IER newsletter - May 2015

This month...
- Upcoming workshop

- Events
- IER in the News
- Publications

- New Projects

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IER at workshop on educational choices

Lynn Gambin has been invited to speak at an event hosted by the Institute for Economic Analysis of Decision-making (InstEAD) at the University of Sheffield on 22 June. The workshop, entitled "Educational Choices in Further and Higher Education" is intended to gather a range of speakers whose research provides important information that can help make these decisions. The speakers will discuss factors such as the labour market impacts of different qualifications, in terms of the jobs that they lead to and the wages earned, the costs of studying, the type of learning and the skills acquired within different educational programmes, which can all influence the decision whether to participate or not in a particular educational programme. Lynn will present findings from her research into Apprenticeships in England. Further details of the event can be found here as well as registration.

Events

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

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) organised an event on 8 May.

The event identified 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 reviewed some of the continuities and changes (and how we think about them) in their fields of study. This was followed in the afternoon by presentations from newer members of the faculty looking ahead to future trends and practices.Sally-Anne Barnes presented findings from recent IER research on crowdsourcing and the future of careers and work.

Colleagues from trades unions, enterprise or training councils and other academic organisations were welcomed to the event. A copy of the programme is available. Videos and presentations from the event will be available from the CREW website shortly.

IER at International Organisation for Migration, Colombia

Anne Green and Ritva Ellison attended the Panel of Experts 'Recommendations to Occupational Analysis and Recognition of Qualifications and Competences of Migrants' in Bogota, Colombia, on 28-29 April at the invitation of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The overall objective of the Expert Panel was to generate technical inputs for validating occupational analysis in Colombia and guidelines for recognition of qualifications and competencies of the migrant population and to generate recommendations for the work plan of the Colombian Ministry of Labour.

Anne Green drew upon research on migrants, migration policy and labour market information and trends in her presentations, while Ritva Ellison highlighted work undertaken in conjunction with Peter Elias and Margaret Birch on CASCOT and occupational classifications.

Symposium on inequalities in graduate outcomes

Clare Lyonette and Gaby Atfield both presented papers in a symposium on inequalities in graduate outcomes at the BSA conference in Glasgow on 16 April. Papers were on 'Higher education as a vehicle for social mobility? The relationship between social class, student experiences and graduate outcomes' and 'How do gender, social class and motherhood affect the labour market outcomes of student mothers?'

Find out more about IER research on higher education and the graduate labour market on the IER website.

Presentation on jobs growth in Australia during the Global Financial Crisis

Chris Warhurst and Sally Wright attended the 33rd Annual International Labour Process Conference (ILPC) in Athens on 13-15 April. Chris and Sally presented findings from current research on jobs growth in Australia during the Global Financial Crisis. Their paper examined the change in the structure of employment in Australia during the period 2006 and 2010 to examine the job quality trend, using pay as the proxy, in Australia during this period. As part of Eurofound’s programme of research on global trends in job quality, this Australian component draws on Australian labour force survey data from before and after the global financial crisis: 2006 and 2010. The analysis shows that at the aggregate level, an upgrading of jobs has occurred whereby jobs in the highest paying quintiles grew significantly, jobs in the middle quintile flat-lined and some, though relatively less, growth occurred in jobs in the lowest paying quintiles. However, moving beyond the aggregate reveals the pattern of upgrading is not evenly spread across the Australian labour market. Important differences in the distribution of good jobs emerge once gender, sector, form and hours status of workers are taken into consideration.

More information on Eurofound’s Global JOBS project is available.

IER in the News

Lynn Gambin spoke about recent apprenticeship figures on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on 28 April.

Clare Lyonette discussed her recent research 'sharing the load': the division of domestic labour amongst couples where women are the higher earners on Radio 4's Thinking Allowed on 6 May.

Publications

White, R.J. and Green, A.E. (2015) The importance of socio-spatial influences in shaping young people’s employment aspirations: case study evidence from three British cities, Work, Employment & Society 29 (2): 295-313.

New Projects

LMI for All, Lot 1 Technical infrastructure, Lot 2 - Stakeholder Engagement and Lot 3 - Data Development - funded by UKCES

For more information on any of these projects please email ier@warwick.ac.uk.