Visiting academic, Dr Stephen Whelan at IER

This week IER welcomes Dr Stephen Whelan as a visiting academic from the University of Sydney. Stephen is a labour economist with a research focus on social policy and its impact on labour market outcomes. Whilst at IER for the next few months, Stephen will be working with Chris Warhurst and Sally Wright researching global jobs.

IER research highlights

George Osborne’s apprenticeship levy – the devil’s in the detail

Following the budget on 8 July 2015, Lynn Gambin and Terence Hogarth provide a reaction to the Chancellor's announcement of an apprenticeship levy on large employers. Whilst details are not yet availble on the form and substance of the levy, Lynn and Terence have produced a commentary on the rationale and likely implications of such training levies and ask some questions about what this policy may mean for Apprenticeships and large employers in England. This commentary is the second in a series by Lynn and Terence entitled: Apprenticeships and Skills: How to get there from here.

What are the four big questions that need to be answered about job quality?

Chris Warhurst writes an article for Skills Development Scotland talking about the four questions that need to be anwered before governments can rush off and start to develop policies to improve job quality and their countries', companies' and citizens' well-being. Read the article on SDS research online.

IER in the news

Lynn Gambin joins the debate about women and apprenticeships

Lynn Gambin talks about her research on apprenticeships as part of the debate about women and apprenticeships on Women's Hour. Catch up on Radio 4's website.

Government gender pay gap plans - a step in the right direction

Clare Lyonette comments on the government announcement that it would be introducing new legislation to address the gender pay gap. University of Warwick press release can be read here.

Events

Expert workshop on worklessness - focus on Wales

Worklessness is a long standing and complex problem in Wales. Welsh Government Ministers are keen to find ways of reducing worklessness and want to understand what has (and has not) worked elsewhere. To facilitate this, the Public Policy Institute for Wales convened an Expert Workshop on "Worklessness: What Will Work in Wales?". Anne Green was one of the academic experts invited to the discussion in Cardiff on 22 July with Welsh Government officials.

Using the UK’s population census data

David Owen presented a paper entitled "Variations in national identity, diversity and integration within the UK" at the UK Data Service conference “Census Applications: Using the UK’s population census data”, University of Manchester, on 17 July 2015.

Skills forecasting in the mediterranean region

Rob Wilson took part in a UNESCO event "Skills Forecasting in the Mediterranean Region Workshop II" in Paris at the UNESCO Headquarters. The event was part of the 3 year NET MED Youth project, which is being funded by the European Union and implemented by UNESCO. The NET MED Youth project aims to mainstream youth issues and priorities across national decision-making and policy implementation in countries on the southern and eastern borders of the Mediterranean. It has various strands, including an Employment Component and Skills Forecasting element.The previous workshop resulted in the production of a detailed cross-country Regional Situational Analysis Report setting out some of the challenges facing these countries, including: general labour market prospects and transitions of young people; existing research evidence of relevant skills forecasting work; and the availability of data to undertake such forecasting work. The main results of this work were presented by Rob Wilson at Workshop II, as a precursor to initiating the next phase of this activity. Find out more about IER's forecasting work here.

50th Anniversary colloquium of the Society for Research into Higher Education

Heike Behle, Charoula Tzanakou and Kate Purcell attended the 50th Anniversary Colloquium of the Society for Research into Higher Education, held on 26 June 2015 at Church House Conference Centre, Westminster, followed by a drinks reception at the House of Lords.

Publications

Upgrading or polarisation? Long-term and global shifts in the employment structure

Chris Warhurst and Sally Wright contributed to a Eurofound publication "Upgrading or polarisation? Long-term and global shifts in the employment structure: European Jobs Monitor 2015". The Eurofound report examines the time profile of recent shifts in the employment structure and also synthesises the main findings from two other analyses of labour market developments that use a jobs-based approach. The first centres on developments in six European countries – Germany, Spain, the UK, Sweden, Ireland and Switzerland – since the 1970s. The second is recent work by a network of labour market researchers from outside Europe, which focuses on Australia, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US. The Australian component of the research was undertaken by Chris and Sally in collaboration with Stephen Whelan from the University of Sydney and Julian Teicher from Monash University.

Barnes, S-A., Wright, S., Irving, P. and Deganis, I. (2015). Identification of latest trends and current developments in methods to profile jobseekers in European Public Employment Services: Final report. Brussels: Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission.

Final report from the LMI for All project

Bimrose, J., Wilson, R., Barnes, S-A., Owen, D., Li, Y., Green, A., Bosworth, L., Millar, P., Holden, A., Attwell, G., Rustemeier, P., Elferink, R. and Higginbottom, J. (2015). LMI for All: Developing a Careers Database (Final report). London: UK Commission for Employment and Skills. Find out more about the LMI for All project here.

New Projects

Apprenticeships: Evaluation surveys of employers and individuals, working with IFF Research. Funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills

For more information on any of this or any other IER projects please get in touch.