Job Centre Plus is 100 years old this month.  I didn't learn this trivia by having JCP as a facebook friend (I must have wished more friends happy birthday since FB started reminding me), but courtesy of a lazy Sunday morning in the company of the Observer snoozepaper.

Clearly it's changed considerably in a hundred years - the Labour Exchange became the Job Centre (remember the rounded white lettering on orange background from the 1980s), with the current incarnation as Job Centre Plus.  Back in 1910 there were separate entrances for men, women, and yes, children.  But the principle remains the same - brokering the introduction between job seekers and employers looking to recruit. 

I spend quite a lot of time thinking about how best to broker that introduction.  Unsurprising really, given what I do for a living (check out jobsgopublic.com).  So today I've been pondering a few things with through a historical lens. 

In the early days of the labour exchange, a physical space was needed - alternative forms of communication just didn't exist for the mass population.  In later years, people still needed to come to the labour exchange - home telephones were not common, and the post would have taken too long.  Fast forward to 2010 and communications have changed beyond belief - we're incredibly connected - we know the first place most job seekers go to look for a job is the internet.  However, we still have physical locations for JCP. 

I find the technology perspective interesting.  Technology is only "technology" to those born before it was invented.  To those who grow up with it, it's ubiquitous - do we ever think of our refridgerators as "technology"?  Today, the idea of saying "I got a job using the telephone" seems unexceptional.  But it was radical once.  I've become used to hearing "I got a job using "twitter/linkedin", but that's because I'm immersed in this technological/recruitment world.  So how can JCP start to help job seekers in new ways, embracing new social media tools?

I wonder what JCP will look like in another 100 years.  Or actually, in the next 10 years. 

I reckon the folks at JCP have a signficant task on their hands - brokering this employment relationship. On a grand scale.  But somewhere along the line, using technology to introduce employers and job-seekers to each other in a simple and effective way has got to be the way forward.  Enabling employers easily specify the type of *skills* they need and have them match up to people with those skills profiles.   

But imagine how brave you'd need to be to embark on, groan, another large *government IT project*. 

So maybe the answer isn't for JCP to broker the employment relationship.  Maybe a more effective outcome is achieved by them *enabling* the brokerage, rather than doing it themselves. 

Instead of a new social, updated JCP website or IT system, how about the setting of standards and alignment of incentives to enable the creation of an eco-system.  An eco-system for a market of private sector providers (including social enterprises), to undertake the brokering of this relationship.  Providers that specialise, and really get to know their niche - be it geographical or functional.  Providers that can deliver a personalised service to job-seekers.  Standards that can make it easy for employers to use the JCP service, with seamless vacancy data transfers and online applications.  Think of JCP as setting up the AppStore, and the market creating the Apps. 

Perhaps one day the JCP will be a public service with no stigma attached to using it.