerelevant to its goals and concerns. Most of thefollowing section on ‘Approaches’ is taken from orbuilt upon the inputs we received from the LEEDprogramme in support of JobTown’s secondTransnational Workshop, held in Kaiserslautern,Germany, October 16-17 2013.

i) Career guidance, pathways andladders

Good career guidance from an early age is criticalin helping children and young people think aboutcareer options.

Common problems:

• Budget cutbacks

• Teachers without:

- Relevant experience and training

- Knowledge of local/regional/national careeroptions, growth sectors and routes toemployment,

- Contacts with local employers

• Guidance coming too late, when youths arealready set on a career path

• Education systems that do not provide workexperience opportunities.

What works:

Essentially, solutions revolve around goodknowledge and advice that is easily accessible,and variations upon better connecting andcoordinating among the key actors concerned.E.g.:

• Detailed advice on careers, salary,qualification requirements

• Services available online

• Employment services working closely withschools

ii) Working with employers and stimulating demand

While admitting the necessary proviso thateducation is about preparing people for life, notjust work – education clearly does need tounderstand the world of work and equip youngpeople for it. Put starkly, an education erodingone’s life chances and which is a path todemoralising life experiences of poor or failedinclusion into the labour market is ipso facto nota good education.

So, education and training need good linkageswith the world of work and employers – whichcan be a challenge to achieve and/or maintain.

Common problems:

• Employers are not involved in the setting ofschool & training curricula, and not consultedby education or employment policymakers

• Young people without useful skills – largenumbers of unemployed or underemployedgraduates with skills not matching available jobopenings

• Young people lacking basic generic skillsrequired for any workplace

• Employers eager to blame ‘the system’ for notproviding ready for work job candidates, andnot being willing to invest in training theiremployees

• Qualification inflation

• Talent flight

What works:

• More creativity in looking at young people’squalifications – particularly from highereducation. Translating graduates’ skills andcompetences to match the needs ofemployers. Helping young people to thinkmore broadly about their qualifications andwhere they could lead

• Helping SMEs to better identify theirrecruitment needs

• Bodies that effectively mediate betweenemployers, education providers, employment

centres, government and other relevantcommunity groups

• Designing training programmes on the basisof successful outcomes (i.e. graduatesfinding employment), not previous course signup rates (i.e. popularity)

Good practice example, ‘Reverse Marketers’:

• In Australia there are people known asreverse marketers. These are people whoactively market job seekers to potentialemployers where vacancies haven’t beenadvertised and who refer jobseekers intothese jobs.

• While not uniquely about working withyoung people, the practice stimulatesdemand for labour and can createvacancies and match people to these.

• It’s in the best interest of marketers andtheir long-term credibility, to market theappropriate candidate for the job, so themarketer is disconnected from thejobseeker (who only has direct contactwith an employment consultant) to make itless likely that they’ll push an unsuitablecandidate, due to personal sympathies.This also serves to strengthen theirbusiness connections.

See:http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/Local%20Job%20Creation%20IRE%20-%20Draft%20Final%20Master%20-%20FINAL.pdf

iii) Specialized assistance for disadvantaged youth

Groups like ‘young people’ or ‘NEETs’ encompassa vast range of different people andcircumstances; tighter differentiation isnecessary for any meaningful or operative actionto be taken.

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Common problems:

• Disadvantaged youths are less likely to usemainstream services

• Employment and guidance services areresource intensive

• Causality involves a wider range of problemsthan just employment – there can be multiplebarriers

• Success can be hard to demonstrate

What works:

• Specialised and targeted assistance

• Holistic approach to overall life circumstances

• Adult figures who understand the youth’sbackground and who have faced comparableproblems

Good practice example, ‘Bladerunner’:

• In British Columbia, Canada, theBladerunner programme is a highlytailored support programme for youngpeople with multiple barriers toemployment who have left home, leftschool early and don’t have the skillsneeded to look for or stay in work.

• Participants do a 3-week training course,which then facilitates job placements, withthe ultimate goal of long-term integrationinto the labour market.

• The important adult figure is theBladeRunner co-ordinator, who generallycomes from the community and has facedsimilar problems. This figure brings theparticipant to work, introduces them andacts as troubleshooter, while also linkingthem to other social service providers.

• There is a strong emphasis on 24/7 (24hours a day, 7 days a week) support, for aslong as needed.

