Addressing unemployment : an analysis of government training programmes in Britain and Canada

• Main Author: Brooks, B. E. W.
• Published: University of Cambridge 2000
• Subjects: 331.2
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.596938

This research explores issues surrounding active measures for dealing with unemployment, particularly government training programmes. A comparative analysis of programmes delivered in Humberside, England, and Halifax County, Canada is presented. Specifically, the Training For Work programme in Britain and adult training programmes delivered under the Active Re-employment Benefits framework in Canada are examined. The research is based on semi-structured interviews with a total of seventy-eight respondents, including sixty-six training providers, from Humberside and Halifax County. In Chapter 1, the methodology and samples are outlined. In Chapter 2, broader employment and unemployment patterns in Britain and Canada are examined and the comparative contexts at the local level of the study are set out. Employment growth projections are examined to determine vocational fields in which training would be conducive to facilitating the re-employment of unemployed adults. In Chapter 3, training providers' observations of their local economies and unemployment are reviewed and analysed as they pertain to the underclass debate. It is shown that perceptions of unemployment are often contradictory in nature, and that even people charged with assisting unemployed adults may hold negative stereotypes toward their client group. In Chapter 4, the unemployment insurance and training systems in Britain and Canada are reviewed. Training providers' linkages with their training regulating bodies are analysed in the context of the respective policy structures. In Chapter 5, barriers to training access, at the individual, policy and training-site levels, are analysed. In Chapter 6, the nature of training provision, including its structure and content, is examined and analysed as it pertains to' policy constraints in the two locales. In Chapter 7, the holistic, social and psychological benefits of training are analysed. In Chapter 8, more concrete outcomes of training, re-employment and qualifications achieved, are examined. Also, training providers' views of the effectiveness of government training in general, their suggestions for improving their systems, and their speculations on the future of government training programmes, are discussed. In the concluding chapter, I discuss the effectiveness of government training more generally, review suggestions of how the British and Canadian systems might be improved while looking at developments that have occurred since the time of the data collection, and I consider the future of government training programmes in the two countries.