Smoothing the path: advice about learning and work for disadvantaged adults

By Heidi Agbenyo
heidi.agbenyo@skillsdevelopment.org

The job market can be a pretty tough place at the best of times, but for some people finding work can be a real struggle. Obstacles such as disability, low skills, a prison record, age or even just having been away from work for a long time put people at a disadvantage. So CSD and the education consultancy and services charity CfBT Education Trust joined forces to find out the best way to provide careers advice to people who often have to overcome a combination of obstacles, some of them long-term, some transient. The result is a report called Smoothing the Path: Advice about Learning and Work for Disadvantaged Adults. Authors Ruth Hawthorn and Judy Alloway have explored good practice in 12 different organisations throughout England and identified the critical factors involved in providing career advice to adults with a variety and mix of disadvantages, such as mental illness and learning to speak English. Hawthorn and Alloway studied a range of organisations - from the homelessness charity Centrepoint through to the Careers Advice Service - that worked with people in different environments, from inner city areas through to small rural communities.

The timing of the report is crucial because it comes in advance of the introduction in 2010 of a universal adult advancement and careers service (AACS). One of the report's aims is to influence the quality of the careers advice the new service will provide. Perhaps surprisingly, a review of the advice available to careers advisors and conversations with a range of stakeholders showed that very little research had been done on how to meet the careers advice needs of disadvantaged adults effectively. But the case studies within the report have revealed that taking a holistic approach to clients' needs pays dividends.

The most effective services go beyond providing core careers advice to building their clients' self-confidence by helping them develop basic skills, including English. They help with job placement, provide ongoing support after their clients find employment and keep in contact, both as a way of evaluating the service's own success and also of helping clients keep the jobs they have struggled so hard to obtain. As the report puts it: "The aim of all good careers advice is to help clients see how better to manage their own careers, and encourage independence: not to withdraw support, but to help them acquire career management skills gradually. People with different kinds of disadvantage have their own special skills to acquire as well as those needed by all adults."

Imaginative marketing and taking services to the client are important, but success also hinges on building trust. The report points out that: "For people who have really dropped through the meshes of society, such as young homeless people, holistic help that includes basic living skills is essential. For others where gradual social exclusion is felt across several aspects of their lives, as with some older adults, they need the confidence and optimism that comes from other activities as a basis for re-entering the labour market." Personal kindness, alongside a more formal contractual relationship, is valued by clients and may be an ingredient in their motivation and confidence to pursue their goals, the authors add.

Personal relationships between adviser and client begin with a warm and sympathetic welcome but also extend through encouraging clients as they progress - often slowly - into training or work. Effective agencies identify barriers and take steps to help their clients overcome them, setting up additional services where appropriate. The Foundation Training Company, for example, set up centres in East and South London to support prisoners post-release, and are designed to pick up exactly where the prison-based services leave off, helping clients progress towards independent living. It is important to convince employers of the value of employing clients but the job doesn't end there. Once the placement has been made, effective agencies also stay in touch to support both the client and the employer.

Another feature of good practice in all careers advice is that the service follows up clients after a period of no contact to find out how they are getting on. This can be an important part of the help for the client, demonstrating that the service still genuinely cares about them, or a reminder of what comes next in their action plan. The client may be settled in a job, but in the event of a crisis they may need help again. So a long-term relationship that continues after the initial goal has been reached can be critical in establishing sustainable employment.

Learning 'what happened next' is also an important source of professional development. Some agencies prefer to recruit staff who possess an understanding of the client group and then provide training in careers advice and other necessary skills, and many make use of the services of volunteers - some of which are former clients - to work alongside paid staff. All of the participating organisations agreed on the importance of continuing professional development for staff and training for volunteers.

Besides important issues relating to process, management and funding, the report found that services working successfully with disadvantaged adults had seven things in common:

• Help starts from what is immediately needed by the client.
• Careers advice is part of a much broader programme of support.
• Help is closely linked to the client's readiness and need for help.
• Progress is achieved through small steps.
• Effective help requires persistence.
• Staff really care and they celebrate their clients' success.
• The advice they give empowers their clients to help themselves in future.

Organisations taking part in the study:

Action for Blind People

The Exeter branch supports people with visual impairments in Cornwall and Devon

Age Concern North Tyneside Service

A service for older adults in North Shields.

Brent in2 Work

West London-based Brent in2 Work works with clients whose disadvantages range from poverty and unemployment to homelessness and mental health problems.

Careers Advice Service

CAS (formerly learndirect) is a national service delivered by telephone and internet for all adults, but is particularly useful to those with difficulties in travelling to face-to-face centres.

Centrepoint

Centrepoint provides support for young people who are homeless. The service visited was Capel Manor College in Regents Park, London.

nextstep Southwest

A service that is active in the rural communities surrounding Bude, Newquay and Bodmin.

The Foundation Training Company

FTC works with offenders and ex-offenders in the East of England and London.

The New Arrivals Project

Based in Sheffield, the New Arrivals Project provides advice and support to asylum seekers and refugees.

The ROSE Project

Realistic Opportunities for Supported Employment supports people with learning difficulties. The report focused on Havering College, Romford.

Richmond Fellowship

Richmond Fellowship is one of the biggest voluntary sector providers of mental health care, with over 100 services across England.

A copy of the final report, case studies and other project-related materials can be found at http://www.skillsdevelopment.org/default.aspx?page=866

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