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

Daria Luchinskaya appointed as co-convenor of SRHE Employability, Enterprise and Work-based Learning network

Wed, 29 May 2019 20:16:00 GMT

Dr Daria Luchinskaya has been appointed as a co-convenor of the Employability, Enterprise and Work-based Learning network for the SRHE (Society for Research into Higher Education).

Together with convenors Dr Heike Behle and Dr Ciaran Burke, Daria will be organising SRHE network events and other network activities - look out for the Network's forthcoming events on the SRHE website.

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.

Gatsby Report on Employer Demand for STEM Apprenticeships

Thu, 24 Mar 2016 16:30:52 GMT

A new report by Lynn Gambin and Terence Hogarth looks at the demand for STEM apprenticeships, the costs and risks incurred by employers taking on apprentices and how these might be mitigated. The report, drawing on evidence from studies carried out by IER since the mid-1990s, highlights that there is demand in the UK labour market for intermediate-level STEM skills which Apprenticeships can help to meet. They note that STEM Apprenticeships can offer substantial returns to individuals and employers, however, the cost to the employer for this form of training is relatively high. Estimates indicate that, at the end of the training period, an employer that has delivered a Level 3 Engineering Apprenticeship will have incurred a net cost of around £40,000. It can take an employer around three years after the end of formal training period to recoup this investment. The report also considers how the employer's risk on investing might be reduced and more employers thus encouraged to take on apprentices. You can now download the full report, Employer Investment in Intermediate-level STEM Skills: how employers manage the investment risk associated with Apprenticeships.

Looking Back, Looking Forward: What's Happened to Work and Employment?

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 13:14:47 GMT

As part of the Social Sciences Festival celebrating the University of Warwick 's 50th Anniversary, the University's network on Connecting Research on Employment and Work (CREW) will be holding an event on 8th May, 11 am - 3 pm, to be held at the University's Ramphal building.

This event will identify key changes in work and employment that have taken place over the years since the University of Warwick was established in 1965. In the morning session senior scholars will review some of the continuities and changes (and how we think about them) in their fields of study. After a complimentary lunch, there will be presentations by newer members of the faculty looking ahead to future trends and practices.

Colleagues from trades unions, enterprise or training councils and other academic organisations are welcome to attend and further details of the event can be found here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/festival2015/eventprogramme/friday8thmay/looking_back_v3.pdf

Latest IER report on Apprenticeship considers employer response to funding reforms

Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:43:50 GMT

A new report by researchers from IER and IFF Research has been published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The report, 'Employer Routed Funding: Employer responses to funding reform' (BIS Research Paper Number 161), explores how employers’ engagement with the apprenticeship programme would vary depending on how funding is reformed.

The full report can be downloaded from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employer-routed-funding-employer-responses-to-funding-reform

For more IER research on Apprenticeships see: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/apprenticeships-training

Measuring additionality in apprenticeships - new report by Cambridge Econometrics and IER

Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:43:57 GMT

A new report by Cambridge Econometrics and Terence Hogarth and Lynn Gambin at the Warwick Institute for Employment Research has been published. The report, commissioned and published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) considers how the value added by government investment in Apprenticeships should be measured. The report explores how existing datasets can be used to improve understanding of additionality in apprenticeships and especially considers surveys which have become available since earlier research on this issue. Recommendations about further (cost-effective) data collection and analysis are also set out.

The full report can be downloaded from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measuring-additionality-in-apprenticeships

IER Response to the Richard Review of Apprenticeships

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:07:35 GMT

A statement by Terence Hogarth and Lynn Gambin put together in response to the Richard Review of Apprenticeships has been published in the latest issue of the NIACE Adults Learning journal (along with statements from a number of other experts in this area). The report is available here.

IER welcomes Dr Kelly Kuang and Sophie Perdrix

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:36:10 GMT

This week IER welcomes Dr Kelly Kuang and Sophie Perdrix who will be working and collaborating with Professor Alan Brown and Professor Jenny Bimrose.

Dr Kelly Kuang is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Vocational and Adult Education at East China Normal University. Kelly will be spending a year at the Institute, supported by a China Council Scholarship. Her research interests are focused on tertiary vocational education and training, in particular workplace learning/work based learning, modern apprenticeship and comparative studies of vocational education and training.

Sophie Perdrix is a doctoral student in the field of vocational psychology and career counselling at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She has been working for three years on an empirical longitudinal study investigating the effectiveness of a career counselling intervention. She will be visiting the Institute until the middle of January.