• Evaluation of outcomes indicates success.

See:http://www.oecd.org/industry/Local%20Strategies%20for%20Youth%20Employment%20FINAL%20FINAL.pdf

iv) Non-formal educationand job search

Fortunately, learning doesn’t only take place inschools.

However, there are challenges to taking thefullest advantage – particularly in terms of jobsearch – from:

• Non-formal (organised, non-class-basedlearning – ‘learning by doing’, etc. – typicallywithout certification) and

• Informal learning (learning from life itself –i.e. from one’s various experiences andactivities).

Common problems:

• Young people don’t have developed networks,through which to find out about unadvertisedjobs.

• Youths often do poorly in the interviewprocess, and other aspects of the job seekingprocess

What works:

• Job search assistance is the most cost-effective way to get the more job readyyoung people into work – e.g. workshops onCVs, how to contact employers, etc.

• Youth work and organisations are effective inbuilding important generic (or ‘soft’) skills andin strengthening social networking

• Validating skills acquired non-formally andinformally, and teaching youths to identifyand explain such skills to employers.

Good practice example:

The Belgian ‘C-Stick’ system consultedemployers on what generic skills they needand value and shows young people how toidentify and describe, in a structured wayrecognised and understood by employers andjob centres, the skills they have acquired non-formally and informally.

See: https://www.salto-youth.net/downloads/4-17-2316/InclusionThroughEmployability.pdf?

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3. Skills – the Employer’s Perspective

An example of an employer’sperspective – The Port of Tilbury, aJobTown stakeholder

As an employer, the Port of Tilbury’s presentand future depends on a suitable skills base inits local population – in Thurrock, UK. Thefollowing outlines their approach to buildingand replenishing that base, and what theyhave found – through practical experience –to work best.

The Port’s position is that ensuring a good supplyof skills is all about local partnerships andcollaborative approaches. Accordingly, all theprogrammes they are involved with are deliveredin partnership.The port is vital to the local Thurrock economy.More generally transport and logistics, as asector, is a cornerstone of both the local andregional Essex economy; it already employs aconsiderable part of the population and isgrowing strongly.The predominate pattern is one of local peopledeveloping their skills as they work their way upwithin the company; 55% of the port’s seniormanagement started on the shop floor at thePort, and are local residents.Accordingly the Port of Tilbury puts a lot intolocal outreach, by working with schools,colleges, charities, and offering internships, workexperience placements and employment to localpeople.The company also lobbies central government –pushing its ‘Skills Agenda’, which advocatestraining that is:

• Demand led and scalable• Guaranteed High Quality• Accessible• Adaptable• Value for Money• Commercially Sustainable

Key problems this employer faces: • Transport and logistics, as a sector, suffer

from lack of attractiveness, at both lower

and management levels. Thus there is adifficulty in getting the needed talent andemployees. This is a fundamental problemencountered throughout Europe, regardingthe trades and technical careers.

• The skills needs of the sector are graduallyincreasing and evolving, staff will need up-skilling and multi-skilled profiles. Conversely,too much of local population is low skilled andhas a culture of low educational attainment.

• The business faces a fundamentaldemographic problem; the workforce is agingdramatically and the company suffers a lowintake of replacement labour. Not enoughyoung people are entering the sector, whichcoupled with an ageing workforce could leadto crippling labour shortages in the future. Thedata:

- 10% of the workforce is aged 16 -24 years

- 49% is 25-44 years

- 41% is 45 years and over

Comparable dynamics are found throughoutthe sector, and to varying degrees throughoutEurope (notably, the impact of demographicson the economy and labour market is alooming problem in Germany’s foreseeablefuture).

• UK companies do not work enough withcolleges and universities to address skillsneeds. Offer, programming and coordinatingneed to improve. The figures and problems:

- Only 16% of British logistics companies useFurther Education colleges for teaching ortraining – the all sector average is 28%

- Universities are only used by 5% oflogistics companies.

- 57% of companies use local or specialisttraining providers.

- There is a generalised lack of coordinationin logistics education among schools,colleges and employers.

- There are not enough Further and Higherlogistics education facilities in Thurrock; thedeficit is projected to last till 2021.

- Content is inflexible and does not meetemployers’ needs.

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- Delivery is inflexible and does not matchthe needs of an operation that functions24/7 all year round.

