This resource will provide employability advisors and Healthy Working Lives advisors with information, advice and resources to help them provide effective and appropriate services and support to SME employers.


The Employability Agenda in Scotland

• Registered unemployment across Scotland is now at its lowest in the last 20 years.
• There has therefore been a shift in emphasis from helping employers recruit people on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) to those who are on ‘inactive benefits’ (Incapacity Benefit (IB), lone parents, long term unemployed people and those in minority ethic groups). Many of the people in these groups do want to find sustained employment and they will have a wide variety of skills and experience to bring to employers.
• There are now far more people in these Priority Groups than there are on JSA. They tend to be harder to reach, and have much more complex needs. They may need more additional support once in work, and employers are often more cautious about recruiting them.
• So the nature of employability support is changing significantly. Workforce Plus set out a national framework for Scotland which encouraged the funders of employability services in each area to agree their local support structures and invest in ways that helped these to develop.
  

Employers

The Workforce Plus approach aims to improve performance by making existing resources work better. This means that employability organisations will need to be able to show high performance in helping individuals find and make progress in work.

• Employability organisations will need to get ever closer to employers to:
  
  
  • Provide them with recruits that can contribute from their first day.
    
  • Help employers appreciate the benefits of recruiting from these new sources.
    
  • Understand their labour market requirements and how they can be met.
  • Ensure that they are making a good match in terms of the clients skills and attitude.

This toolkit should be able to help you do this.