Literacy and long‐term unemployment: options for adult guidance, support and training

Abstract

This paper addresses recent government policy concerning basic skills training and long‐term unemployed people and the notion of developing a ‘training culture’ amongst adult workers. We report on a qualitative interview study with 100 long‐term unemployed people which explores their perceptions of their basic skills needs, the barriers they face in getting jobs and the guidance and training opportunities currently available to them. We use this evidence to argue that the attitudes, perceptions and priorities of long‐term unemployed people do not fit closely with those of policy makers. They rely strongly on informal support and information networks, their main goals are to obtain financial and job security and they are uninterested in low quality training programmes that do not lead to employment. Their past experience has not led them to think of themselves positively as learners. The views of long‐term unemployed people need to be taken into account in designing effective systems for guidance, support and training. We identify three main characteristics that such a system should have: accessibility, trust and quality specialist knowledge. We propose greater co‐operation between agencies to provide opportunities for involving people step by step in more formal guidance and training activities.