Today Wales faces the challenge of rebuilding our economy as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. After years of relative progress that saw economic inactivity levels fall and employment rise, today we face the challenge of responding to record levels of unemployment.

We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to find high quality work, to stay in work, and to build a career. This requires access to high quality employment support, tailored to the individual and integrated with other services.

Locally designed and locally delivered employment and skills services can play a role in meeting the needs of employers and communities.

In addition to the number of people in work, the quality of work matters too. Work should offer people security, dignity, and opportunities to progress. We are leading research on progression in work – this is part of our Good work and progression analysis.

Our work

We work closely with the Welsh Government, local government, and other organisations, to support the design and delivery of effective employment support services.

This includes evaluating the impact of services and learning from best practice.

We have carried out extensive work on employment support for disabled people, young people and place-based approaches.

We also work with local areas to assess the impact of locally-delivered programmes and consider how an ambitious approach to devolution could help to deliver better results for people and employers.