- Time and bureaucratic delays for deliveryof new qualifications.

- Inadequate training facilities andtechnology.

- Inadequate quality of training.- Lack of funding for non-mandatory

vocational qualifications. - Education and training offer is driven by

supply factors (existing personnel,materials etc.) – over demand.

Example initiatives by this employer,addressing the above problems:

Thurrock Skills ProgrammeTo deliver the programme, the Port of Tilburypartners with:• Thurrock Council (municipal government)• Jobcentre Plus (central government’s

employment support services)• National Skills Academy Logistics• Ixion Holdings – part of Anglia Ruskin

UniversityMain figures:

• 7 cohorts of Pre-Employment Training,have been delivered (as of October2013) to local job seekers – referred byJob Centre Plus.

• 100% of participants have successfullycompleted the programme and obtainedthe warehousing qualification.

• All participants are guaranteed a jobinterview with a Port employer at the endof the programme, and 85% have thusfar been offered jobs at the Port.

• From the first wave of graduates, about45% are still in steady employment at thePort – i.e. and no longer on Job SeekersAllowance. As part of any evaluation ofthis success rate, the above figure has tobe compared with the 3.6% successrate of the UK government’s current‘Work Programme’ (figure refers to2013) in getting people off benefits andback into work. Admittedly, government

could probably argue that the comparisonbetween the two programmes is not asstraightforward as that (variousextenuating factors, complexity of cohortentering programme, etc.); even so, thestarkness in the different outcomescannot, be ignored.

Port of Tilbury Logistics Traineeship:The Logistics Traineeship seeks to: • Equip young people to participate in

apprenticeships and pathways to qualityemployment

• Build the skills base for the transport andlogistics sector.

The Port partners with:• Thurrock Council • UK National Apprenticeship Service• UK Chartered Institute of Logistics and

Transport (CILT)Traineeships last a maximum of six months andprovide:• Work preparation training, e.g. interview skills

and CV writing• Support to improve literacy and maths skills• A high-quality work experience placement – 6

weeks to 5 months

Other Port of Tilbury programmes:• Higher apprenticeships in International

Logistics – developed with Anglia RuskinUniversity and Ixion.

• Supply chain Management qualifications • Mandatory Qualifications: (non-funded)

such as Licence Acquisition, and a range ofspecialised vehicle operator certifications.

• Pathway Qualifications: such as Supply ChainManagement (developed with DHL andGlaxoSmithKline), various apprenticeships, andqualifications in Leadership & Management orTechnical and Safety matters.

• Vocational Frameworks: Traineeships,Advanced and Higher Level apprenticeships,Foundation degrees etc.

For more info: Simon Harper, Training &Development Manager, Port of Tilbury,simon.harper@potll.com

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4. Mentoring

Mentoring, the practice of which is widely on therise, is effective at inculcating skills andcapacities, and at improving employability andinclusion – and this has come to be a widelyaccepted view. For example, the SecondEntrepreneurship Barometer (produced by EY andthe G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance11 argues:

• Mentorships are a way to expand and facilitatepeople’s networks.

• Mentorships and informal training areinvaluable to entrepreneurs, andentrepreneurs rely on such networks ofmentors, contacts, and associations.

• Mentoring should be provided along withcapital. Capital without mentorship is lostcapital.

• Mentoring is easier to facilitate whenparticipants are in close geographic proximity– i.e. it is a particularly suitable approach forlocal level initiatives and actors.

Aside from the, widely recognised, benefit of thispractice for the ‘mentee’, there is a dimension ofbenefit to the mentors themselves, and tosociety as a whole.

For instance, mentors frequently describedrawing a sense of fulfilment from performingsaid role, perhaps contributing to self-esteem, afeeling of connectedness and so forth. There canbe active aging-type benefits – e.g. in caseswhere retirees mentor the younger. Moregenerally, by stimulating and validating the valueof volunteering, mentoring as a practice cancontribute to the vitality and valorisation of civilsociety. These two-way or collateral benefitsshould be included in any consideration of thevalue and worthwhileness of setting up amentoring programme.

An example of civil society centric mentoring

Kaiserslautern, Germany (whose university is amember of the JobTown network) offers anexample of an approach to mentoring whichrelies on local civic engagement.

