Along the snowy quays in Canada Water, south-east London, the waterfront and sidestreets are teeming with new developments. The buildings include shops and cafes – many advertising for full or part-time staff. Despite extensive gentrification Southwark remains one of the most deprived boroughs in England. The local council has faced a challenge in how to directly link the benefits of shiny new development to the lives of young people growing up in Rotherhithe or Peckham. Alison McGovern, the shadow employment minister, says Labour wants to bridge that gap between jobcentres and the local knowledge of councils and employers. It will involve a radical overhaul of what jobcentres offer – with powers fully devolved locally for local authorities to decide how they operate rather than running from central targets and scripts. Speaking as she toured Southwark’s Skills Centre, a hub for training and apprenticeships in construction with close ties and funding to developers, McGovern said the changes would be one of the pillars of Labour’s offer on jobs. “Everywhere I go I ask people, what do they think of the jobcentre? I never hear much enthusiasm, we have great people working there but they are constrained by what they are told to do in Whitehall and that’s wrong,” she says. “People locally know their area best, they know how to help people get jobs. “Jobcentres are there to tick boxes at the moment and that’s not good enough. Kickstart, Restart, all these national schemes – we need to rethink it from the ground up and locally.” A report by Gordon Brown into devolution and democracy said the devolution of Jobcentre Plus should mean they become a hub for local employers – open to those looking to upskill, re-enter the workplace later in life or after childcare responsibilities, or start businesses, and resources for civil society, trade union and private sector support. Health services should have closer connections to job support and be data hubs for local market information. Kieron Williams, the leader of Southwark council, said his local authority had to in effect build schemes such as Southwark Works, a free employment support service, in order to bridge the gap. “The challenge we face with the nationally provided programmes is they’re not connected with the local employment market,” he says. “They don’t see where the opportunities are to create more employment, or the skills gaps exist, and how you fill them. “We have a separate works programme, ensuring that you’ve got a real focus on those groups of people who are most likely to be excluded from work, getting the additional support they need to get into employment. What’s really important there is that that’s connected back to the community.”
A skills report by the former Labour minister David Blunkett also recommends funding people to study with agreed providers. “The nature of the way in which the [Department for Work and Pensions] currently operates, people are pressed into taking an immediate job available,” the report found. “Those who are being requested to job search for 35 hours a week are self-evidently not able to access training.” He said the DWP should “allow people to study full or part-time, whilst on benefits for an agreed course”. McGovern says it is “blindingly obvious” people should not be penalised for wanting to train for a long-term skilled career. “People are being pushed into insecure, unskilled jobs, when they could be sat in these classrooms.” Southwark Works functions in much the same way as Labour hopes jobcentres could eventually exist, offering support to anyone who drops in and with specialist support for care leavers, long-term unemployed or sick, those with disabilities, the homeless, families and lone parents. Some are already referred by the local jobcentre but many and in particular young people refuse to engage with the jobcentre at all. Almost 85% of the people who were supported into work were from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. Joseph, 20, who is waiting to take a test in one of the centre’s classrooms, says he came to the centre via his probation manager. “I want to be a bricklayer because it’s more hands-on, I’m not into working in an office, but here I can meet people who have the jobs.” John White, the partnerships director at the Skills Centre, says it prides itself on having no curriculum at all, but constantly evolving provision based on what local employers need, training 10,000 people to date. “We want to make sure we get local people into local jobs,” he said. “We’re speaking to local places who just can’t get bricklayers. And we speak to places that need big tiling jobs done, and we know we can get local people in trained to do the work.” In the yard outside, formwork apprentices are working in bright pink jackets and thick gloves. Some are women, part of a concerted effort to get more of them into construction jobs. Clarissa Destouche, 36, says: “I would not have joined this course if there was not an initiative for women to join. Representation matters a lot.” Many of the apprentices were in their 30s, seeking a new career direction. Lawrence Atkinson, 31, says he had mixed feelings about what the jobcentre had offered him. “There should be a lot more transparency there, about what’s available, more diverse opportunities, different pathways. I want to challenge myself to see how far I can go. Here is where I can find out what the pathways are for my career.” Ultimately, the vision is for similar provision to exist for training where there are big local gaps – whether in hospitality, agriculture, nuclear or green energy. “We’re working around hospitality skills because we’ve had big growth in that industry,” Williams says. “And we want to make sure that not just the entry-level jobs in those professions but the good jobs, the hotel manager and beyond, are within reach to people.”