Training Offer for those Unemployed for 6 months

1) At the Employment Summit on 12 January 2009 the Prime Minister announced a package of four measures aimed at ensuring that individuals unemployed for six months are offered continued and relevant support to get back into work quickly.

2) The four parts of the offer are:

A recruitment and training subsidy available to employers
A self-employment package
A new approach to volunteering
A new training package building on the existing IES approach that will offer a more intensive type of tailored support for those whose skills levels have proved to be a barrier to a quick re-entry into employment. The provision will have a strong labour market focus and will be promoted as the gateway for people to take a significant step up in their skills levels, thereby opening up previously inaccessible career opportunities.

3) This document relates to the provision of the new training package: the Training Offer for those unemployed for 6 months.

4) The provision under this training offer will be targeted at labour market opportunities and will offer intensive skills support for those facing significant skills barriers that prevent them from entering employment.

5) The focus will be on providing accredited and approved training that leads to a full Level 2 or full Level 3 qualification or, in exceptional circumstances adult basic skills provision, that can be continued in-work or around work through either the Employer Responsive (ER) or Adult Learner Responsive (ALR) funding streams. The provision will not be limited to ‘first’ qualifications at any level.

6) Individuals will be encouraged to move into employment (with training) as early as possible and continue the achievement of their qualification whilst in work.

7) In the majority of cases the learner will not complete the full qualification whilst undertaking learning funded through the monies that have been made available for this programme, rather training will continue in a seamless manner via ER and ALR provision until the qualification is achieved through a ‘wrap-around’ funding route.

8) This programme is designed to offer individuals training which is targeted at labour market opportunities. Programmes will be focused on an individual’s employment-related skills needs and aimed at achieving a job outcome and progression towards an accredited and approved qualification at Level 2 or Level 3 or in exceptional circumstances an adult basic skills qualification.

9) This programme is funded as a block of learning; the size of the block of learning will vary depending on individual needs and will be recorded on the ILR using codes in ILR field A49.

10) As part of this block of learning learner are expected to under take accredited units or qualifications. Providers are expected to record these accredited units or qualifications on the ILR, to allow their contribution towards PSA targets to be measured. Providers will not be funded for these qualifications separately and code SP023 in ILR field A49 will be used to identify them and ensure the aim does not generate duplicate funding.

11) ILR data for this programme will be returned through the Employer Responsive (ER) ILR data collections. The programme will be coded as “other LSC funding Stream” (ILR field A10 =80).

12) The blocks of learning and associated funding will be categorised by the number of guided learning hours being delivered. These blocks of learning will be identified by Learning aim reference (A09) code ZSPE0001 and categorised as follows in ILR field A49:

9 – 14 GLH – SP019
15 – 44 GLH – SP020
45 -74 GLH – SP021
75+ GLH – SP022

8) This programme will be monitored by reporting on

Learner Start: the number of individual learners that have started on the programme in a particular year.
Qualification Start: the number of accredited units or qualifications that have been started in a particular year. It excludes the ILR record representing the block of learning.
Qualification Achievement: the number of accredited units or qualifications that have been achieved in a particular year. It excludes the ILR record representing the block of learning.
Job Outcome and progression to accredited training: the number of learners that have undertaken the programme and have entered employment and started or continued further training through either the Employer responsive or Adult Learner Responsive funding streams. This definition will only be operational from 2009/10 onwards as it relies on a new ILR field that will only be available from August 2009 onwards.

The technical definition describes how these are calculated.

Page Last Modified - 11 September 2009