Employability Partners
Workforce Plus emphasises the significance of local partnerships being made up of employability funders. In other words it envisaged the partnerships being quite small and focused around those organisations who provided the resources for the local employability services – which would include both staff and money. This meant that they could concentrate on and therefore align and coordinate the use of staffing and money to create and manage the performance of a coherent ‘local employability service’.
Although the partners actively involved in the employability agenda vary from area to area the key partners usually involve:
Local Authorities, who bring the most significant resource to the table in terms of large numbers of front line staff who work with priority clients, often in a neighbourhood setting. Some Local Authorities have identified the way in which each of their services can maximise its impact on employability and created a structure to drive this focus.
Skills Development Scotland (SDS) which brings together the resources of learndirect Scotland, Careers Scotland and the skills section of Scottish Enterprise. It is important to stress that SDS is a new organisation with a new vision of how to
SDS bring to the table its work on helping individuals gain the skills to manage their careers, its growing range of self-help tools and its front line guidance and support staff.
Jobcentre Plus (JCP) is the national job matching and benefits support agency, and brings its vacancy and advice service with a range of local ‘shop front’ offices and employer contacts.
These partners are in some areas supported by other key partners in the local employability service, such as Further Education Colleges which bring their appreciation of training routes and connections with employers.