MANSFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL
Report of Corporate Director, Regeneration and Regulationto
Portfolio Holder for Resources
On
Monday 5 August 2013
EXTENDED PATHWAYS TO WORK PACKAGE
1. SUMMARY
1.1 This briefing paper identifies the feasibility and costs required to deliver an extended Pathways to Work Package which aims to further enhance opportunities for young people to enter the world of work.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS
(i) That the following themes within the Pathways to Work Programme be approved, Direct Apprentices, Summer Job Shop, Work Experience, Employability and Skills and the Graduate and Undergraduate programme.
(ii) That resources to fund the programme amounting to £ 248,289 be taken from the economic stimulus reserve.
(iii) That apprentices be recruited through Vision West Notts ATA who will act as ‘employer host’.
(iv) That all District Council apprentices appointed under the scheme will be paid the national minimum wage after successful completion of a 6 month probationary period.
(v) That after a period of 1 year, the performance of the programme should be reviewed and any revisions be considered as appropriate.
3. BACKGROUND
3.1 The Pathways to Work programme has been operating since June 2012 with the main aim to enhance opportunities for young people in the District.
3.2 The diagram above shows the variety of different work streams within the Pathways programme, aimed at providing young people with the skills required to be successful in securing full time employment. The shaded work streams are in their early stage of development and some elements, the Graduates into Enterprise, Entrepreneurs forum, Women’s Enterprise Academy and Aim Higher schemes are delivered through the regeneration employment and skills programme. This report presents proposals to extend or improve some of the initiatives already in place and outlines new proposals which will create new pathway opportunities for young people in the Mansfield District boundary.
4. Proposals
4.1 National Minimum Wage for Apprentices
Paying a lower wage than a qualified worker while a person is in training has been a long standing principle of traditional Apprenticeships. Currently Apprentices hosted by the Council are paid £2.65 per hour if aged 16-19 years or 19 or over in their first year of their Apprenticeship.
4.1.1 The Council has made a commitment to pay the rate of £7.20 as a minimum to all its employees with a further review to be undertaken following implementation of the Pay and Grading Review. To promote ‘fair pay’ for Apprentices it is proposed that the Council increases the Apprenticeship wage rate to the National Minimum Wage rate for Apprentices following a probationary period of 6 months. National Minimum Wage rates from Oct 2013:- £6.31 (21 and over), £5.03 (18 to 20 years), £3.72 (under 18).
Examples:
12 month Level 2 Apprenticeship / Rate / weekly wage / Total6 months / Total wage per annum / Total inc on-costs
first 6 months / 2.68 / 99.16 / 2578.16
following 6 months
Age 16-17 / 3.72 / 137.64 / 3578.64 / 6156.80 / 7144.80
Age 18-20 / 5.03 / 186.11 / 4838.86 / 7417.02 / 8405.02
Age 21 and over / 6.31 / 233.47 / 6070.22 / 8648.38 / 9636.38
12 month Level 2 Apprenticeship / Rate / weekly wage / Total wage per annum / Total inc on-costs
Age 16-17 / 3.72 / 137.64 / 7157.28 / 8145.28
Age 18-20 / 5.03 / 186.11 / 9677.72 / 10665.72
Age 21 and over / 6.31 / 233.47 / 12140.44 / 13128.44
18 month level 3 Apprenticeship / Rate / weekly wage / Total wage 18 months / Total inc on-costs
Age 18-20 / 5.03 / 186.11 / 14516.58 / 15504.58
Age 21 and over / 6.31 / 233.47 / 18210.66 / 19198.66
4.1.2 Growing apprentices is an important component to tackle issues such as rising unemployment and worklessness of young people. Paying a wage that incentivises and increases independence will encourage more young people to apply for future vacancies.
4.1.3 The proposal is that the Economic Stimulus budget is utilised to pay current apprentices the National Minimum Wage. (Effective from 2 September 2013 at the rate of 4.98ph increasing to 5.03 from 1 October 2013)
In June 2012 the Executive agreed to fund two undergraduate placements and two graduate placements into the authority at minimum wage rates. The proposal is to increase the previous minimum wage rate of £6.19 for these two placement opportunities to Council minimum wage rate of £7.20 in accordance with the Councils decision to pay the living wage. (Effective from 2 September 2013)
Total Cost of both elements is £27,839 ( programme to December 2014)
4.2 Extension to the Direct Apprenticeship Programme – Skill Level Enhancement.
4.2.1 Economic conditions in Mansfield are difficult, worklessness remains a key challenge, generations of unemployment continues to impact on families and communities. Developing and retaining local talent will grow confidence, instil pride and be of economic benefit to the local community. In these challenging times it is essential that the Council, as one of the major employers in Mansfield, takes a ‘lead role’ in stimulating the jobs market by creating pathways that lead to sustainable jobs for the next generation of workers.
