Professor Jenny Bimrose and Professor Alan Brown will be presenting new research on the role of career adaptability in skills supply at the Vocational Designing and Careers Counselling conference in Padova, Italy (12-14 September). The research undertaken for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills explores the concept of career adaptability and improves our understanding of the wide range of goals, aspirations, achievements and identities that shape the way that individuals interact with and move through the labour market. The report can be downloaded from the project web page. Professor Jenny Bimrose will also present with IER Associate Fellows, Professor Mark Watson and Dr Mary McMahon. In addition, Jenny will be leading on a symposium at which initial findings from a 5 country study of the career development of older women will be presented.

The role of career adaptability in skills supply

This study, undertaken by Professor Jenny Bimrose, Professor Alan Brown, Dr Sally-Anne Barnes and IER Associate Fellow Dr Deirdre Hughes, explores the concept of career adaptability and improves our understanding of the wide range of goals, aspirations, achievements and identities that shape the way that individuals interact with and move through the labour market.

The impact of student and migrant employment on opportunities for low skilled people

This study, undertaken by Gaby Atfield, Professor Anne Green, Professor Kate Purcell, Dr Teresa Staniewicz (from Sociology) and Dr David Owen, looks at the impact of student and migrant employment on opportunities for low skilled people. It improves our understanding of the changing nature of low skilled work, and the attitudes and motivations of low skilled people and employers in one local economic area.

Rebalancing the economy sectorally and spatially: An evidence review

Professor Anne Green worked with SQW, CE and CURDS on this report, which reviews national and international evidence on the rationale, impact and effectiveness of government intervention to rebalance the economy sectorally and spatially in the UK and abroad. It draws on five international case studies and seeks to apply policy lessons from the evidence, including understanding the role of, and implications for, employment and skills policy in supporting objectives of economic rebalancing.

This Bulletin, entitled Adult career progression & advancement: A five year study of the effectiveness of career guidance, presents the findings from a five year longitudinal qualitative research study into the nature of effective career guidance, undertaken at the Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER). It summarises findings from the fifth and final year of the study, presenting evidence on the role of guidance in the process of career development and progression, and follows on from previous Bulletins (No. 78, 84, 87 and 90). The Bulletin can be downloaded here.

For more information on the longitudinal study into career guidance go to the project page.

For the second year running, IER in partnership with Connexions Kent & Medway won a National Careers Award for ‘research by an organisation’. The event was organised by the Institute of Careers Guidance (the largest professional careers organisation in the UK) and was held in Leeds. The award was in recognition of the innovative research and development carried out by IER and Connexion Kent on Career Constructor. Career Constructor was the result of a three year research project on the integration of ICT in career guidance practice. It brings together information on over 800 jobs and over 400 videos with interactive exercises, local searches and customised career research – all aimed at providing a comprehensive web-based career package for young people. Career Constructor was designed to enable young people to conduct detailed career searches, record their own research and profile in an e-portfolio format, explore labour market data and rate jobs.

The ESRC seminar series entitled: ‘Re-framing service delivery, professional practices and professional identities in UK careers work’ is being organised by Professor Jenny Bimrose and Dr Sally-Anne Barnes from the Institute for Employment Research in partnership with Professors Laurie Cohen and John Arnold from Loughborough University.  The series will comprise 6 one-day seminars. The title of the second is: ‘Professional associations & professionalism: exploring the ‘Balkanisation’ of careers guidance, the role of the associations and their inter-relationships’ at the University of Glamorgan on 31st March, 2011.  More information on the seminar series is available.