There’s no doubt that coronavirus has hit the workforce hard; around 4 million people across the UK expected to be unemployed by the end of the year. And our Recovery and Resilience research found that people in lower socio-economic groups are most at risk.
Skills Bridges
To help people without a job, or those working in sectors that are suffering from major cutbacks, City & Guilds has partnered with leading social learning platform FutureLearn to create a Skills Bridge programme. Skills Bridges will make vital connections between an individual’s unique skills and motivations and the skills they need to get into a new occupation and industry in sectors facing huge shortages – such as health and social care.
The first phase of Skills Bridges is due to launch in mid-September and will focus on the social care sector. The Step into Social Care course, which is available on the FutureLearn platform, will promote the social care sector and the jobs and progression opportunities it can offer. With one-third of all vacancies in the UK currently in the health and social care sector, and over 100,000 jobs available in social care, it aims to help transfer workers into the industry in the coming months.
How to fix Britain’s jobs crisis?
Over the past two months City & Guilds have brought together over 100 business leaders and policy makers from across the UK regions to debate how to tackle the unemployment crisis we find ourselves in as well as how we equip our workforce with the skills to withstand the challenges of AI and Brexit.
One-size-does-not-fit-all. Each region has its own unique challenges and every area was unanimous in voicing that they need greater devolution to enable them to tackle the issues they face more effectively. We have captured this thinking and distilled it into one must read report.
We will be launching this report to an audience of national and regional policy makers, educationalists, journalists and employers.
Join City & Guilds’ virtual event on 2 November, 10:00-11:30.
Emergency Job Transition Fund
The City & Guilds Foundation has also launched a series of initiatives to support the most vulnerable people to develop new, in-demand skills, through a new emergency fund – working directly with learners to get them onto high-impact training programmes, and with charities and employers looking for ways to develop and take on desperately needed staff. Watch this space for more!