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IER newsletter - July 2015


 

This month...

- Postgraduate Research Poster Competition
- Events
- IER in the news
- Publications
- New Projects

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IER at Warwick Postgraduate Research Poster Competition

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.

Lorraine's winning posterCongratulations go out to IER PhD student, Lorraine Johnson, who won the Social Science Faculty Prize. Lorraine's research focuses on the nature of career support available to professional women aged fifty to state pension age navigating the labour market.

Mohd Onn Rashdi Abdul Patah, another IER PhD student, also participated in the competition, presenting his research on the career aspirations and opportunity structures of local Malaysian middle managers in the hotel industry. Research Fellow, Charoula Tzanakou, participated as a judge. More details of the research being carried out by PhD students at IER can be found here.

Events

The life and work of Professor Rosemary Crompton

A podcast from the Inaugural Rosemary Crompton Memorial Lecture 2015 held on 20 March at City University, London, features Professor Kate Purcell speaking about the life and work of Professor Rosemary Crompton and Professor Crompton's contribution to our understanding of work, employment, social class and gender.

Professor Rosemary Crompton was a pioneering sociologist. Her insights into class and gender inequalities produced a large body of work which continue to have resonance today. After Rosemary's premature death in 2011 the Academic community sought to perpetuate her memory by holding an Annual Rosemary Crompton Memorial Lecture. The lecture series is to be organised around the key themes of her work: gender, class and employment. The inaugural speaker was Professor Erik Olin Wright, University of Wisconsin-Madison, an international expert in class inequalities and a former colleague of Professor Crompton.

The podcast can be viewed here.


Nigerian Government delegation visits IER

In late June, IER hosted a UN-led delegation from the Nigerian Government. PVC Professor Jan Palmowski welcomed the visitors to Warwick. The visit was part of a UK study tour by officials from the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) agency with a remit to develop labour market policies and interventions that would support inclusive and sustainable industrial development in Nigeria.

The officials were keen to learn more about three particular IER projects: Skills Forecasting led by Rob Wilson, Futuretrack led by Kate Purcell and Labour Market Information for All led by Jenny Bimrose and Nick Sofroniou. All of these projects have tangibly influenced UK Government thinking over recent years about workforce planning, measuring the graduate labour market and improving career guidance and advice. Lessons from these projects, it is hoped, will help the ITF boost Nigeria’s workforce’s skills and avoid skill mismatches as the country attempts to complement its strong oil sector with an expanded manufacturing sector.

IER at 6 Years of re:work conference in Berlin

Milena Kremakova chaired a panel entitled 'Who cares? Work, care, household and family' at the 6 years of re:work conference which took place on 4-6 June at the Käte Hamburger International Centre IGK Work and Lifecycle in Global History (re:work), Humboldt University in Berlin where Milena was a Fellow in 2012/13.

The interdisciplinary conference brought together researchers from history, sociology, anthropology, and legal studies of labour, and presented an overview of the Centre's themes from the past 6 years (free and forced labour, work and non-work, work and lifecourse or life-phases, work and care, labour on the move). The conference programme can be downloaded here.

Charoula Tzanakou invited to speak on diversity and equality at ESRC Staff Seminar

The Economic and Social Research Council is currently reviewing and updating its Equality Action Plan, with the aim to embed Equality & Diversity across the organisation. The purpose of this seminar held on 22 June was to raise awareness of ESRC’s commitment to Equality & Diversity and explain why this is important to all ESRC staff. Charoula Tzanakou was invited to present her ESRC-funded project on the under-representation of women in academia and provide suggestions on what ESRC could be doing to contribute to a cultural change in academia. After the presentation, ESRC staff worked in groups contributing ideas about how the ESRC as a funder, employer and in its governance structures can embed equality and diversity across the organisation. These discussions will feed into the development of the ESRC Equality Action Plan due to be published later this year.

Westminster Employment Forum Keynote Seminar on higher level vocational education

Terence Hogarth was an invited speaker at the Westminster Employment Forum Keynote Seminar: Developing the higher level vocational education system and the next steps for Higher Apprenticeships on 21 May. This seminar involved key policymakers, stakeholders including colleges, universities, awarding organisations, employers and industry bodies and others discussing existing developments and policy proposals concerned with the development of higher level vocational education. Terence's presentation entitled, 'The Demand for Higher Level Skills' helped to set the scene for discussion of the role and need for higher level vocational skills. The full agenda for this event is available here.

