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The Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick is doing some research for the Home Office on why and how different groups of people work in hotels, restaurants and fast food outlets or in the construction industry in the Greater West Midlands area. The experiences of those working in these two sectors of the economy will be compared and contrasted.

IER’s Terence Hogarth made a presentation at the Adult Learning: Spotlight on Investment conference organised jointly by Cedefop and DG Education and Culture in December. The conference website has now been updated with conference papers and photographs from the event (http://adult-learning-investment.eu/).

Terence’s presentation on the Benefits of Training for Companies highlighted findings from recent quantitative and qualitative research carried out by IER, focusing on: the rationales which guide employer provision of training; the extent to which this satisfies employee expectations and aspirations; effects on job satisfaction and worker motivation; implications for organisational performance; and consideration of how the economic environment affects approaches to training.

Today sees the publication of two reports by Cedefop, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. These reports are the latest in a series of publications from a 4-year skills demand and supply forecasting project led by IER’s Rob Wilson, working in collaboration with Cedefop and a consortium of partners across Europe.

The latest skill demand and supply forecasts produced for Cedefop aim to provide evidence on future labour market developments to help to make informed decisions. The main findings of the latest skill demand and supply forecast for the European Union for 2010-20 indicate that although the economic conditions will determine only a modest increase in job openings, current trends, including a shift to more skill-intensive jobs, a demand for people to be better qualified and more jobs in services, will continue.

The second publication provides an overview of the methodological framework used to underpin the skills forecasting project.

The UK labour market has become more challenging for all jobseekers, with unemployment particularly high among young people and those with limited education and skills. Research published today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation describes the difficulty of job searching for young people seeking low-skilled work, examining three contrasting local labour market areas in England and Wales.

The report was co-authored by Professor Becky Tunstall (University of York) and Professor Anne Green (IER), Ruth Lupton, Simon Watmough and Katie Bates (LSE).

This bulletin considers some of the recent changes in the welfare to work policy domain. Examples are drawn from the IER evaluation of the City Strategy initiative. Other important developments are also discussed with relevance to future implications for the planning, orchestration and delivery of welfare to work services, including the flagship programme of the Coalition Government, the Work Programme and the benefit reform known as Universal Credit. The Bulletin can be downloaded here.