IER News & blogs
Peter Dickinson appointed as advisor to two organisations
Peter Dickinson, Senior Research Fellow at IER, has been appointed to the What Works Growth’s Evaluation Panel. The panel provides advice and support to central and local government on the design and implementation of evaluations of local economic policies. It helps ensure evaluations are high quality and supports policymakers in developing their evaluation skills, knowledge and capacity. Over the longer term, it will also expand the evidence have about ‘what works’.
Peter has also been appointed to the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) roster of consultants providing advice, expertise and support on skills policy and practice.
Reports from Talent Match National Evaluation
Researchers at IER are involved with colleagues at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) in the medium-term National Evaluation of the Talent Match Initiative. Talent Match is funded by the Big Lottery and is concerned with investing resources in a number of local areas in England where youth unemployment is a significant issue. The aims of the evaluation are to track the success of the initiative and projects within it - to identify what works well, for whom and in what circumstances; and to share learning and improve practice.
Duncan Adam, Gaby Atfield and Anne Green contributed to the first year Annual Report (click here for a Summary). Gaby Atfield contributed to a special report on the Involvement of Young People in the design and implementation of Talent Match, while Anne Green co-authored a theme report on Partnership Working.
Measuring additionality in apprenticeships - new report by Cambridge Econometrics and IER
A new report by Cambridge Econometrics and Terence Hogarth and Lynn Gambin at the Warwick Institute for Employment Research has been published. The report, commissioned and published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) considers how the value added by government investment in Apprenticeships should be measured. The report explores how existing datasets can be used to improve understanding of additionality in apprenticeships and especially considers surveys which have become available since earlier research on this issue. Recommendations about further (cost-effective) data collection and analysis are also set out.
The full report can be downloaded from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measuring-additionality-in-apprenticeships
IER Bulletin published - Welfare to work reforms and the experiences of City Strategy
This bulletin considers some of the recent changes in the welfare to work policy domain. Examples are drawn from the IER evaluation of the City Strategy initiative. Other important developments are also discussed with relevance to future implications for the planning, orchestration and delivery of welfare to work services, including the flagship programme of the Coalition Government, the Work Programme and the benefit reform known as Universal Credit. The Bulletin can be downloaded here.
BIS Reports on Apprenticeships
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has today published three reports on Apprenticeships, co-authored by IER and IFF Research.
The reports detail findings from research undertake by IER and IFF using the Apprentice Learner Survey of 5,000 apprentices and provide evidence of the real value of apprenticeships.