The programme – ‘Mentoring Young People forEntry into Professional Life’ – has beenfunctioning there since 2003, and is interestingas a mix of civil society and public sectordrivers. It is jointly run by a partnership made upof the city’s Economic Development Agency,volunteer groups and church groups.

The mentors themselves – there are usuallyaround 15 or so of them active at any given time– are a varied group; they range from youngprofessionals to people past retirement age,some have quite academic qualifications andsome come from the trades.

While the contributors are volunteers, they areclear about the need to follow professionalstandards and practices. For example, there is acontinual revision of the kind of support that isgiven, with a view to keeping up with changinglocal circumstances (new labour market demandsetc.), and adapting to whomever is providing thementoring. The intention is to keep the systemflexible and operative

Evaluation is straightforward and transparent;the mentors set targets that are compared, inmonthly meetings, with the actual outcomesachieved.

The mentees are taken on visits to companiesand/or are familiarised with further education.Much of the thrust of the actions is aboutstrengthening mentees’ networks, connectionsand general ability to access services, institutionsand suchlike.

The approach is quite personalised; the principleis that each young person taken on has a nameand his or her own story. These youths are oftenhigh-risk profiles – long-term school failure,institutionalised upbringing and so forth.

The programme and its practitioners –particularly the volunteers – are motivated by amoral insistence that these young people are notto be left behind by their own society.

Information and contact:www.arbeitsmarktmentoren.de

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11 http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Services/Strategic-Growth-Markets/The-EY-G20-Entrepreneurship-Barometer-2013

5. Youth Employment Agency – ‘all under one roof’

“The different services that deal with youngpeople, and professionals with diverse expertiseconcerning young people, all need to coordinatetheir activities and, ideally, come together todevelop a holistic plan around individual youngpeople. Such a combined approach has theadvantage of considering the different facets ofa young person and of efficiency… reducingoverlap, repetition and waste... Such an approach also has the advantage ofinfluencing change in how the different servicesinvolved work”– Goldring and Guidoum, Inclusion ThroughEmployability – Key Approaches in Youth Work,SALTO Youth Inclusion Resource Centre,December 2010Kaiserslautern’s ‘Youth Employment Agency’offers a straightforward example of such a localapproach to integrating different services aimedat the same young people. Following an ‘All UnderOne Roof’ policy, the Job Centre, theEmployment Agency and the Youth WelfareOffice were all brought together into a singlefacility.Doing this has indeed afforded the practitionersinvolved a more holistic and complete – and thusmore effective – understanding of the youngpeople they are working with, and allowed for amore efficient use of resources.Now, the agency functions as a single contactpoint, with two streams – one for over 25s andone for under. Key to how the integrated serviceswork is the internal communication structure; asteering group makes the operational decisions,and there are various working groups, set uparound different themes.

Meetings follow a regular structure, wherebystaff engages in joint meetings and cross-service planning concerning specific cases.Likewise, staff from the different servicesreceives joint training and so forth. The Agencyemphasises that the actions and plans of eachservice are to be transparent to the others.Public appearances and external communicationare done together.Such integration allows services to coordinatepersonalised approaches to specific youngpeople. Primarily, the agency works with youngpeople who are undergoing long-termunemployment or are badly employed (i.e.working poor). The aim is to get them intoemployment, better employment or on a path todecent employment through training – andthereby, to establish their own autonomous, non-dependent lives.The young people concerned typically have no, orquite low, qualifications and ‘multiple placementobstacles’ – e.g. debts, drugs, mental illness,homelessness, etc. The ethos is one of overallintegration, understanding labour marketinclusion as a key element of a larger project –i.e. a holistic view. Accompaniment is intensive and sustained. Social, pedagogical, financial help is demanddriven, adapted and supplied according to eachindividual case – i.e. it’s not a single established‘care package’ or set of packages, but adiagnostic process.Following the logic of a holistic approach, otheractors are brought into the process, as needed– e.g. school services, legal support, addictioncounselling, childcare, etc.

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6. The German VET System

In many OECD countries there has long been aperception that vocational education is ‘lessgood’ education, or a second rate option, interms of career path and life chances. Inaccordance, practices such as apprenticeshipshad widely been left to decline or wereabandoned altogether – being viewed as‘outdated’ and so forth.