4.2.2 A total of fourteen Apprentices have been recruited to Council ‘Employer Hosted’ Apprenticeships including nine young people who were recruited from the Summer Job Shop programmes 2011/2012. The first four Apprentices are due to complete their Intermediate Apprenticeship over the coming months with the remaining nine Apprentices due to complete by July 2014. To date one Business Administration Apprentice has secured permanent employment with the Council.
4.2.3 The Intermediate Apprenticeship is equivalent to 5 A*- C GCSE’s; Apprentices work towards achieving work based learning qualification such as a level 2 competence qualification, functional skills and in most cases a relevant knowledge-based qualifications. It is proposed that upon successful completion of the Intermediate Apprenticeship programme the 10 young people not currently funded for the Advanced Apprenticeship level are offered the opportunity to move into this framework to increase their future employability prospects. Appendix 1 refers.
4.2.4 The Advanced Apprenticeship is equivalent to 2 A Levels and aims to progress the practical skills and knowledge previously gained to the next level, increasing competence and ability. It is already recognised that the district suffers significantly from low skills and imports higher skilled workers from outlying areas to fill high value jobs. The extension to the Direct Apprenticeship programme is a grass roots solution to give pathway opportunities to raise skills levels of young people in readiness for higher value jobs which in turn will increase the levels of disposable income and levels of spend in the local economy.
4.2.5 The proposal is that the Economic Stimulus budget is utilised to fund this initiative:
Cost: £90,658
4.3 Extension to the Direct Apprenticeship Programme – Increased opportunities
4.3.1 Mansfield District Council – Career in Local Government – Increase in number of Undergraduates
4.3.2 The Extended Scheme would provide an opportunity to assist with workforce planning developments internally and would also provide an 8-week project placement for an additional 2 local undergraduates working towards non-traditional public sector degrees e.g. Health and Well-being, Sports Development, Criminology, Accountancy, Marketing and PR, Community Development.
Cost: £5,027 – to fund an additional two undergraduate placements paying the Council minimum wage rate £7.20. (programme run 2013 only)
4.4 Mansfield District Council – Career in Local Government – Increase in number of Graduates
4.4.1 The Scheme would provide an opportunity to assist with workforce planning policies internally and would provide a 6-month internship placement for 2 additional local unemployed graduates who have completed degree studies in non-typical local government educational disciplines. The Scheme would encourage highly skilled young people to consider a career in local government by broadening horizons and scope of opportunity.
4.4.2 The Graduate and Undergraduate Schemes aim to:
· Encourage highly skilled young people to remain in the district and consider a local government career
· Provide the authority with the opportunity to bring a young and fresh perspective and new skills to a project
4.4.3 The proposal is that the Economic Stimulus budget is utilised to fund this initiative.
Cost: £16,340 (programme run 2013 only)
4.5 Business Administration Apprentices
4.5.1 The key findings within the CBI/Edi Education and Skills Survey 2011 stated that:-
‘Many young people are still leaving school and college with serious shortfalls in their employability skills. Over half of employers (55%) experience weaknesses in school leavers’ self- management skills, and two thirds (69%) believe they have inadequate business and customer service awareness’.
4.5.2 It is evident that this barrier has proved difficult to overcome with local businesses, resulting in low recruitment of Apprentices. Following on from the success of the ‘Direct Apprenticeship Programme’ it is proposed that the Council seek to bridge this gap by supporting 5 young people through a Business Administration Intermediate Apprenticeship programme. The programme will be delivered on a carousel arrangement where the young people are the given the opportunity to develop their skills and gain experience across a range of services in the Council.
4.5.3 Local businesses have stated that they want young people to be skills aware and be able to demonstrate the right attitudes and behaviours in the workplace. It is envisaged that these young people could be recruited to local businesses following completion of their Intermediate programme. New employers would be encouraged to take advantage of the Mansfield District Council Grant to enable them to support the young person to achieve the Advanced Apprenticeship level. The vehicle for recruitment of Apprentices will be the established Summer Job Shop pathway.