Tackling Youth Unemployment

Anne Green was invited by the OECD to facilitate and speak at a workshop on 'Local Implementation of the Youth Guarantee: addressing the NEETs challenge' at the 11th Annual Meeting of the OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Development held in Manchester, 24-26 June.

Anne spoke about the National Evaluation of the Talent Match Programme, funded by the Big Lottery, in which IER researchers are involved. There were presentations from the Greater Manchester Talent Match team, from OECD, the European Commission and Eurocities. The conference brochure can be viewed here.

BUIRA Conference

A paper entitled 'Reforming the ICE regulations’ by Mark Hall (Warwick Business School), Duncan Adam and John Purcell was presented to the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA) Conference on 24 June at De Montfort University. The paper examines the possibilities for reform of the information and consultation of employees (ICE) directive in light of empirical evidence and the recent election result.

Successful completion of EmployID MOOC for DWP

Jenny Bimrose and Alan Brown were involved in the development of an online training programme (MOOC) for DWP employer engagement staff and on 21 May 2015 the staff from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, along with representatives of National Employer Support Team, DWP Learning & Development and EmployID gathered in Newton Abbot, to celebrate the successful completion of the first pilot MOOC. The aim of the event was to reflect on the design of, and participation in the MOOC and for the learners to receive their certificate of achievement. The day was a mixture of reflection exercises, evaluation feedback and face-to-face interviews. The learners also had the opportunity to present their suggestions for the District Employer Engagement plans, which they did in a lively and enthusiastic manner. Towards the end of the event, the learners received their certificates from Jenny Bimrose, University of Warwick, and Barbara Kieslinger from the Centre for Social Innovation, all to spirited applause. The day was rounded off with an informal buffet where everyone had the opportunity to engage with each other and network.

Australia Workplace Relations Study Conference

A paper by IER's Duncan Adam and Ray Markey (Centre for Workforce Futures, Macquarie University) was presented to the Australia Workplace Relations Study (AWRS) conference on 25 June in Melbourne. The conference was organised by the Australian Fair Work Commission and showcased a number of papers using data from the recently conducted AWRS. Duncan and Ray’s paper, entitled 'Comparing Employee Voice in Australia and the UK’, examines the differences in institutional frameworks in the UK and Australia and analyses differences in consultative structures in the two countries using WERS data for the UK and AWRS data for Australia. The slides from this presentation can be viewed here.

 

IER in the news

Duncan Adam comments on Goodyear closure

Duncan Adam commented on the the closure of the Goodyear factory in Wolverhampton in the Express and Star. Duncan spoke about the number of job losses and raised questions about what it means for the Black Country.

 

Publications

How cities can connect people in poverty with jobs

A major report reviewing UK and international evidence on local approaches linking people not in work to jobs, and those in work to better jobs, has been published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The report looks at four stages in a stylised ‘pathway to employment’: pre-employment; employment entry; staying in work; and in-work progression.

 

The project was led by IER's Anne Green with Paul Sissons and Kevin Broughton from Coventry University and Maria de Hoyos, Chris Warhurst and Sally-Anne Barnes from IER.

A four-page summary and the full report are availble to download.

Latest Paths2Work blog on monitoring the spaces of skills training and participation

Julian Molina, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick has contributed to the Paths2Work Blogs with a post considering the spaces of skills training and participation. Julian's research is related to the Paths2Work project as it focuses on the practice of implementing employability initiatives in Birmingham and London.
Read Julian's blog and previous posts here.

Report on shaping a successful careers offer for all young Londoners

The report by IER Associate Fellow, Deirdre Hughes, London Ambitions: Shaping a successful careers offer for all young Londoners proposes that every young Londoner should have access to impartial, independent and personalised careers education, information, advice and face-to-face guidance in their local community. It says every young Londoner should have completed at least 100 hours experience of the world of work, in some form, by the time they reach the age of 16. This may include career insights from industry experts, work tasters, coaching, mentoring, enterprise activities, part-time work, work shadowing or work experience.

Journal articles and book chapters

Green A E and Livanos I (2015) 'Involuntary non-standard employment and the economic crisis: regional insights from the UK', Regional Studies 49 (7), 1223-1235 (DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2013.825712)

Green A E and Shuttleworth I (2015) 'Labour markets and internal migration' in Smith D P, Finney N, Halfacreee K and Walford (eds.) Internal Migration: Geographical Perspectives and Processes, Ashgate, Farnham, 65-79 (ISBN: 9781472452467)

 

New Projects

Refreshment of Working Futures Labour Market Projections (Working Futures 6)
Funded by UKCES

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