When I qualified as a tutor/lecturer in 2004 I will keen to get there and teach both, I was enthusiastic and had no money whatsoever and was badly in debt, and so I took the first job I could find.
The first position I ended up in was working as a programme tutor for a company I knew nothing about called Action for Employment, or A4E as they more commonly known.
I was told in my interview that I would be teaching people how to read and write and understand the rudiments of mathematics to help them get a job or return to higher education. On the first day of the job my line manager told me not to carry out job searches for new arrivals for six weeks, I asked her why and she simply said, ‘we need to earn some money out of them before we help them find a job’
Government funded employability training
The UK Government, since 1998 has set aside millions of pounds of funds for training for unemployed people via the DWP (Department for work and Pensions) referred to as the ‘New Deal’ In 2011 the New Deal programme was replaced by The work Programme, Employability training providers such as A4E and G4S (Group 4 security) and dozens of others are funded by the DWP to deliver training for unemployed people.
What is the role of these employability trainers when there no jobs about?
It is difficult to justify the giving away of many millions of pounds to these providers when there are no jobs around, these providers cannot create jobs, they can only help people to skill up or apply for them, but if there are no jobs regardless of the level of enthusiasm and qualifications of the ‘Service user’ then there are no jobs, its as simple as that. So why are millions of pounds of funding still made available to these providers when there are no jobs about?
Shady goings on with employability trainers
In 2008 A4E were reported for breaching the terms of their DWP contract, up to 200 people were crammed into their small city centre building in Manchester, anyone wanting to use the toilet had to walk into the town centre and use the toilets of a local McDonalds, many service users had to stand up all day long at their Manchester centre where only a couple of computers were available for people to carry out job searches on. At the time of this appalling set up A4E were being paid up to £194 per week, per customer. The Manchester case did not stop A4E, they are currently being investigated for widespread systemic fraud within their organisation, and still they are receiving millions of pounds of tax payer’s money.
Is there a role for employability trainers in a permanent culture of the future?
The whole idea of having employability trainers is part and parcel of a corrupt and failing capitalism, where large volumes of people are hired and fired to appease and consolidate the Market and its power; they also give governments some kudos under the guise that they are doing something about unemployment. In a future where fairness and sustainability are of vital importance we believe that localized apprenticeships and long term ecologically sound jobs should be tied together, fragmented learning about the workplace that is carried out outside of the workplace will not give the craftsman of the future the realistic experience of an apprenticeship.
Steve