Employment, Self-employment and Social Enterprise
At a time when unemployment has been rising, a focus on employment, self-employment and social enterprise is important. The Transformation Fund was focused on informal adult and community learning, not formal training for employment, but some projects emphasised employability, self-employment and social enterprise. In many others, learners gained new skills and confidence, enabling them to progress into employment, self-employment or vocational training.
Projects gave learners opportunities to:
- acquire 'soft skills' that improved their employability - My Hull; Space East
- acquire practical craft skills which could be used as the basis for future self-employment - Learning Links - Bourneville College, St Mungo's
- form self-organised learning groups, financing themselves and making a profit through selling craft products - Apsley Paper Trail; Rotunda Learning Revolution;
- acquire outlets for craft products - Stitches into Print; Liverpool PCDL
- form networks and learn the skills required for setting up successful social enterprises - Encouraging Social and Ethical Enterprise - University of Essex
In addition, learning facilitators and volunteers involved in delivering Transformation Fund projects also gained new skills, training and experience that enhanced their employability - Screenreader.net; CHANT project
Since many of the Transformation Fund projects were engaging learners from excluded groups, a number of intermediate steps were likely to be needed before these learners would be ready to progress into full-time employment. Around 27% of projects felt that they had supported participants to develop skills that would improve their employment prospects and 3% (460) of the progressions reported were progressions into work. Of these progressions into work, nearly 40% were to self-employment.
These are interesting results from a fund which was designed to foster informal adult and community learning, rather than work-related skills. The evidence suggests that:
- in most cases progressions into employment were an unplanned outcome of programmes that fostered confidence and developed transferable 'soft skills' that increased employability;
- increased confidence in using ICT, gained through digital learning projects, also helped with job search and producing CVs;
- projects that enabled people to follow up their interests and gain new craft skills enabled them to created saleable end products; and
- networks formed through participating in informal learning activities helped to sustain self-organised groups and formed the basis for small social enterprises as the projects drew to a close.
At a time of high unemployment, opportunities for people to explore alternative ways of making a living, such as self-employment and social enterprise, are particularly valuable. A number of community interest companies and social enterprises were involved in Transformation Fund projects, either as lead organisations or as partners. They were able to bring an entrepreneurial perspective to the learning programmes, and open up alternative progression routes to learners. A number of projects also indicated that learners were interested in opportunities for work experience.
To maximise the opportunities for progression from informal adult and community learning into employment, self-employment or social enterprise, it's important to:
- build learners' confidence and raise aspirations;
- provide opportunities to develop the 'soft skills' that are important to employability;
- identify these skills when carrying out learning reviews, and make learners aware of the benefit they will bring in the employment market;
- offer opportunities for work experience, perhaps through work shadowing or volunteering;
- include opportunities to make goods for sale in craft programmes, and build in some guidance on business and finance;
- partner with organisations that can provide outlets for good quality products, such as museum shops;
- partner with organisations that understand social enterprise;
- develop face-to-face or online support networks for individuals entering self-employment and for groups developing social enterprises.
The Coalition Government's vision of the Big Society includes a commitment to supporting mutuals, charities, co-operatives, and social enterprises, to help bring economic activity back into communities where there are few employment opportunities. To this end they are establishing a Big Society Bank in 2011 to provide new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities and social enterprises.
Web Links
A Job Well Done
a NIACE programme to research how social enterprises support disabled employees and learners, and to explore the extent of the interface between social enterprises and the learning and skills sector.
