IER News & blogs

IER staff, led by Peter Elias, are currently engaged in a project funded by the Office for National Statistics, to add more detail into the next revision of the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC).

Having just completed work on the revision of SOC2010 to SOC2020, the new project will provide for a six-digit structure to the classification. The work involves a series of face-to-face meetings with interested parties, such as the NHS, Royal Society, Careers Wales, Skills Development Scotland and a wide range of government departments and agencies.

As part of this work, ONS and IER have teamed up to create an online survey available to anyone with an interest in this work. Details can be found here.

A new report written by Erika Kispeter about the current and future demand for digital skills at the work has just been published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The report argues that digital skills should not be looked at in isolation from other skills, pointing to a need for ‘21st century skills’, especially interpersonal skills, cognitive competencies and learning strategies with creative use of digital skills becoming increasingly important.

The feasibility of developing a methodology for measuring the distance travelled and soft outcomes for long-term unemployed people participating in Active Labour Market Programmes has just been published by the European Commission.

Sally-Anne Barnes and Sally Wright undertook the review as part of the ESF funded European Transnational Employment Platform Project led by AEIDL. The aim of the review was to establish the scope for application of 'Distance Travelled Models', which could be adapted by those supporting long-term employed integration.

Sally-Anne and Sally also delivered a half day workshop for the Slovenian public employment services to support the development of a distance travelled model for the labour market programmes.

A new report, co-written for Eurofound by Peter Dickinson and Chris Warhurst of IER, examines cooperatives’ and social enterprises’ resilience to economic changes.

Based on new research it highlights how the management practices of these organisations help sustain employment levels and deliver goods jobs in the face of structural and cyclical economic changes. Read more here.

IER has been awarded a Bronze Athena SWAN Award in recognition of its efforts to promote equality, representation, progression and success for everyone working within the Institute.

Professor Clare Lyonette, along with Catherine Vassallo, IER’s Administrator, led the Athena SWAN submission with support from the Self-Assessment Team (SAT). Clare and Catherine are delighted with the award which is a testament to the incredible hard work and effort by all involved.

Clare said:

‘We are proud that the Equality Challenge Unit has recognised us in this round of awards and we are now looking forward to fully implementing our Action Plan. We have a dedicated team of staff who will be working together to make sure that the impetus is maintained over the coming months and years’.

She added:

‘The Athena SWAN submission included new data collection and analysis and led us to reflect upon our processes and practices more closely, particularly with a new intake of early career researchers in recent years. We will strive to ensure that they, and all staff and students, are equally recognised and have equal opportunities to thrive in a busy and demanding research-only environment’.