How people with troubled pasts could help the UK worker shortage
There is an acknowledged shortage of workers in the UK and many opinions about its causes and solutions. One obvious answer is to widen access to the jobs market for people from non-traditional backgrounds. This approach has been used in the higher education sector for many years, where is it is acknowledged that people from disadvantaged backgrounds may need a leg-up to achieve their potential.
Overcoming barriers to work
Those of us who work in social care know there is an equally deserving cohort of people who struggle to find employment because of their troubled pasts. Wouldn’t it be great if employers were more prepared to take a chance on people without armfuls of qualifications and pristine CVs? People who’ve struggled with substance misuse, ex-offenders, people who have lived on the streets, people with physical or mental health issues and those from deprived environments who lack the advantages and opportunities that others take for granted.
We know it takes a lot of courage and determination to beat drug addiction or overcome trauma and achieve recovery. Indeed, and it might be controversial to say this, it takes incredible resourcefulness, organisation and ingenuity to find the money for a daily fix or survive the violence and insecurity of living on the streets. It’s not easy to cope with life on the edge: it’s impressive to survive with nothing.
Deciding to get clean, find a safe home, strive for a better future, takes extraordinary courage and tenacity. Having achieved that goal, such people can become model workers. But all too often having got so far, they find the door of opportunity is closed against them due to, perhaps, understandable but unjustified fear and prejudice.
Improving access to employment
Someone whose life has fallen apart, who has come out the other side, clean, renewed and ready for a better, more positive life, can make a great employee. All of us in the sector, can cite examples of people who have demonstrated truly impressive personal qualities and skills to overcome their challenges and get on in life. At Emerging Futures, we employ many former service users and are daily inspired by the passion, motivation, dedication and life experience they bring to volunteering and employment. Surely these are skills that any employer should welcome?
The route into recovery and employment is well-established in social care – it can work in other sectors too. So, isn’t it time that more employers saw this potential and stepped up to give people a chance?
