Institute for Employment Research » IER News & blogs (tag [Research])

The 2024 DSIT Research and Innovation Workforce Survey is now live

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 15:30:00 GMT

Do you work in research or innovation? The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is conducting the 2024 Research and Innovation Workforce Survey. Take the survey and have your voice heard.

Your chance to inform UK Government research and innovation policies and funding decisions

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 15:34:00 GMT

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched the first government survey of the UK-wide research and innovation workforce.

We ask anyone in the diverse occupations that are vital to innovation and research in the UK to complete it to offer better data for policy decisions that impact this whole workforce.

Find out more about the short survey and complete it online here.

Creating Decent Work in Scotland

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 18:17:00 GMT

In-work poverty is a major socio-economic problem. In 2013, 52% of working age adults and 59% of children in Scotland were living in households where at least someone was in work. Almost a fifth of the workforce was paid below the living wage; of which 64% were women. Underemployment and job security are also issues: in 2014 around 180,000 workers in Scotland were underemployed and 120,000 on zero-hour contracts. In 2015, the Scottish Parliament launched an Inquiry into Work, Wellbeing and Wages.

This project was a response to these problems. It involved applying IER’s existing expertise in job quality to the creation of a set of measures of Decent Work for Oxfam, one of the world’s leading charities. The aim of the project was to inform public debate and political party thinking ahead of the Scottish elections in May 2016 by proposing a decent work agenda for Scotland. Thereafter, the project hoped to encourage the explicit adoption of the decent work agenda by the Scottish Government post May 2016. Led by Oxfam, the project was co-branded with IER and the University of the West of Scotland. Chris Warhurst and Sally Wright were involved from IER. Their participation was enabled by funding from Warwick’s ESRC Impact Accelerator Account.

The project wanted to provide low wage workers with a voice about what mattered to them and so used mixed participatory research methods to ask people about their priorities, concerns and ambitions about what they needed to live well. Data was gathered from across Scotland through focus groups, semi-structured interviews, street stalls and a YouGov online opinion poll. From this data Sally Wright developed a set of weighted rankings for decent work. Even before publication of its findings, the project attracted interest and support from the Scottish Parliament. The Inquiry into Work, Wages and Wellbeing reported in early 2016; after hearing evidence from the project, it wanted the Scottish Government-established Fair Work Commission to ‘consider carefully the findings of Oxfam‘s work’ in its deliberations. Evidence was submitted to this Commission as well as the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee.

The report from the project – What makes for decent work? A study with low paid workers in Scotland – was published later in 2016 and was co-authored by Sally Wright. It was launched in the Scottish Parliament with the Scottish Cabinet Secretary in attendance. Throughout 2016 the project gained considerable social media, newspaper and radio attention in Scotland and was cited by the Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Roseanna Cunningham MSP, during committee debate about the work, wages and wellbeing report as well as by John Finnie MSP during a debate in the main parliamentary chamber about the living wage and Scottish football clubs. Its impact is on-going and is monitored by Oxfam.

Job quality research for the CIPD

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 12:00:00 GMT

In 2017, as part of its programme of work promoting better working lives, the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) commissioned IER to produce two reports on job quality. The first report focused on Understanding and Measuring Job Quality; the second on Indicators of Job Quality. The IER team was led by Professor Chris Warhurst and comprised Sally Wright, Dr Clare Lyonette and, for the second report, Dr Sudipa Sarkar. Both reports were published by the CIPD. The research was used by the CIPD in its consultation submission to the 2017 UK Government’s Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. The research also helped inform the development of a new UK Working Lives survey for the CIPD. Subsequent to the completion of the research, Dr Sarkar was seconded to the CIPD to assist with the development of the new survey, which was administered by YouGov over winter 2017-18.

UK employment policy in a changing EU

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 08:48:50 GMT

As part of the Warwick's faculty of social sciences CREW network, IER, the Law School and the Industrial Relations Research Unit have an award from the Higher Education Innovation Fund to produce a series of Brexit Briefings on Employment. The four thematic briefings will focus on job loss and job creation; training for the unemployed; employment rights and regulation; migration and skills. Each will present key research evidence and make recommendations for the development of new policy as the UK exits the EU. Each will also have a public launch over May-July this year.

For further information, contact Professor Chris Warhurst, Dr Ania Zbyszewska or Professor Guglielmo Meardi at [email]ier@warwick.ac.uk[/email]

Report on Improving career prospects for the low-educated

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 11:23:06 GMT

The narrative study led by Professor Jenny Bimrose with colleagues from IER and partners in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy and Poland has been published by Cedefop who commissioned the research.

The report draws both on literature review and an original collection of stories from biographical interviews of individuals from seven European countries. The narrative accounts describe the wide variety of experiences with initial and further education. The analysis focuses on motivations for learning (or not) and the findings confirm that early negative experiences with schooling have a scarring effect inhibiting workers’ willingness to re-engage in education later in life. Nevertheless, many low-educated adults were found to command a variety of skills, which they have developed in the work context.

