Employable to whom?
We built a machine to sort people. Then we asked it to care.
Each month, fewer than one in a hundred people on some health and disability benefits leave those benefits. Read that again. If flow is that slow, the problem is not grit. It is gravity. GOV.UK
Support that feels like surveillance
We brand programmes as person-centred. Scotland’s No One Left Behind says decisions should be local and human. Yet design choices betray intent: conditionality that polices behaviour; payment models that reward easy wins; reporting that values clicks over trust. Participants learn the choreography. Smile. Apply. Accept a poor fit. Start. Leave. Repeat. The door revolves, loudly. employabilityinscotland.com
Who owns the word “employable”?
If “employable” means able to slot into any vacancy at speed, then yes, many people will be graded wanting. If it means ready to do good work in conditions that do not harm, that is different. The first definition lives inside an algorithm; the second lives in a relationship.
Meanwhile, our own data stories admit an awkward truth: reforms often nudge people into work, but not into mobility. Too many land in low pay with little progression. We count starts and celebrate. People count hours and cope. Institute for Fiscal Studies
The alternative is not softer. It is smarter
A human system is not anti-measurement. It chooses better measures.
Continuity – one named guide, small caseloads, time to build trust.
Co-design – build with people and with employers so roles, supports and pacing fit real lives. employabilityinscotland.com
Quality – jobs that are stable, safe and lead somewhere.
Milestones – confidence, skills, qualifications, and job quality recorded as seriously as job starts. Use Theory of Change to link these to impact and test that link, not just assume it.
What we stop doing
Paying for churn.
Treating non-work goals as distractions.
Designing services around spreadsheets rather than people.
What we start doing
Funding relationship time and coaching craft.
Publishing job-quality and sustainment data as headline metrics.
Rewarding progression and employer practices that open ladders.
A one-place challenge
Pick one local area. For 12 weeks, run a co-design sprint that starts with listening rooms, maps the friction points, and prototypes one pathway for a priority group. Bake in a simple milestone set. Share the learning, not just the dashboard. Align this to the No One Left Behind partnership model so it is not another pilot that dies in year two. employabilityinscotland.com
The finish line
People want to work. They want it to mean something. When the system stops grading them and starts growing with them, “employable” stops being a label and becomes a relationship.
Start there.