![]() ![]() Around 60% of those referred to this busy office left school with no qualifications and have problems with basic literacy and numeracy. ![]() The attentive young adults in the classroom are halfway through a 25-hour course training them to apply for retail work, part of a programme run by Working Links for people who have been unemployed for more than six months. ![]() "Smile, nod, don't forget eye contact," he tells the students, writing bullet points on a flip chart. Brandishing a red marker pen, a "retail services" tutor is instructing six students in the art of handling an angry customer who wants to return a faulty handbag. He points to his office in Hackney, east London, as an example of how radically the process of getting unemployed people back to work has changed. "In 1997, you had a public employment service that was providing a very basic service to jobseekers," he says. Keith Faulkner, chairman of welfare-to-work provider Working Links, says that when New Labour came to power a visit to an employment centre was as impersonal as an encounter with a checkout assistant at a supermarket. Keith Faulkner has campaigned for a code of conduct for welfare-to-work providers. Interview with, chairman of welfare-to-work provider. How Labour has radically changed employment services ![]()
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