Chris Warhurst, Director of the Warwick Institute for Employment Research

I attended a meeting with Sir Mark Walport recently where he said that academics need to work more effectively with government policymakers. The Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER), of which I am Director, does this almost on a daily basis. Working with the Foresight team, we have just produced a number of short reports to help better communicate research to policymakers and academics on the future of skills and skill needs across the life-course, for example.

In this respect, IER is an exemplar of how academics can work effectively with government. For over 30 years it has been making a positive impact on policy. This work started in the 1980s, developing what is now called Working Futures - a regularly updated forecast of skills in the UK labour market. This research also now underpins LMI for All, which makes government-held labour market information accessible to the wider public to enable individuals to make informed career decisions.

But such engagement is the exception, not the norm. More academics need to work productively with government if we are to help create better informed policy and to keep academic research relevant. To do so, academics need ‘critical proximity’: getting closer to government whilst maintaining independent judgement on what is needed and what works. Read more.

Professor Chris Warhurst provides key evidence on job quality for new Scottish Parliament report on Taking the High Road - Work, Wages and Wellbeing in the Scottish Labour Market. The inquiry, conducted between June and November 2015, establishes the current quality of employment in Scotland, in part by looking at changes in job quality since the start of the 2008 recession.

Internationally, the Institute for Employment Research has informed and shaped policy debate and practice on career development services in response to political, economic, technological and social changes. Our research has resulted in new policy frameworks for systems design and delivery of careers services; and has informed professional development in careers policy, research and practice. A summary of the labour market information (LMI) impact case study produced by Professor Jenny Bimrose and others from IER is now available.