Welfare-to-work programmes, funded through the Department for Work and Pensions, aim to help people who have been unemployed for some time to find sustained employment through personalised support.

The two main welfare-to-work programmes in the UK are the Work Programme for long-term unemployed adults and Work Choice for disabled people who face the most complex barriers to employment.

Work Programme prime providers are given full control over the approaches they take to support participants through a black-box outcome funding arrangement.

Long-term in-work support is provided to help participants sustain their employment.

Work Choice is a specialist disability employment programme that provides tailored support to help disabled people find, and remain in, employment. Work Choice providers deliver pre-employment support and then supported employment, with the aim of ultimately helping customers progress into unsupported employment, where this is appropriate for the individual.

Work Choice, unlike the Work Programme and some other mainstream employment provision, is completely voluntary for the customer and can provide an indefinite period of support once the customer is in work.

The nature of skills provision Skills providers use funding from the Skills Funding Agency, and the Education Funding Agency and the European Social Fund (commissioned through Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)) to deliver a wide variety of skills provision to unemployed adults.

This includes apprenticeships, traineeships, English/ESOL (English for speakers of other languages), maths, ICT, employability skills and vocational skills relevant to the local labour market.

Skills provision can be delivered in a variety of formats, for instance, traineeships involve a work placement, work preparation training and English and maths, whereas a qualification and/or unit offer for unemployed people allows learners to gain the skills they need by undertaking either a qualification or a programme of units taken from across a range of approved qualifications.

Some forms of provision involve employers in their design and delivery such as sector based work academies.

ABLE PERSONNEL work with Key Providers throughout the UK covering a variety of roles including:-

• Functional Skills Tutors/Facilitators
• Tutors
• Lecturers
• Trainers
• Employment Advisors/Learning Advisors
• Employment Support Officers
• Employment Engagement Advisors/Officers
• Training Officers/Advisors
• Careers Advisors
• Job Coaches
• Learning and Talent Advisors
• ESOL Tutors