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Abstract
‘Learning to be job ready’ (L2BJR) was a pilot scheme involving 16 long-term unemployed people from a range of backgrounds
being offered a 6-month paid placement within the care department of a city council in Northern England. The project was based
on a partnership with the largest college in the city specialising in post-16 education and training for residents and employees.
The college targeted people as potential candidates for the programme through their prior attendance on or interest in care
courses at the college, rather than the council employing more traditional methods of recruitment. Surveys, focus groups and
interviews were utilised to capture the views and experiences of the participants, project workers and line managers, and
also evidence of the project’s impact on service delivery in the care department. The article adds to our conceptual and practical
knowledge of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the public sector in three distinct ways. From a social and business
perspective, the findings of the research highlight a potentially more robust strategy for matching long-term unemployed citizens
to training and job opportunities in the public sector than is otherwise possible through the more conventional route of the
job centre. Secondly, through this approach and with appropriate pre-training, a greater understanding of and empathy for
the service users can be developed in the new organisational members, strengthening the subsequent ethical delivery and quality
of the service. Finally, a re-conceptualisation of Carroll’s influential model of CSR, which also specifically incorporates
the ethical and social inclusion duties of public sector organisations not only as service providers but also as potential
employers, offers a more tailored paradigm for understanding this unique yet under-researched element of CSR theory and practice.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-13
- DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-0913-y
- Authors
- A. J. W. Bennett, Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University, Stoddart Building, City Campus, Sheffield, S1 1WB UK
- Journal Journal of Business Ethics
- Online ISSN 1573-0697
- Print ISSN 0167-4544