IER News & blogs

The IER have a stand at the Postgraduate Open Day on Wednesday 26th November 2014 with two of IER's Postgraduate students, Olga Siemers and Lorraine Johnson manning the stand. Further information is available on the webpage: www.warwick.ac.uk/pgopenday

Following his retirement as Director of IER, the Robert Lindley Scholarship in Employment Policy Research has just been established. This scholarship is intended to encourage cross-over between the academic and policy-maker communities. The first recipient is IER's PhD student Lorraine Johnson. Her research interest lies in late career transition with a focus on the experiences of professional women.

Career ‘transition’ and ‘adaptability’ have been significant themes running through Lorraine's own career to date. In the last 5 years she has transitioned from Further Education College Lecturer, Secondary Pathways Adviser (developing web based career transition tools) and more recently Project Manager for a United Kingdom Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) project. Her earlier career provided plenty of opportunity to practice “transition” initiated by a move from London to Birmingham to take up a promotion to Senior Careers Adviser responsible for project work and then further promotion to trainer. During this period she also undertook two career breaks to support her partner's career development. The first involved living in Tsukuba Science City, Japan, whilst home teaching her two children. The second moved her to Tokyo, working at the British School whilst studying for a Masters in Education.

The ESRC is funding four groundbreaking research projects on what works in tackling poverty. In association with the Public Policy Institute for Wales, the aim of the research is to advance understanding of effective strategies for tackling poverty. Professor Anne Green is leading one of the projects on 'Harnessing growth sectors for poverty reduction: what works to reduce poverty through sustainable employment with opportunities for progression?'. Find out more about Anne's project, with Paul Sissons (University of Coventry), Neil Lee (LSE) and the Bevan Foundation, in her blog.

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.