Low-Paid Jobs in UK – Initiatives for improving progression helping employers and workers through the same programme

Existing skills and employment support systems concentrate on work entry but policy-makers concerned with addressing poverty also need to focus on individuals in employment and find ways of improving progression from low-paid jobs. This research developed proposals for a package of progression-focused employment and skills initiatives relevant to the needs of Leeds City Region residents and employers, encompassing short-term and longer-term change.

Key points

• Opportunities for progression from low-paid jobs are shaped by personal and household circumstances, access to training, employers’ promotion practices, firm size and sector, local labour market conditions, and labour market and welfare policies.
• Individuals have different attitudes towards progression in work: for some it is a long-term rather than short-term goal, and for others it is not a priority at all.
• Low pay is most prevalent in the retail, hospitality and residential care sectors.
• International evidence suggests that a sector-focused ‘dual customer’ approach – helping employers and low-paid workers through the same programme – can be effective.
• Supporting individuals to move between sectors is an important strategy for earnings progression. Part-time education and training provision and careers guidance services can be supportive of this.
• The study presents three interlinked policy initiatives, with a combination of individual- and employer-facing elements:
  1. a careers information, advice and guidance service for low-paid workers to support progression;
  2. an in-work advancement service with a dual focus on individuals and employers, focusing on employer-led training linked to career advancement; and
  3. a business support service aimed at enhancing opportunities for part-time workers.
• Local stakeholders from different organisations need to work together to develop a framework for progression-focused employment and skills initiatives and their associated implementation and delivery.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Improving progression from low-paid jobs at city-region level