Many trainees undertaking first level PATH courses have seen the scheme as a way of avoiding a slide into unemployment and possibly crime. The preference of socially aware employers in the UK has been not to use this route but to concentrate instead on better employment and personnel practices such as advertising posts more widely and monitoring the ethnic balance of applicants and appointees so as to identify and eliminate consciously or unconsciously discriminatory practices. Housing associations, given their aim to help disadvantaged communities, are especially concerned to make sure their staff reflect the community they serve. Where a difference between the percentage in employment and the local community is identified, associations would now look to a PATH scheme as one of the measures to be taken to correct the situation. There is no question therefore of putting people in a job solely to meet a quota or target.
Employment is secured on merit.
Sustainability There has been a substantial increase in the proportion of staff from ethnic minorities employed by housing associations. PATH has played a significant role in increasing the number of ethnic minority staff working for housing associations in professional, technical and senior posts.