4,145 research outputs found
Fit for work? Representations and explanations of the disability benefits 'crisis' in the UK and beyond
No full textNo abstract available
New approaches to employability in the UK: combining Human Capital Development and Work First strategies?
Get PDFThis article analyses recent developments in policies to promote the employability of unemployed and economically inactive people in the UK. It discusses the extent to which these policies reflect the dominant approaches of ‘Work First’, where programmes focus mainly on compulsory job search and short-term interventions to facilitate a quick return to work, or human capital development (HCD), where programmes tailor services to promote longerterm skills and personal development. Specifically, the article reports on case-study research into two recent pilot initiatives:Working Neighbourhoods (which targeted a range of intensive services in neighbourhoods characterised by high levels of inactivity) and Pathways to Work (which combines employability services and cognitive behaviour therapy-type approaches to help clients to manage health problems). While both pilots have retained strong Work First features, they potentially represent a shift towards a more HCD-oriented approach, through the delivery of more holistic ‘coping and enabling’ services. However, there remain concerns that, as with previous progressive policy initiatives, the positive lessons of these pilots will not be fully mainstreamed. We conclude that, if the UK is to balance Work First compulsion with high-quality services delivering progress in the labour market and HCD, a strengthening of ‘coping and enabling’ interventions is required, alongside a renewed commitment to training
Colin Humphris
No full text"Colin Humphris 2 Sqdrn. RAAF. 1941 - 1942 Author of - 'Trapped on Timor' (as a result of bombing of Darwin Feb. 19, 1942)".Colin Humphris. 2 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force 1941 - 1942. Author of - 'Trapped on Timor' (as a result of bombing of Darwin February 19, 1942)
Fit for Purpose? Lessons for policies to address the disability benefits 'crisis'
No full textNo abstract available
Avoiding the ‘McJobs’: unemployed job seekers and attitudes to service work
No full textService employment plays an increasingly important role in the UK economy. However, it has been suggested that some forms of service work are unattractive for many unemployed job seekers, and particularly those formerly employed in ‘traditional’ sectors. The argument has been made that these job seekers and others may be reluctant to pursue the type of positions that have become known as ‘McJobs’ - de-skilled, entry-level service jobs which often offer poor pay and conditions. This article examines whether there is such a reluctance amongst job seekers to pursue service work, and whether it differs between job seeker groups. It also compares differences in job seekers’ attitudes towards entry-level work in three areas of the service sector - retail, hospitality and teleservicing or ‘call centre work’.The analysis is based upon a survey of 300 registered unemployed people in Scotland. A substantial minority of respondents ruled out entry-level service work in retail and hospitality under any circumstances. Older men, those seeking relatively high weekly wages and those without experience of service work (and who perceived themselves to lack the necessary skills) were particularly reluctant to consider these jobs. Differences between job seekers were much less apparent in relation to attitudes to call centre work, which was more unpopular than other service occupations across almost all groups. The article concludes that policy action may be required to encourage job seekers to consider a broader range of vacancies and to provide financial and personal support for those making the transition into work in the service economy. However, on the demand side, service employers must seek to ‘abolish the McJob’, by ensuring that even entry-level positions offer realistic salaries, decent work conditions and opportunities for personal development
Interview with Colin Wilson, part 4, undated
No full textInterview with Colin Wilson, part 4, features an interview with author Colin Wilson in which he discusses his views regarding society and art, his reclusive nature, and the intellectual and fantastical elements of his works, undated
Interview with Colin Wilson, part 2, undated
No full textInterview with Colin Wilson, part 2, features an interview with author Colin Wilson in which he discusses his views regarding society and art, his reclusive nature, and the intellectual and fantastical elements of his works, undated
Disability Benefits, Welfare Reform and Employment Policy
No full textThis book aims to tackle the issues that are central to understanding and addressing one of the most important employment policy problems facing governments in the UK and beyond: the high number of people of working age claiming 'disability' or 'incapacity' benefits. Gathering evidence from leading UK scholars, alongside comparative contributions on Sweden, Germany, New Zealand and the Netherlands, the book considers a number of questions including, how do health problems and other barriers work to combine to limit opportunities for labour market participation among claimants of IBs?; How do different local and regional economic conditions shape these individuals' opportunities and experiences of labour market exclusion?; What processes lead to transitions onto IBs and what could be done to retain people with health problems in employment?; How appropriate are the rationale, content and governance of active labour market policies that seek to promote transitions from IBs into work?; and what works in helping people claiming IBs to cope with health problems and/or make progress towards work
Oenone and Colin Clout
No full textSpenser's Shepheardes Calender was still a new work, not even yet publicly acknowledged by its author, when George Peele made the rather surprising decision to co-opt its central character and reanimate Colin Clout onstage in The Araygnement of Paris. This article contends that Peele's bold importation of a well-known Elizabethan literary persona into a familiar Trojan land- and story-scape may offer fresh insight into the early reception of Spenser's pastoral work. The recent tendency has been to emphasize the Virgilian, also the Theocritean or continental Renaissance, precedents for Spenser's pastoralism, but Peele's dramatic revivification of Colin suggests that Elizabethan audiences may also have sensed pastoral patterns and precedents for Spenser's work in other sources including Ovid's Heroides. Peele's dramatic reinterpretation of Spenser's Colin, it is argued, underscores and explores the affective commonalities between this shepherd and Ovid's Oenone, thereby linking the Spenserian swain's plaintive mode with the pastoral elegaics of Heroides 5.peer-reviewe
In a lonely place?:Social networks, job seeking and the experience of long-term unemployment
Get PDFCombating long-term unemployment remains a central strand of policies to promote social and labour market inclusion. One area of increasing concern is that the longterm unemployed (and especially those residing in disadvantaged communities) can find themselves isolated from the diverse social networks that can contribute to effective job seeking. This article draws on interviews conducted with 220 job seekers in two areas of high unemployment within the city of Glasgow to investigate: whether long-term unemployed people in these areas struggle to access social networks for job search; and the extent to which long-term unemployment is in itself associated with a more general erosion of social/community relations and a withdrawal from what has been termed the ‘tertiary sphere of sociability’. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential role for social policy in seeking to help the long-term unemployed and other job seekers to develop and broaden social networks and activities
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