Final report – Arbroath Employment and Training Initiative

Arbroath Employment and Training Initiative, run by Claverhouse, aimed to: provide a range of activities for long term unemployed residents to enhance employability; identify suitable job vacancies in the area for clients; and match clients to these vacancies thereby helping both employers and the unemployed. The evaluation aimed to provide: an overview of the initiative; a discussion of some of the issues which emerged; and an overview of the opinions about Claverhouse.

The methodology consisted of: interviews with some of the key players; an analysis of Claverhouse’s records; 10 semi-structured telephone interviews with companies; and 40 semi-structured interviews with clients.

Remarks that the Initiative seems to have had problems from the outset. Additionality seems limited in terms of both the employers and clients. Notes that there have been a number of problems with project management and marketing might have been more effective. Shows that there was limited evidence of partnership working due to opinions that: SET had failed to consult initially; SET had provided Claverhouse with contract simply to assist its financial difficulties; and services were duplicating existing providers. Comments that the initiative seems to have: operated with limited links to other agencies and organisations; been expensive; and to have had targets that were easily attained. The initiative offered a degree of additionality through the pro active approach it took to approaching companies. Highlights concerns that monitoring, as detailed in the contract, was not carried out.

The initiative has now ended, but the evaluation would not have recommended that it continue in its present form, as it did not seem to represent good value for money. Were it to have continued, the recommendations would have been to: increase the targets fourfold; implement the agreed monitoring systems; concentrate efforts on trying to get the long term unemployed into work; set up a project Steering Group; record details of referrals and the intensity of contacts with clients; and provide more rigorous follow-up of clients.