However, throughout Europe and North America,there is a broad trend emerging, whereby societyis collectively taking a second look at vocationaleducation and training (VET), and at thoseinstances where VET is still robust and effective.Notably the so-called ‘Dual System’ – aspracticed not only in Germany, but also in theNetherlands, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland –has been attracting a lot of interest.

Accordingly, the following is provided as anintroductory overview of just what the DualSystem is and how it is practiced in Germany(with the following section addresing issuesaround the transfer of the system elsewhere).

Key to the German ‘Dual’ system is that itenables young people to gain the requisite workexperience for entering the labour market, as itcombines paid, in-company work – typically 3-4days a week – with school-based learning –typically 1-2 days a week.

The system is essentially about ongoingtriangular cooperation between companies,schools and government; with government beingthe overseer and driver of the whole process. Assuch:

• National government sets the generalframework and regulates the in-companytraining.

• Regional government regulates the vocationalschools.

In practice, the whole process of cooperation,learning and apprenticeships is deeply embedded

in local labour markets and communities.

Input from employers is fed directly into curriculaand course design. The idea is to guide learning interms of real world job requirements. Likewise,the model – of continuous communicationbetween concerned actors – is meant tofacilitate quick reaction to new developmentsand changing trends.

One downside of this clear ‘real world’connection is that the offer of apprenticeshipplacements in companies rises and falls withswings in the economy; at times there may bemore students than positions available, or viceversa.

The system is meant to be transparent, in thatstandards and requirements for a givenqualification are public and clearly articulated.

The educational approach focuses on continualrevision and a balance of specialist skills,workplace social competences and generalabilities. (See diagram below.)

Companies and schools are responsible forpractical implementation and decide teachingmethods – i.e. the system is flexible and nothighly prescriptive towards front-linepractitioners.

At the start of the vocational training, theapprentice (average age 19 at beginning) signs acontract with the company, stipulating durationof training and probationary period, qualificationto be obtained, vacation entitlement, rights,duties, etc. The contract is registered in therelevant Chamber of Commerce.

The duration of such a traineeship is typically 2-3.5 years.

Multiple pathways are possible. For instance,some students may choose to go throughvocational training as a step towards university;importantly, they are not trapped in only onepossible educational route once they have begun.

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22 7. Transfer of the Dual Education System

While reforming Vocational Education andTraining (VET) is no ‘magic bullet’ for creatingneeded growth and jobs, making VET andapprenticeships work better is clearly an elementof any strategy for tackling youth unemploymentand lack of opportunity.

The Dual System – as practiced in Austria,Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands andSwitzerland – is generally recognised as asignificant contributing factor to those countries’vibrant competitiveness and relative success atincluding young people into their labour markets(i.e. low youth unemployment).

The system is demonstrably effective as a:

• Public-Private Partnership (PPP) forfinancing VET

• Means for keeping National OccupationalStandards (NOS) aligned with the changingneeds of the economy.

For those elsewhere – from Spain to Sweden –interested in acquiring the advantages of theDual System, an obvious question arises: ‘Can itbe copied?’The answer is ‘yes and no.’That is, the German Dual System is a product of ahost of factors too numerous to attempt to listfully, e.g.: German society, history, businessculture, etc. Cloning such a complex ecosystemand attempting to graft it into a quite foreignenvironment is self-evidently a failingproposition.

Essential PrinciplesThat said, the Dual System rests on a set of coreprinciples that – happily – are valid not just forGermans; applying or strengthening theseprinciples is a credible approach to improving anexisting VET system elsewhere:

• Learning through real work in a real workplace

• Cooperation of government, educators,industry and social partners

• Observed national standards• Qualified VET-providers

• A stable research-based advisory systemguiding the practice

The starting point for adapting or reinforcing theabove elements – in any given place – is adiagnosis of the current condition, in said place.The conclusion of this diagnosis will outline whatthe needs and gaps are in that place, and, byextension, what the place’s reforms need to focuson and prioritise.

For example, somewhere with an essentiallyschool-based VET would want to look at how towork a second (i.e. dual) ‘real world’ learningvenue into the programme. They would thenwant to identify and start with the morepromising early adopters – typically a cluster ofadvanced companies who already have aninterest in contributing to, and benefiting from, adualised VET.

A common barrier is employers’ not being familiarwith the system and not understanding whatthey ‘get out of it’. Overcoming this is slow,hence the expediency of starting with earlyadopters.

