Department for Employment and Learning: Jobskills

A report published today by John Dowdall, the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland, examines the Department for Employment and Learning’s Jobskills training programme. The report reviews the quality of training delivered; the effectiveness of the programme in increasing the employability of participants; the extent to which Jobskills meets the skills need of the economy; and the Department’s financial monitoring and control of the programme.

Background

Jobskills is the Department’s largest training programme. Introduced in 1995, it aims to raise the skills levels of participants and, thereby, their employability. Focusing on people for whom an academic education is inappropriate, Jobskills provides an alternative route to qualifications, through the attainment of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). There are three levels of training:

• Access (NVQ Level 1): for trainees who, due to disadvantage (such as literacy, numeracy or motivational problems), require preparatory training
• Traineeship (Level 2): the main entry point
• Modern Apprenticeship (Level 3): for those able to gain high-level skills and qualifications.

Jobskills is delivered by around 100 recognised ‘Training Organisations’ (TOs), comprising private sector providers, community providers, further education colleges and sectoral training councils. Training includes formal classes run by the TO and work placement with employers. By March 2003, the programme had catered for some 76,000 young persons and 17,000 adults, at a total cost of £485 million. Since the introduction of ‘New Deal’ for unemployed adults in 1998, Jobskills has focused solely on unemployed young persons aged 16 to 24 years old.

Main Conclusions and Recommendations

General Conclusion

• Jobskills is an important programme for the Department and one which makes a significant contribution towards its strategic objectives. It has provided vocational training to a large number of young people of varying abilities and, in recent years, has increased the numbers training in occupational areas key to the growth of the Northern Ireland economy. It has also resulted in a substantial number of qualifications for trainees, with overall achievement comparing favourably with broadly similar schemes in Great Britain. Notwithstanding these achievements, the Audit Office has highlighted a number of areas where there is scope for further improvement in the programme.

On the Quality of Training (Part 2 of the Report)

• The Department uses the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI - part of the Department of Education), to provide assurance on training quality. A review by the Audit Office of the ETI reports on inspections between June 1998 and February 2001 found that many issues identified in earlier inspections continued to be reported -eg weaknesses in initial assessments of trainees’ abilities and needs, variable quality in TO training provision and poor quality work placements. The Department has agreed to identify common and recurrent weaknesses and ensure that the information is disseminated to all TOs (paragraphs 2.18 to 2.25)
• Since February 2000, ETI has graded the quality of occupational areas inspected using a four-point scale, where Grades 3 and 4 reflect below standard quality. In the nine inspections carried out between February 2000 and November 2001, some two-thirds of the 77 training areas inspected were found to be of standard quality or better. However, five per cent of the remainder were graded as having significant weaknesses and a further 27 per cent of training areas were graded as having more weaknesses than strengths. Based on these results, it is possible that 1 in 3 trainees currently on Jobskills are being trained in a TO, or in an occupational area, where the quality of training is below standard (2.32 to 2.36).

On the Effectiveness of the Programme (Part 3 of the Report)

• There is scope to enhance the Department’s performance measurement in terms of timeliness of reporting, greater comparability of targets over time and consistency of targets between different strands of Jobskills. The Department has indicated that it will now set uniform targets, across each strand of the programme, and will also consider extending its range of targets beyond those published in its operational plan (3.1 to 3.6)
• The Audit Office examined the NVQ achievement rate for trainees starting between 1995 and 2000 (Jobskills training can last for some three years). By March 2003, some 40,000 NVQs had been achieved, representing an overall achievement rate of approximately 66 per cent. In England, NVQ achievement for young people who left Government supported work-based training during 2000-01 averaged 53 per cent. Although not directly comparable, this suggests that Jobskills continues to perform well relative to similar schemes in Great Britain (3.9 to 3.19)
• Data from the Department indicates that on leaving the programme approximately 46 per cent of trainees moved directly into employment, 10 per cent into other education or training and 24 per cent into unemployment. A further 20 per cent of Jobskills leavers were classified as 'destination not known'. The Department acknowledged that it is unsatisfactory that such a large proportion of leavers’ destinations is ‘not known’ and said that it will consider alternative methods of determining leavers’ destinations, possibly adopting the method used in England of a leavers survey (3.25 to 3.31)
• A significant proportion of trainees who start Jobskills leave prematurely. The proportion who leave within 4 weeks has remained relatively constant over the life of the programme, at some 10 per cent of total starts. A further 40 per cent leave after completing more than 4 weeks but without achieving their targeted qualification. This important issue has to be addressed by the Department (3.34 to 3.46)
• The Department has taken steps to address variability in TO performance. Even so, a considerable differential remains between individual TOs – too many have performances which are significantly below the average. The report recommends research to determine the links between performance and the characteristics of the trainee intake; correlation between poor quality training and poor outcomes; setting specific targets to raise the performance of the weakest performing TOs; and performance benchmarking of TOs with similar characteristics. The Department said that the research will be carried out in the next 12 months (3.50 to 3.54)
• Based on a survey, the Audit Office estimates the net additional employment impact of the programme to be 14 per cent. This is similar to the 12 per cent estimated in Scotland for the ‘Skillseekers’ programme (3.59 to 3.66).

On Targeting Skills Needs (Part 4 of the Report)

• An Audit Office survey of Jobskills trainees suggests that a substantial cadre of participants are leaving Jobskills without using the skills learnt on the programme. Approximately 10 per cent of leavers have never had a job and 29 per cent of those who gain employment after leaving the programme indicated that they did not use the skills learnt on the programme “at all”. On the basis of these findings, it is possible that there is an occupational skills mismatch of some 36 per cent in the programme (4.16 to 4.18)
• The Department commented that it had introduced ‘priority skills’ areas to improve the match between training provision and occupational skills needs and, while this was not always possible to achieve, the generic skills and personal development gained from Jobskills participation will be relevant to whatever occupational area a young person eventually chooses. It also said that it was currently reforming the Careers Service to better focus on the needs of young people with multiple barriers to education and training (4.19 and 4.20).

On Financial Monitoring and Control (Part 5 of the Report)

• No frauds have been identified as a result of Departmental checks. However, some large recoveries have been effected as a result of inspections of TOs – over the eight years to March 2003, some £358,000 has been recovered, or recommended for recovery, for incorrect, ineligible or unsubstantiated claims. With inspection activities covering some three per cent of total programme expenditure, the Audit Office estimates a potential overall level of incorrect, ineligible or unsubstantiated claims in the region of £1.2 million per year over the life of the programme. The Department considers that this estimate overstates the overall level of error - as its inspections are directed at claims which, from its experience, are of highest risk, it believes that the error rates detected will be atypical for the programme as a whole. Nevertheless, together with the errors identified through administrative checks (estimated in 2000 at some £900,000 net per year), this indicates significant financial risks within Jobskills (5.9 and 5.19 to 5.21).