After examining projects where businesses have successfully helped the unemployed get back to work, researchers from the University of Derby’s International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS) claim both can benefit from engaging with careers guidance services.
The recent report, entitled Tackling Unemployment, Supporting Business and Developing Careers was requested by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), and carried out along with researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University’s Policy Research Institute. It includes case studies demonstrating how seven UK employers, including Morrisons Supermarkets, BUPA, Barclaycard and Arla Foods, have engaged with career development intermediaries to the benefit of their business, whilst recruiting jobseekers.
The report’s companion publication, Developing Business, Developing Careers: How and Why Employers are Supporting the Career Development of Their Employees, describes how partnership is often key to business success.
Dr Tristram Hooley, a researcher within iCeGS said: “The businesses we looked at have linked-up with a wide range of career guidance providers including education providers, trade unions, social enterprises, Jobcentre Plus and the National Careers Service. By working with these organisations to support careers, the businesses themselves have all experienced tangible benefits.”
For example, through their partnership with the social enterprise, Create, which prepares the unemployed for entry into the retail sector, Morrisons Supermarkets are offering newly created job opportunities to unemployed people, including the chance to learn craft skills such as butchery, baking and fishmongery.
This partnership helped to ensure that more than half of the 200-plus workforce recruited at the supermarket’s new Salford store were previously unemployed.
Norman Pickavace, Group HR Director, said: “For us, this kind of engagement is win-win, people get jobs, regeneration receives a boost and we get the commercial benefits of being part of a valued community.”
Dr Hooley added: “Through this report we hope to have illustrated how a range of different businesses have used career development approaches and experienced tangible benefits; such as solving skills shortages, recruiting the right people, and growing a responsible brand.
“We hope many more businesses will take on board the potential benefits of careers guidance and development in light of the study.”
For more information on the work of iCeGS visit www.derby.ac.uk/icegs
