Summary: We will use the latest technology, including mobile phone apps, to help people to find higher paying and better jobs in their local area, so they can climb the career ladder and achieve their dream job.
- We are world-leaders in the development of cutting-edge technology and data – and we should take advantage of these capabilities to support local jobs and skills.
- We are further developing a tool – Examine a Place – which will enable local areas to use data to open up opportunities for new services that differ from traditional job matching. This will benefit a range of different claimant groups.
- By using data on local jobs and skills, we can help work coaches and people to find jobs, so that we can back businesses, grow our economy and help people reach their full potential.
Background
- Too many people are stuck in low-paid work. The proportion of low-pay employee jobs is 17.8 per cent, and although this is the lowest on record, we want people to earn more money and get the right job for them – ensuring people can make a success of work.
Our solution
- We are launching a new phase of the tool ‘Examine a Place’ to provide Jobcentres and their work coaches with information on local skills supply. Work coaches can use this information to provide up-to-date information to job seekers, showing them jobs available in local areas and what skills they need. We will pilot this in Greater Manchester, extending to the West Midlands and later on to other areas.
- We are developing a ‘Skills Engine’ to help people identify opportunities to develop higher skills to find better jobs in their local area. This pilot app will be available on mobile phones and allow jobseekers to identify higher-skilled jobs near them and what skills training is available in the local area to be able to move into these roles. This has the potential to help in situations such as parents returning to work, or people who are looking at re-skilling themselves later in their working lives.
Conservative record
- We have created 3.7 million new jobs since 2010, with 600,000 more forecast by 2023. We have seen 3.7 million jobs created since 2010 and 952,000 created since 2016. The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts by 2023 to see 600,000 more new jobs in our economy.
Q: What about people who are not digitally literate?
Work Coaches can use the data from Examine a Place on a job seeker’s behalf to provide personalised support and advice based on the jobs available in the area. There is a huge range of offline help available to people in Jobcentre and digital skills support and learning for those who want it.
