Atypical workers: a change of mind

Pamela Clayton

During one of our project meetings, our Italian colleague, Silvana Greco, raised the problem of atypical workers who are low-paid but well-educated and highly-skilled. Since the project focuses on people who, in our view, would benefit from lifelong learning in order in order to raise their educational level and skills, I declared that we could not include them. Since my field trip to Denmark, I have changed my mind ... it appears that some atypical workers, notably those working freelance after being made redundant, may have valuable marketable skills but they lack other skills, such as self-marketing, pricing their services adequately, networking and other business skills, as well as key skills such as communication with clients. These particular examples may arise from a lack not only of knowledge but of self-confidence and so I now believe that highly-skilled but low-income atypical workers are a target group for us.

A recent article in The Guardian (Anne Karpf, page 7 of the G2 section, 30th April 2002) is relevant here. She uses the term 'portfolio workers', which is often taken to mean those who have a series of jobs over their lifetime (with the false implication that there are all high-skill, well paid jobs), but in reality encompasses freelancers, casual workers and those working at several jobs simultaneously - in other words, what are in Europe called atypical workers.

Karpf, citing the work of Ros Gill (London School of Economics), reviews a number of myths in her article. She first explodes the myth of the 'flexible labour market' in the sense of one characterised by frequent changes of job. Gill points out (as has the TUC) that the great majority of British workers are on permanent contracts, and serial careers are in the minority. If, however, we follow American trends, these can be expected to increase in number in the United Kingdom. It would be a mistake, however, to imagine that those who have a number of jobs over their lifetime commonly switch from one skilled job to another. My own research, based on life history interviews with employed people in the West of Scotland who had returned to learning as adults, suggests that the majority of people do indeed stick to one job and often one employer, but the tiny number who had had many different jobs were relatively low-skilled (if we disregard their skills in seeking, finding and learning jobs with very different types of skill requirements).

Secondly, she points out that many so-called portfolio workers, rather than having the luxury of choice, flexibility as to time and place of work, and so on, in fact are juggling several jobs in order to make up an adequate income. This applies as much to the new-media workers Gill studied as to the more familiar example of women with several low-paid jobs (for example, cleaning, bar work) with no security, paid holidays, sick pay or pension.

Thirdly she cites Richard Sennett, who points out that the (despised) migrants are the ideal portfolio workers, ready to go where the jobs are rather than waiting for the jobs to arrive in their area - a situation accompanied, however, by 'the dissolution of social bonds'. She suggests, therefore, that a fully flexible labour market would not only create new forms of exploitation (such as job insecurity and working long hours on several part-time jobs) but would contribute to a rise in 'crime, depression and anomie'.

To return to the point of the project - atypical or portfolio workers need a wide range of skills, of education, of self-esteem, of efficiency in managing their lives and work and of access to the further learning which, if it does not always bring material benefits, can always enhance the quality of life. Given that we accept these assertions, there is an important role for guidance to assist atypical workers back into learning. The problem is, how do we reach them?

Our team has discovered some examples. One is the Commercial and Clerical Services Trade Union (HK) in Denmark, which has retained as members those who have taken up freelance work after being made redundant and which has special measures to support them; the other is an Italian trade union which is specifically for such workers.

The Italian study will appear on this site in due course, and an item on the Danish initiative will appear shortly; but in the meantime, see Greco's preliminary review at Vocational Guidance for Low-Paid Workers in Italy.

Page created 16.05.02, updated 11.02.07. Page author: Dr P M Clayton, Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow