New report on employer responses to reform of Apprenticeship funding
A new report led by IER has been published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The report, Employer Routed Funding: Employer responses to funding reform, explores how employers’ engagement with the apprenticeship programme may vary depending on how funding arrangements are reformed through implementation of the recommendations of the Richard Review.
The study was led by Terence Hogarth and the research team included Lynn Gambin, Beate Baldauf, Chris Hasluck (IER Associate Fellow) and partners from IFF Research. The study considered employers' views on: the current training offer and their level of satisfaction with this; the value of apprenticeships for their businesses; and the likely impact on learner numbers of the employer being asked to make greater direct financial contributions to the costs of training. Employers' reactions to different levels of government co-investment in apprenticeships employers’ and their attitudes towards the routing of government funding via employers were also gauged.
Report exploring internet-enabled work and employability published by Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
This report is one of a series from the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre ICT4EMPL Future Work study. This study produced by Anne Green, Maria de Hoyos, Sally-Anne Barnes, Beate Baldauf and Heike Behle, focused on internet-enabled exchanges which are changing the way people interact in their daily lives, particularly when undertaking paid and unpaid work.
The study used the term ‘crowdsourcing’ to define internet-enabled exchanges that allow users (organisations or individuals) to access other users via the internet to solve specific problems or to achieve specific aims. The report 'Exploratory Research on Internet-enabled Work Exchanges and Employability. Analysis and synthesis of qualitative evidence on crowdsourcing for work, funding and volunteers' can be downloaded from:http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC85646.pdf.
For more on this project and other available reports go to: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/crowdemploy.
Report investigating links between poverty and growth in British cities published by Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Cities, Growth and Poverty: A review of the evidenceby IER's Anne Green, Gaby Atfield and Duncan Adam, together with colleagues from The Work Foundation and the London School of Economics, was published on 7 February by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). Anne Green was a panel member at the associated launch event of the 'More Jobs, Better Jobs' Partnership in Leeds.
The report examines the empirical links between economic growth and poverty and shows that economic growth is not a sufficient condition for poverty alleviation. It goes on to consider the policy context in which cities operate and through case study work examines if and how cities with different poverty / growth profiles have linked together these two policy domains. Good practice examples are identified to show how economic growth can be shared more equitably.
The full report can be accessed at: http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/cities-growth-poverty-full.pdf. This work will feed into JRF's ongoing research programme investigating the links bewteen economic growth and poverty alleviation in cities, which is being undertaken between 2013 and 2017.
Recent events
Occupational Coding in Multi-national Surveys
A research team at IER is developing a multi-lingual software tool for coding occupations using several European languages. CASCOT software, which has been in use for over ten years, has been extended to include Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Slovakian and Spanish versions. There are plans to add other languages. The tool uses ISCO-08 as the main classification. This development is being undertaken as part of the EC FP7 project DASISH - Data Service Infrastructure for the Social Sciences and Humanities.
In the context of this work, Margaret Birch and Ritva Ellison gave a presentation entitled ‘CASCOT and the Coding of Occupations in European Surveys’ on 10 February 2014 at the InGRID (Inclusive Growth Research Infrastructure Diffusion) workshop organised by the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
A Workshop partially funded by the DASISH project will take place on 10-11 April 2014 in Venice. This event will provide participants with the opportunity to test the coding tool in their own language and contribute to fine-tuning the coding process. For more information on the Venice Workshop, please contact Margaret Birch (M.E.Birch@warwick.ac.uk).
Migration Advisory Committee Academic Workshop on Low-skilled Work in the UK
Gaby Atfield was invited to give a presentation on behalf of the IER project team (Anne Green, Teresa Staniewicz [Department of Sociology], Duncan Adam and Beate Baldauf) on 'Migrants working in low-skilled jobs: A sectoral analysis covering the construction, hospitality, retail and care sectors' at the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) Academic Workshop on 'Low-skilled work in the UK: demand for low-skilled jobs and factors influencing recruitment of British workers and migrants including education & skills, vocational & apprenticeship systems, labour market regulations & enforcement', held at the Home Office on 7th February 2014.
The presentation drew on two projects recently conducted by the IER team for the MAC. Findings from the first project, covering the construction and hospitality sectors, can be found at http://tinyurl.com/prjg9q2.
The second report, on the retail and social care sectors, will be available in early summer 2014.
Presentation at OECD-CEDEFOP 2nd Green Skills Forum 2014
Rob Wilson, Deputy Director of IER, presented a paper, 'Climate change mitigation and employment growth', at the OECD-CEDEFOP 2nd Green Skills Forum 2014: Green Skills and Innovation for Inclusive Growth on 14 February 2014 in Paris.
The Forum aimed to review and discuss new research and policy approaches to encourage a greener and inclusive economy. The Forum intended also to provide a space for discussion between researchers, policy makers, employment analysts and social partners involved in skills development and identifying training needs for a greener economy. Rob presented his research in the Forum's session on 'How can low carbon activities be key to competitive and inclusive growth?'.
IER researchers part of successful bid to provide reporting services to Eurofound
IER’s Terence Hogarth, Anne Green, Chris Warhurst and Duncan Adam have, with colleagues in Warwick Business School, been part of a successful bid to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).
The team will join a network of national and EU level correspondents to provide expert national inputs of:
regular and systematic monitoring of and reporting on developments in industrial relations,working conditions and employment restructuring, and
on-request reporting on issues of national importance, comparative interest and/or relating to the European employment and social policy agenda.
The work will lead to greater understanding of these issues at a European level and play an important role in the policy debate. The contract will run for four years.
