IER News & blogs

Terence Hogarth, Principal Research Fellow at the Warwick Institute for Employment Research, is keynote speaker at the Work:life Balance Breakfast Briefing, hosted by Midlands law firm Challinors, at Conference Aston, Birmingham on Thursday 12^thJanuary 2012, from 7.30am to 9.00am.

Dr Deirdre Hughes, IER Associate Fellow, has been awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to careers. Deirdre has had a longstanding working relationship with IER. She specialises in the evidence-base and impact of careers work, as well as researching issues on social mobility, NEETs, information, communications and technology (ICT) in careers policy and practice, and marketisation issues.

The final evaluation of the City Strategy initiative written by Professor Anne Green and Duncan Adam has been published. The initiative was designed at a time of national economic growth to combat enduring pockets of entrenched worklessness and poverty in urban areas by empowering local institutions to come together in partnerships to develop locally sensitive solutions. In general, City Strategy partnerships were successful in identifying gaps in existing service provision. They also had some successes in aligning funding sources so as to reduce duplication and achieve a more coherent services offer. There is a great deal of positive evidence for process changes made by the partnerships which have been positive for supporting workless individuals. There are numerous micro level individual and project success stories and outcomes all evidenced in this evaluation.

Green, A.E. and Adam, D. (2011). City Strategy: Final Evaluation, DWP Research Report No. 783. Department for Work and Pensions.

An article by IER Professor Peter Elias, ESRC Strategic Advisor (Data Resources), has been published in the Autumn issue of ESRC Society Now (pages 22-23). The article explores the issue of data linking and its potential to add high value to existing surveys, or to create new data sources.

“Greece… I’m facing taxing times”, a documentary by Serafeim Ntousias (London’s Royal College of Art) and presented by Lakis Lazopoulos, reviews the events that led Greece to its current position. It includes interviews with young Greeks living in the UK. Dr Ilias Livanos is interviewed about his views on how Greeks living abroad experience the economic crisis in Greece. Ilias will also talk about young people in Greece and share his views on how they can take hold of the current situation with regards to their career choices and paths. To find out more go to the official website (in English) or visit the Facebook page.