people believe that work experience does work for students and others who take internships in large and successful organisations, from Oxfam to Barclays Bank. Indeed, the success of unpaid internships – in terms of experience, CV and network building and general skills development – has led to calls for the reform and opening up of such schemes, because they can give an advantage to those who take part. It is ironic, then, that some of those who want greater equality of access to internships also dismiss work experience for unemployed people. Second, do we have evidence on the


How can we best support unemployed adults back into work? Evidence from longitudinal studies suggests that training tied to work, or education tied to other life interests, are most likely to deliver results effects of work experience specifically for the unemployed? We know from longitudinal studies – that is, surveys where the same people take part over a period of time – that work experience is one of the most effective ways of preventing long-term damage from experiencing unemployment. Studies of unemployed people in longitudinal surveys showed that those who had entered subsidised employment were less likely to experience wage scarring later in life than unemployed people who had only entered training. In fact, the best results, both for Britain and for other European countries, were obtained when people entered employment together with training. Longitudinal studies also show that unemployed people who take adult education programmes while out of work – especially if they gain a qualification – are not only more likely to escape wage scarring, but are also more likely to be in employment than unemployed people who take no adult education programmes. So learning works, provided that it is either linked to work experience, or is congruent with people’s other life aspirations. Learning may have unintended negative consequences, though, where it is narrowly defined in terms of job skills programmes for the unemployed – without a job! So the first thing to say is that Nick Clegg is right to warn about the scarring effects of unemployment, and that the idea of incentivising employment of young disengaged people is a good one. My main concern about the Youth Contract is its scale and focus: it is too small, and it should be extended to stigmatised and disengaged people over the age of 17.


Work Programme If work experience can play a positive role, what of the Work Programme? Iain Duncan Smith is in no doubt, as can be seen from his claim that half of the participants were either in lasting jobs or off benefits within 13 weeks. The minister took this figure, which is entirely accurate, from a study of 1,300 people who started the Work Programme early in 2011. Can we therefore assume that the programme is doing what it was intended to – namely, moving people from welfare to work? To answer that, we need to know much more about this apparently simple figure. In a recent blog post, the economist Jonathan Portes argued that Duncan Smith’s figure was ‘not very meaningful’. For a start, as any social statistician would point out, we simply don’t know how many people would have found work or left benefits without joining the programme in the first place. We know that most people who claim Job Seekers’ Allowance move off benefits quite quickly anyway, and we can also predict that Jobcentre Plus advisers will ‘cream off’ the most acceptable claimants for work-experience schemes in order to meet their targets, neglecting more stigmatised and disadvantaged claimants. Then, as Duncan Smith pointed out, the 50 per cent figure includes all those who left JSA, whether for jobs, full-time education, or to drop out. And, of course, the figures relate to early 2011, since when unemployment rates have continued to creep upwards. So while Duncan Smith is technically accurate, we cannot conclude that the Work Programme works. Even if the language


28 ADULTS LEARNING SPRING 2012

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