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Abstract
This article examines what has happened to training in public sector organisations in the UK in a period of austerity. It draws on individual-level data collected over the period 2000–2012 and establishment-level data collected from employer surveys carried out between 2005 and 2012. To understand these data further, 75 qualitative interviews with public sector employers were carried out between mid-2010 and early 2012. This article finds that while training incidence remained relatively high in the public sector, establishment-level control over planning and funding fell faster than in the private sector. Nevertheless, the public sector ethos of serving the community along with the tradition of the public sector as a ‘good employer’ meant that the training system within public sector organisations remained largely intact, even when the availability or frequency of some courses was reduced. The result was that limited training funds were made to go further by reducing the frequency of courses, prioritising courses immediately relevant to front-line services, tightening the application of eligibility criteria among potential trainees and economising on training delivery – summed up by one respondent as ‘training smarter’.
Highlights
Recent attention has focused on sectoral differences in the UK economy
We compare and contrast the results for the public and private sectors either side of the 2008–2009 recession in order to examine the sectoral variation in the incidence of training over the period as well as in the institutional supports for training
Formal training planning fell in the private sector but at a much slower rate – falling from 41.4% in 2005 to 39.2% in 2011
Summary
Even before the deficit reduction programme was announced by the UK coalition government, there were assertions that employment relations in the public sector had not changed as dramatically as in the private sector. As a result, it was argued, the public sector was lagging behind best practice and often shying away from taking ‘tough action to improve employee performance’ (Lambert 2010, 12). This article explores this question by presenting new evidence drawn from qualitative interviews with public sector employers, supplemented by quantitative data on individual-level and establishment-level reports of training activities and practices, in the period before, during and after the 2008–2009 recession.
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