Contributing to society and the big #employability debate

Last month SCVO published a discussion paper on rethinking Scotland’s approach to getting people job ready and into jobs. We want to encourage debate within the third sector about its own vision for Scotland’s employability programmes.  We also want to explore how we can use these opportunities to make a real difference to the people they support.

"People contribute to society in different ways at different times of their lives"

The Scottish Government is currently looking for views on how it can make best use of the new powers it will get from the current plans for further devolution. This includes responsibility for the Work Programme for long-term unemployed, Work Choice for people with disabilities and various aspects of welfare support. Both the UK-wide Work Programme and Scottish Government’s current approach to employability have been slated for taking a top-down, pipeline-obsessed and short-term approach to managing people into jobs. Our analysis is that far too many people get left behind. Our paper therefore took a different approach. Instead of pushing for new ways to get as many people into any jobs as quickly as possible, we proposed a shift in support away from focusing solely on jobs, to focusing on contribution. Our argument is that, while jobs are the most powerful way for people to empower themselves, people actually contribute best to society in different ways at different times of their lives. We think that more should be done through government-backed support to help people contribute in the most effective way they can, whether as volunteers, carers, activists, students, social entrepreneurs and not just as employees. Not only does this approach really empower people, it gets them more meaningfully ready for jobs when their circumstances change. Our paper appears to have resonated with many people in our sector, and we have now started to host a number of #employability special blogs written by others exploring specific angles on the debate. We hope as many people and organisations as possible will push the Scottish Government and others for a more radical change. The first test will be the Scottish Government’s consultation on employability, which closes on Friday 9 October. Update, 12 October 2015: SCVO's response to the Scottish Government consultation can now be viewed on our policy pages.