IER Newsletter - January 2019

New ESRC-funded PhD studentships from the Midlands Graduate School DTP

IER has been awarded two new ESRC-funded PhD studentships from the Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP).

The Collaborative Studentship with the Living Wage Foundation on ‘Understanding employer delivery of good work in the UK’ will be supervised by Professor Chris Warhurst and Sally Wright. The application deadline is Monday, 11th March, at 5 pm.

The Joint Studentship 'Social inequalities entering civvy street: researching the importance of class and gender in determining labour market outcomes of military veterans,' will be supervised by Professor Clare Lyonette (IER) and Professor Tracey Warren (University of Nottingham). Further details are available here. The application deadline is Friday, 15th March at 5pm.

(Image credit: Lego Grad Student)

Low-skilled workers miss out on training

A new IER report produced for the Social Mobility Commission, ‘The adult skills gap: Is falling investment in UK adults stalling social mobility?’, discusses the landscape of adult skills and participation in training in the UK. It finds evidence of ‘vicious’ and ‘virtuous’ circles of training, whereby those with low or no qualifications are much less likely to access education and training after leaving school compared to those with high qualifications. The report also highlights that UK investment in training is low by international standards. This leaves big questions about how the government, employers, and society more broadly can ensure better prospects for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The report was launched on the 29th of January 2019. Its findings were covered by the Financial Times and the Independent, and were discussed on The Today Programme.
The report, co-authored by Dr Daria Luchinskaya and Peter Dickinson can be accessed on the government website. For more information about the project and the findings, please see the IER project page and Daria's blog.

Luchinskaya, D. and Dickinson, P. (January 2019). The adult skills gap: is falling investment in UK adults stalling social mobility? London: Social Mobility Commission (Social Mobility Commission Report).

Latest Cedefop Skills projections published

The latest set of Cedefop Pan-European Skill projections has just been published. Full details are available on the Cedefop website.
IER has been involved in producing these comprehensive and detailed forecasts since their inception in 2005. The latest project which runs until 2020 is now being led by our long standing partners Cambridge Econometrics.

Cedefop (2018) Skills forecast: trends and challenges to 2030. Cedefop reference series 108, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Gender, knowledge and inequalities in the UK screen industries

Daria Luchinskaya has contributed to an article with Doris Eikhof at CAMEo, University of Leicester, Jack Newsinger and Daniela Aidley. How is knowledge of gender inequality produced in the case of the UK film, television, video games, animation and special effects production industries? This article looks at what knowledge of gender inequality is made visible and actionable in the case of the UK screen sector, highlights the shortcomings of the production of gender knowledge in the sector and suggests ways in which understanding gender inequality in the UK screen industries can be improved. The article is published as Early View in Gender, Work & Organization, and will be published as part of a special issue later in 2019.

Eikhof, D. R., Newsinger, J., Luchinskaya, D., and Aidley, D. (2019). 'And… action? Gender, knowledge and inequalities in the UK screen industries.' Gender, Work & Organization. Advance online publication. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12318.

New projects

Transnational Employment Platform - Long Term Unemployment. European Social Fund via AEIDL.
Public engagement research for the SPF UK Population Laboratory. ESRC.
Working Futures 2017-2027. Department for Education.
Inequalities and skills acquisition in young people: Identification of factors affecting successful outcomes in the DDU-GKY Indian skills programme for unemployed young people. ESRC GCRF.
TRANSFORMATIONS-01-2018: BEYOND4.0. European Commission H2020 via TNO.
Civil society White Paper on social security. Trust for London.
What motivates employers to offer family friendly policies? Department for Education.
Research with graduates from low-return subjects. Department for Education.
Participation in paid, unpaid and 'hidden' internships at six months after graduation: are some graduates excluded? Society for Research into Higher Education.

Find more information on IER's current projects.