New report from the Institute for Employment Research at University of Warwick, commissioned by the Public Policy Institute for Wales, reviews the effectiveness of policies to tackle intergenerational worklessness and fragile employment. The research, Dr Daria Luchinskaya and Professor Anne Green, suggests that intergenerational worklessness is unlikely to be widespread in Wales. However, fragile employment – whereby individuals move repeatedly in and out of employment – is a significant problem for some households and in some communities. The report finds that a ‘Work First’ policy approach (aimed at enabling people to get into work) has had some success but many of the jobs that are secured are part-time, temporary, low skill and low paid. Read the report on the PPIW website.

IER's Anne Green attended and was a speaker in the opening panel session at the 'Better Jobs, Better Business' national conference in Leeds on 10 March. The conference was hosted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in partnership with Leeds City Council, Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership, the British Hospitality Association, the British Retail Consortium, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, CIPD and PwC. The event marked the launch of the report 'Improving progression from low-paid jobs at city-region level' co-authored by Anne, Paul Sissons and Jenny Ferreria at Coventry University, Kathryn Ray from the Learning and Work Institute and Ceri Hughes from the New Policy Institute.

Lynn Gambin will be chairing the second session at a Policy-UK forum on 10th March 2016 at the Royal Society of Chemistry, London. The forum, 'Creating a generaton of Apprentices - funding, quality and a route to employment', is scheduled to coincide with National Apprenticeship Week 2016 and will provide delegates with an opportunity to hear the latest progress and policy priorities aimed at ensuring young people have the skills required by employers. With the Government committed to creating 3 million new apprenticeships by 2020, this for will consider how these new apprenticeships will be funded, what can be done to ensure their quality, particularly since concerns have been raised by Ofsted about the number of apprenticeships being awarded for ‘low-level’ skills (examples include tea making and cleaning floors), as well as how to encourage more employers to provide training and qualifications for young people, including the success of Trailblazer groups. Delegates will also discuss the availability of Higher Level apprenticeships and how their status can be improved and recognised as an alternative to university, as well as assessing whether the post-apprenticeship route into employment is adequately defined and supported.

IER's Lynn Gambin will chair the second half of the event which includes sessions entitled 'Are apprenticeships delivering for young people?' and 'What employers want - do apprenticeships address the skills shortage?'.

Details of the event can be found at here.

This morning, marks the launch of the new EU Skills Panorama - brought to you by the European Commission and powered by Cedefop. IER is pleased to be a part of a Consortium supporting Cedefop by providing data analysis and intelligence on skills and labour markets for the new Skills Panorama. This consortium is composed of Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini, Cambridge Econometrics, RAND Europe and the University of Warwick’s Institute for Employment Research.

In the Skills Panorama launch video, James Calleja, Director of Cedefop, highlights that the Skills Panorama "combines labour market data and expert knowledge with powerful technology that enables you to surf Europe's skills landscape for information and data to find intelligence and evidence to enable informed decisions and choices about skills in Europe." The Skills Panorama "places the best available information on skills and the labour market in Europe at your fingertips".

The new website will provide a more comprehensive and user-friendly central access point for information and intelligence on skill needs in occupations and sectors across Europe. Data can be explored by skills themes, sectors, occupations and countries. It is intended primarily for policy-makers and experts, providing them with a tool for developing evidence-based education and training and planning policy, including measures to tackle labour market mismatches.

See the launch video and the new Skills Panorama at: http://skillspanorama.cedefop.europa.eu/launchevent/.

For further details of IER's involvement contact: Terence Hogarth or Lynn Gambin

A new book on job quality, co-edited by IER Director Chris Warhurst, has been published in Australia by Federation Press. Job Quality in Australia examines the range of disciplinary perspectives on job quality, and conceptual and methodological problems with current understanding of job quality as well as offering proposals for developing that understanding and delivering better policy to improve job quality.

For more information go to the Federation Press website.