While it’s perhaps prudent to take many of the doomsday predictions about the looming technological decimation of the labor market with a large pinch of salt, it is almost certain that whatever disruption does emerge will affect those in the most precarious position more than anyone.
A recent report from the innovation group Nesta suggests that there are six million people in the UK who are in such a precarious position, and they caution that without assistance, these people will be stuck in a cycle of either low-pay and insecure employment or forced out of the workforce entirely.
“The problem is that many people who are in low-paid work – or who aren’t working at all – aren’t able to access the information they need to plan for the future or the relevant training they need to gain new skills,” the authors say. “They also tend to work in places and industries that are likely to lose out over the next decade, making it harder than ever for them to access good jobs.”
The challenge is compounded by the fact that those who are most at risk of disruption are also those least engaged with training and education. The report cites statistics showing that just half of adults from poorer backgrounds have had any training since leaving full-time education.
Reaching the cliff edge
So what can be done to help those in such a precarious position? Nesta argue that a number of steps can set us on the right path. The first of these is to obtain better data on both jobs and skills. Central to this is to provide cities and regions with the data they require on where skills shortages exist so that they can better address them.
“A mismatch between the skills that people have and the skills that the economy needs is a major issue in the UK,” they explain. “Without guidance on which skills are going to be needed, many workers face stagnant pay and low social mobility.”
They also believe that more needs to be done to ensure that learning fits the individual needs and circumstances of each person. There are numerous barriers that prevent people from engaging with education, whether it’s a lack of time, money or motivation, or even a sense that education is not something that offers them any benefit. These are profound hurdles to overcome, not least for those in precious jobs where each of the hurdles are more significant, but cannot be done with boilerplate solutions.
Nesta believe that a good first step is for the education sector to fully accept that these barriers exist, and then work to help learners overcome them. For too long there has been a sense that new models and approaches to learning have targeted the low hanging fruit of the already well educated, who have both the desire and the means to engage with approaches such as MOOCs or bootcamps. This has created a ‘Matthew Effect’, whereby the educated become more so, and inequality gets worse as a result of innovations that should be reducing it.
Reducing inequality
Individual learning accounts, which provide people with a fixed amount per year to invest in training and education are also mooted. It’s a concept with a chequered history, as they were first tried in 2000, before being scrapped around a year later after nearly half of the learning providers participating in the scheme were investigated for misselling. The investigations resulted in 30 people being arrested, with fraudulent uses of around 1/3 of the £290 million invested in the scheme during its one year in operation.
Without wishing to diminish the importance of finance to these decisions, there are bigger challenges than simply providing people with a bursary for learning. In 2017, a report from the UK government highlighted the numerous psychological barriers that prevent those with less education from engaging with education as adults.
Those with fewer qualifications to begin with would often cite barriers such as a lack of confidence, lack of interest and a sense that they’re too old. The report found that the single biggest predictor of later participation in education is earlier participation. In other words, if people enjoyed learning at school and found it interesting and engaging, then they are more likely to carry that on into adult life.
That the Nesta report doesn’t even mention these challenges, much less how they can be overcome leaves one thinking it’s something of a missed opportunity. After all, people are largely in a precarious position because they left compulsory (and free) education without the skills required to thrive in the labor market.
To then expect these low-skilled individuals to develop the kind of skills required to operate in the innovative industries of tomorrow because they have a small learning bursary seems incredibly optimistic. They are undoubtedly right to highlight the precarious position held by many people in society today, but it’s hard to see the remedies they provide placing such people in a better position than they are today.