Available Support

The German Federal Institute for VocationalEducation and Training (BIBB in its Germanacronym, see: http://www.bibb.de/en/) – run bythe German Federal Ministry for Education andResearch – provides a range of services tonational governments and other national bodies(sector platforms, business or training bodies,etc.) outside of Germany, in support of:

• Modernisation of legislative frameworks

• Cooperation between schools, enterprisesand other training locations

• Development and modernisation of standardsfor professions, training and examinationprocedures

• Establishment and expansion of VET research,e.g. early identification of changing demandsfor qualifications

• In-company training staff qualifications

• Organisational development for vocationaltraining and education institutions, and relatedinstitutions

• Development of teaching and learningmaterials

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The BIBB provides such services by coordinatingcontributions from a range of Germanstakeholders interested in internationalcooperation – ministries, social partners,representatives of the Länder, etc. Suchcooperation is handled through the‘International Cooperation and Advisory

Services/Central Office for InternationalCooperation in VET’ (also referred to as ‘section1.2’), of the BIBB’s Department ofInternationalisation of VET and KnowledgeManagement.

For more information:http://www.bibb.de/en/1870.htm

24 8. Concluding remarks

When it comes to making education and trainingmore responsive to the needs of the labourmarket, there are certain commonalities thatemerge about approaches that are successful.

What works:

• Involving employers, understanding theirneeds and building rapport.

• Qualified trainers/educators familiarthemselves with the labour market and itsdemands. Training for trainers and educators.

• Learning through real work in a real place ofwork.

• Locally based approaches. Cooperationembedded in local labour markets andcommunities. Proximity.

• Responding to skills demand by developingand providing training via partnership –among businesses, education and trainingproviders, public administrations and any otherrelevant actor.

• Good advice and information about careerpaths and studies, easily accessible when it isneeded.

• Labour market analysis and forecasting,that is reliable and actionable – i.e. current andabout the local-regional areas citizens moveabout and make choices in, useable by publicadministrations and training/education bodiesto make informed investment and planningdecisions.

• Tailoring to specific young people.Specialisation and personalisation of servicesand approach (e.g. job ready, and not job readyyouths benefit from very different measures).

• Accompaniment that is intensive andsustained.

• Transparency – e.g. among services,regarding who does what, or regardingstandards and what different qualificationsmean.

• Mentoring, and more generally adult figureswho understand a youth’s background andperspective.

• Holistic approaches – i.e. not seeingemployment in isolation (e.g. interconnectedwith social, family, cultural, health issues,dealing with multiple barriers etc.) –coordinating different services that affect thesame young person – involving a range ofstakeholders (e.g. schools, employers, police,health providers etc.).

• Developing training offers on the basis ofoutcome, not course popularity – i.e. avoidinglots of hopeful people signing up to coursesthat get them nowhere.

• Involving civil society, which is win-win,because it helps the target group andreinforces social fabric and generates‘collateral’ benefits – e.g. social connectivity,empowerment, citizenship, self-esteem,active aging, etc.

• Learning to explain skills. Validating skills in away meaningful to employers – all skills:generic skills and specific qualifications,acquired formally, non-formally or informally.

In closing, and in keeping with the final point andthe need to argue and explain well, consider thefollowing video, produced by the GermanConfederation of Skilled Crafts12 to raiseawareness – in a way both trenchant and droll –of the value and importance of the trades andcraft professions.

See here: http://youtu.be/uEr518Mn3E8

12 Video provided courtesy of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts/Zentralverbandes des Deutschen Handwerks eV(ZDH). – ©This video is copyright of the ZDH and may not be used for commercial purposes.The original video, other materials and more information are available at: http://www.handwerk.de/  For audio-videodownloads:  http://www.kampagnenmaterial.handwerk.de/index.php?id=35 For more on the Confederation, see: http://www.zdh.de/en/ 

URBACT is a European exchange and learning programmepromoting sustainable urban development.

It enables cities to work together to develop solutions tomajor urban challenges, reaffirming the key role they playin facing increasingly complex societal challenges. It helpsthem to develop pragmatic solutions that are new and su-stainable, and that integrate economic, social and environ-mental dimensions. It enables cities to share goodpractices and lessons learned with all professionals invol-ved in urban policy throughout Europe. URBACT is 300 ci-ties, 29 countries, and 5,000 active participants.

www.urbact.eu/jobtown