CEDEFOP/Bimrose, J., Brown, A., Barnes, S-A., Thomsen, R., Cort, P., Mariager-Anderson, K., Rochet, S., Mulvey, R., Hansen, B., Weber, P., Weber-Hauser, S., Tomassini, M., Zanazzi, S., Kargul, J., Minta, J., Mielczarek, M. and Sprlak, T. (2016) Improving career prospects for the low-educated: The role of guidance and lifelong learning (Cedefop Research Paper 54). Thessaloniki: CEDEFOP.

Adult education - Too important to be left to chance

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 14:32:49 GMT

The Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER) was commissioned by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Adult Education to undertake a study to scope the need, reach and areas for policy and practice development for adult education concerning disadvantaged adults. This enquiry gathered the views of key stakeholders, partners and providers on their top priorities for adult learning in 2016 and over the next 5 - 10 years. The report will be launched today at the All Party Parliamentary Group for Adult Education Reception, ‘Closing the Learning Gap – Opening up Opportunities for Adults’. The report provides a full picture of the benefits of adult education for individuals, employers and communities focusing on what works well and what needs to be improved to make best use of the resources available for adult education, particularly in addressing the needs of those most disadvantaged in our society.

The research was led by Dr Deirdre Hughes OBE with Karen Adriaanse and Dr Sally-Anne Barnes.

Student and graduate focus group participants needed

Thu, 09 Jun 2016 11:04:32 GMT

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) has commissioned a piece of research by the Institute for Employment Research (IER) at the University of Warwick. HESA is leading a review to find out what future requirements there will be for data on the destinations and outcomes for students leaving HE. To help inform the Review, HESA wants to find out particular information from students and graduates and we would like to invite students and gradautes to participate in an online or face-to-face focus group.

The first face-to-face focus group will be held at the University of Warwick on 14 June at 3pm. All participants will receive £10 for their participation. Click here to find out more or sign up for this focus group or future online groups.

Call for Papers "Vocational Behavior of Refugees"

Wed, 04 May 2016 08:59:35 GMT

The Journal of Vocational Behavior (ABDC A*) is inviting papers on "Vocational Behavior of Refugees: How do Refugees Seek Employment, Overcome Work-Related Challenges, and Navigate their Careers?”.

Over the last two years we have witnessed the largest migration of refugees in history. As of early 2016 over 4.7 million people have fled the civil war in Syria and the terror regime of the so-called “Islamic State” in both Syria and Iraq, and a significant number presently live in refugee camps in the Middle East (UNHCR, 2016). The effects of this crisis have been immense, not only in neighbouring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, but also in countries such as Greece, Germany, Hungary, and Austria, which are the final destinations for many refugees, and countries which have agreed to resettle smaller numbers of refugees from the conflict zones including Canada and Australia. The government authorities in these countries are in the process of developing policies to deal with the immediate influx of refugees, but also have to think of ways in which to integrate refugees into the mainstream society in the medium to long term.

Integration into mainstream society is an extremely challenging process for many refugees (Yakushko, Backhaus, Watson, Ngaruiya and Gonzalez, 2008). In addition to applying for asylum status and refugee resettlement and seeking family reunification, and learning the culture and language of the host country, refugees also have to seek employment to support the immediate needs of their families and re-establish a livelihood (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, 2006). Policy makers have begun to recognize the importance of assisting refugees to obtain employment quickly, as stable employment amongst refugees has been found to reduce welfare dependency and to enhance the educational and health outcomes amongst the children of refugee families (Khoo, 2005; Pernice and Brook, 1996). However, current knowledge of how refugees, practitioners, organizations, and policy makers negotiate these issues is very limited (Morrice, 2011). Very few studies have examined refugees’ vocational behavior, including seeking employment, overcoming work-related challenges and traumata, and navigating careers after leaving their home country. In addition, we have limited understanding as to how organizations, practitioners, and policy makers can best assist refugees in the adaptation process.

In order to improve our understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by refugees in seeking work, overcoming challenges and traumata, and adapting their careers, this special issue of invites articles that will discuss these issues.

Guest editors: Alex Newman, Deakin University; Jenny Bimrose, IER, University of Warwick; Ingrid Nielsen, Deakin University; and Hannes Zacher, Queensland University of Technology.

Lorraine Johnson won the postgraduate student 2015 poster presentation competition

Thu, 11 Jun 2015 14:16:23 GMT

Postgraduate students from across the University of Warwick were offered the opportunity to practice disseminating their research to a non-specialist audience through a poster and presentation exercise. The Social Science Faculty Prize went to Lorraine Johnson a postgraduate student at the Institute for Employment Research. Her research focuses on the nature of career support available to professional women aged fifty to state pension age navigating the labour market.