The coronavirus crisis has cast a sharp light on to the importance of institutions like colleges that help people secure employment or return to a job having lost work, and that support career development and changes. Moreover, it’s begun to highlight the importance of being able to cater to a diverse group of people.

Young people are entering colleges in the midst of the pandemic and training for industries that are transforming in response to the pandemic. Meanwhile, there are various groups of adults who, after worklessness, will be re-entering a world of work that is going to look very different to the one that existed at the beginning of 2020. It is on these adults that I will focus.

Before the virus, nearly one in five working-age adults in the UK worked in a sector that would be temporarily shut down, with fears that many of these employees could permanently lose their jobs after the government’s retention scheme draws to a close in October.

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And although a large proportion of furloughed workers are younger and hold mid- to lower-level educational qualifications, the wider economic malaise that’s expected to hit over the next several months will mean job losses across a number of sectors – meaning many experienced graduates will find themselves out of work, too.

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Recent research from the Resolution Foundation does show that learning can make a difference in helping adults to re-enter a job after having lost work. While we’d expect 53 per cent of recently redundant UK workers to come back to work within two years without having taken on any training or education while out of work, we’d expect over 70 per cent of those who had studied for a formal qualification while out of work to do so.  

Of course, the effects of study are bigger for some than for others: for instance, it appears to make a larger difference for younger non-graduate women (who on average have a lower job re-entry rate) than it does for older graduate men (the large majority of whom would return in relatively short order, even without training).

But for many, returning to a job that’s similar to their old one won’t be an option, and these adults will need support in forging a new career – a daunting prospect even in the best of economic conditions. In fact, from 2012 to 2018 just 6 per cent of UK adults changed the industry that they worked in during a given year, and only 2 per cent managed to change industry and receive a boost to their pay.  

Our research finds that education and training can help people to achieve this, but, all being equal, only full-time study has a substantial effect (doubling the likelihood of a person changing industry and receiving at least a 10 per cent pay boost). And while the effects of full-time study are significant for non-graduates and graduates, old and young, they are largest for older non-graduate men and women – the two groups who, without a spell in full-time study, would be least likely to change the industry they work in.

Coronavirus: Navigating the jobs crisis

So, what does this all mean for policymakers and college leaders looking to help adults to navigate a jobs crisis?

First, they need to ensure that policy is sympathetic to the factors that make career change such a rare phenomenon: adults from all educational backgrounds often struggle to see how their skills and attributes translate across a host of different roles, and a majority are hesitant to take a risk in a new industry and are reticent to "start over" in a more junior position than the role they previously had.

And while "starting over" is daunting enough, returning to study can be more challenging still. Many will be uncertain about the financial returns from doing so, and while the government’s recent announcement to offer adults in England their first level 3 qualification free of charge is very welcome, unemployed adults in most cases won’t be allowed to study full-time while receiving their full benefit amount. Beyond financial barriers, many may also be wary of returning to the classroom after having left it so many years ago.

But while the barriers to career change often seem universal, the policy responses shouldn’t be: colleges will need to have one set of strategies to attract adults with lower-level qualifications who are often hard to reach, and another set of strategies to attract workers with higher-level qualifications – who may not realise the range of relevant courses that their local college has on offer.

And while the government will need to ensure that colleges have the means – and funding stability – to develop courses that respond to local labour market opportunities, the onus is in colleges to work with employer groups in developing programmes that train adults for careers across a host of sectors, for adults across the range of educational backgrounds.

None of this is simple, and education on its own won’t be a panacea for the jobs crisis. The government will need policies to support employment, encourage hiring and ramp up careers advice, while colleges will need to take the leading role in reaching out to workless adults, offering advice alongside relevant – and flexible – learning opportunities that will allow people to translate study into a rewarding career.

In other words, policy has to fire on multiple fronts with colleges – both now and in the future – being poised to play a leading role.  

Kathleen Henehan is a member of the expert panel for the Independent Commission on the College of the Future and senior research and policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation.

This article is part of a series exploring the challenges that colleges face from the Independent Commission on the College of the Future. The commission is working towards publishing its final report with recommendations for each of the UK’s four nations this autumn