Social Exclusion / Social Inclusion
Introduction
This essay is about social exclusion in the UK and government policy to include this population and get them back into the work force. Notting Dale Technology Centre (NDTC) is funded to train 'socially excluded' adults and teenagers who have left the education system and are at risk of continuing the cycle of impoverishment.
NDTC is working with the employability strands of governments life-long learning policy's. We work under the educational training banner to give skills to meet the challenges of the 21st century i.e. Information Communication Technology (ICT) for the work force. NDTC aims to address the low skills equilibrium by offering training to the people who make up this part of the population.
Social Exclusion and the Skills Challenge
The Government describes social exclusion as a shorthand term for what can happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown.
Notting Dale Technology Centre (NDTC) is a major Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training provider in the North Kensington and London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham areas. NDTC works very closely with a range of socially excluded people to address skills shortages. David Istance in an article on Education and Social Exclusion makes the following point.
'Education, training and learning do not themselves guarantee success, but they are more and more a necessary ingredient of it'. The OCED Observer
In areas where there is high unemployment, instead of focusing just on 'upskilling' the people there needs to be a holistic approach to deal with the problem. The Government must recognise that this is a complex problem involving a huge number of stakeholders. The changing economic market for skills with technological advancement and how individuals already in a marginal position are increasingly finding themselves excluded deepens the problem. People on very low and precarious incomes or in poverty, many of whom are out of the labour market with limited prospects of securing a foothold in it, and who live in poor housing and communities, are among those to whom this tem most obviously applies. The problem becomes increasingly complex with the acceptance of populations from different parts of the world within these communities. There has been an influx from European Union countries, the Middle East (for example Iraq), Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo) and South Asia (Sri Lanka, Afghanistan) into social housing areas in the North Kensington and Fulham areas. These people will very often lack basic education and many will also not speak English. Yet, in terms of policy and vocational educational provision that we are involved in they are treated as the same. Obviously this causes further tension in an already difficult and troubled communities such as violence and racism, especially as the social housing provision is predominantly within these communities. One of the main messages to come out of the Learning and Skills bill and the Local Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is the need to address the skills gap. These are the skills people will need for employment. It would then be true to say that the present government with its current wave of reforms is not working widely enough to address all the issues of the 'socially excluded'.
Introduction
This essay is about social exclusion in the UK and government policy to include this population and get them back into the work force. Notting Dale Technology Centre (NDTC) is funded to train 'socially excluded' adults and teenagers who have left the education system and are at risk of continuing the cycle of impoverishment.
NDTC is working with the employability strands of governments life-long learning policy's. We work under the educational training banner to give skills to meet the challenges of the 21st century i.e. Information Communication Technology (ICT) for the work force. NDTC aims to address the low skills equilibrium by offering training to the people who make up this part of the population.
Social Exclusion and the Skills Challenge
The Government describes social exclusion as a shorthand term for what can happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown.
Notting Dale Technology Centre (NDTC) is a major Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training provider in the North Kensington and London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham areas. NDTC works very closely with a range of socially excluded people to address skills shortages. David Istance in an article on Education and Social Exclusion makes the following point.
'Education, training and learning do not themselves guarantee success, but they are more and more a necessary ingredient of it'. The OCED Observer
In areas where there is high unemployment, instead of focusing just on 'upskilling' the people there needs to be a holistic approach to deal with the problem. The Government must recognise that this is a complex problem involving a huge number of stakeholders. The changing economic market for skills with technological advancement and how individuals already in a marginal position are increasingly finding themselves excluded deepens the problem. People on very low and precarious incomes or in poverty, many of whom are out of the labour market with limited prospects of securing a foothold in it, and who live in poor housing and communities, are among those to whom this tem most obviously applies. The problem becomes increasingly complex with the acceptance of populations from different parts of the world within these communities. There has been an influx from European Union countries, the Middle East (for example Iraq), Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo) and South Asia (Sri Lanka, Afghanistan) into social housing areas in the North Kensington and Fulham areas. These people will very often lack basic education and many will also not speak English. Yet, in terms of policy and vocational educational provision that we are involved in they are treated as the same. Obviously this causes further tension in an already difficult and troubled communities such as violence and racism, especially as the social housing provision is predominantly within these communities. One of the main messages to come out of the Learning and Skills bill and the Local Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is the need to address the skills gap. These are the skills people will need for employment. It would then be true to say that the present government with its current wave of reforms is not working widely enough to address all the issues of the 'socially excluded'.
