Podcast from the Inaugural Rosemary Crompton Memorial Lecture 2015 held at City University, London. Professor Kate Purcell talked about the life and work of Professor Rosemary Crompton and Professor Crompton's contribution to our understanding of work, employment, social class and gender. Watch the podcast here.

Professor Rosemary Crompton was a pioneering sociologist. Her insights into class and gender inequalities produced a large body of work which continue to have resonance today. After Rosemary's premature death in 2011 the Academic community sought to perpetuate her memory by holding an Annual Rosemary Crompton memorial lecture. The lecture series is to be organised around the key themes of her work: gender, class and employment. The inaugural speaker was Professor Erik Olin Wright, University of Wisconsin-Madison, an international expert in class inequalities and a former colleague of Professor Crompton.

An independent Wolverhampton Skills and Employment Commission has been established to provide Wolverhampton City Council and its local partners with a set of practical recommendations on how to ensure that Wolverhampton has the appropriately skilled workforce required to support the City’s economic growth, to support the sustainability of businesses in the city and critically to ensure that residents and young people have access to the right skills provision to give them the best chance of securing employment. Anne Green, who was formerly Chair of the West Midlands Regional Observatory's Economy and Labour Force Topic Group and who has undertaken a series of research projects on local skills issues, has been invited to serve on the Commission and attended its first meeting at Molineux Stadium, the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, on 6 January 2015. For more details see the Commission's website.

Dr Charoula Tzanakou has been selected to participate in the workshop Strengthening UK-Colombia Research & Innovation Cooperation (UK-Colombia RICO): The Role of Foresight and Horizon Scanning, funded by the British Council and taking place in Cali, Colombia on 26-28 November 2014. Dr Tzanakou will contribute to science and technology policy themes drawing on her doctoral and postdoc research on human resources in science and technology, as well as her participation in European Commission funded projects on higher education and European Research Area.

This seminar, to be held on 28 November in London, will outline key findings from a mixed methods research study undertaken by a consortium of experts on the link between employers, schools and the National Careers Service, led by Warwick Institute for Employment (IER) on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills.

Professor Jenny Bimrose and Dr Deirdre Hughes will present findings from the research that illustrates how employers are working and linking with schools/colleges in a variety of ways that bring significant benefit. They will share the outcomes from a systematic literature review, a survey of over 300 companies, data analysed from 78 schools and 20 colleges, including in-depth interviews and case-studies, 8 Prime Contractors from the National Careers Service and 23 interviews with senior leaders from education, business and the career development profession. The seminar will reflect on key findings and consider future options for the triangulation of education, employer and careers service working links. Findings indicate that a new paradigm shift is taking place, with the critical question for all of the actors involved being: ‘where next?’.

The seminar is free to attend but places are limited and must be booked in advance. To book a place please visit the Education and Employers Taskforce website.

Dr Lynn Gambin has been appointed as a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Education Committee on the inquiry into Apprenticeships and traineeships for 16-19 year olds.

Lynn is involved in a programme of research on apprenticeships, skills and training at IER. Her research considers a variety of issues including: employers’ perspectives on training; the returns to training for employers and apprentices / trainees; employers’ responses funding arrangements for apprenticeships; and comparison of training and apprenticeship systems across Europe. Lynn has, with IER colleagues and external partners, carried out a number of relevant studies, including: a review of recent research into apprenticeships; a review of the methodological issues encountered in estimating the returns to different forms of learning and training; and, a review of the approaches underlying the current BIS estimates of the returns to different qualifications.