4.5.4 The proposal is that the Economic Stimulus budget is utilised to fund this initiative:
Cost: £42,025 (programme 2013/2014)
4.6 Joint Nottinghamshire Public Sector CIPFA Training Scheme
4.6.1 The current financial challenges facing the public sector generally, and local government specifically, has highlighted the need for high quality financial management support. Key considerations for local authorities are the routes to ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified finance managers coupled with the recognition that, in practice this will mean smaller yet more skilled financial teams. In order to address these challenges the Nottinghamshire Finance Officers Group has proposed a collaborative solution to this issue. The group are recommending the recruitment of an initial 7 trainees on a 3 year contract. The County Council would employ all trainees, to ensure consistent terms and conditions but the trainees would work across different organisations. As part of this scheme Mansfield will benefit from a six month placement each year.
4.6.2 This Nottinghamshire scheme would offer significant cost savings and support the task of developing future finance leaders.
4.6.3 The proposal is that the Economic Stimulus budget is utilised to make a standard contribution from the Council to fund this initiative:
Cost: £35,000 (three year programme 2013-2015)
4.7 Economic Stimulus Proposal
4.7.1 Mansfield District Council Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE)
The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers aims to provide an economic stimulus for local businesses to encourage the provision of apprenticeship training opportunities leading to sustainable job outcomes. The intervention aims to reduce the financial risk implications associated with offering a young person an employment and training opportunity in the current economic climate, particularly considering the number of unemployed adults available in the labour market.
4.7.2 The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) is concerned that since the AGE grant was made available in February 2012, eligible employers have not taken best advantage of the support available to them. According to a 2012 Nottinghamshire County Council paper NAS reports that employers find it difficult to attract suitable applicants and thus high levels of apprenticeship vacancies remain unfilled.
4.7.3 In response to the low take up by employers, local authorities nationally and regionally are responding by taking steps to stimulate more activity to provide young people with the skills training and potential associated job opportunities linked to National Apprenticeship opportunities through a range of financial incentives.
4.7.4 The Mansfield District Council Apprenticeship Grant for Employers would seek to bridge the gap by working with partners to prepare young people for the workplace and providing a further monetary incentive to help businesses recruit a young person through the Apprenticeship Programme. The scheme would operate by providing apprentices with basic skills through the Summer Job Shop and working in partnership with West Notts College to conduct pre employability training. This would enable the apprentice to be more ‘work ready’ and more attractive to local businesses. It is proposed that the Scheme will be offered to SMEs with less than 250 employers across Mansfield in the first instance.
4.7.5 The Grants Scheme aims to:
· Assist with the ongoing development of Mansfield District Council’s close working relationships with local businesses
· Help young people to develop their skills and gain qualifications to be successful in employment
· Encourage businesses to ‘grow their own’ talent
· Stimulate the provision of more long term, sustainable employment opportunities for young people in local businesses
4.7.6 The proposal is that the Economic Stimulus budget is utilised to fund this initiative:
4.7.7 Cost: £30,000 made available for grants to help employers recruit an apprentice. See Appendix 3, 4 and 5. (programme run to December 2014)
4.8 Continuation of Summer Job Shop
4.8.1 The Summer Job Shop scheme has already assisted local young people who had no identified destination in terms of employment, education or training at the end of Year 11 to make informed choices about their future career path. Of the 72 Summer Job Shop candidates 37 have secured an Apprenticeship and 29 have returned to full time education.
4.8.2 In 2013 it is envisaged that the Summer Job Shop will once again be the Pathway offered to young people with no identified destination. Provision of a weekly training allowance as an incentive to attend the Summer Job Shop programme has previously been allocated from the Pathway to Work budget. The current budget will enable 45 places to be offered to young people in 2013.
4.8.3 In order for the Summer Job Shop to deliver the job outcomes expected a number of ring fenced Apprenticeship opportunities need to be available for them to apply for. If the proposal to create 5 Business Apprenticeship into the Council is accepted it is proposed that these are ring fenced in the first place to Summer Job Shop participants. It is further proposed that where the Council has supported a local business with an Employer Grant that where possible the Apprenticeship vacancy will be offered to Summer Job Shop participants.