Anne Green gave a presentation on 'Transitioning from Education to Employment' at the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Business Breakfast 'Getting the right skills for work' event in central Birmingham on 20th January 2016.

Anne provided an overview of trends in the West Midlands labour market and hightlighted some emerging findings from the ESRC-funded Paths2Work project. Other speakers were Paul Faulkner (President of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce), Mike Hopkins (Principal of South & City College Birmingham) and John Mortimer (CEO of the Angela Mortimer Group).

The Second Midlands Youth Labour Market Forum (MYLMF) took place at the University of Aston on 25th of November 2015. The Paths2Work team presented the preliminary findings from the Paths2Work project to an audience comprised of practitioners, policymakers and others with a professional interest in young people’s employment, training and educational opportunities. Regional stakeholders also provided short presentations relevant to the interests of MYLMF members. To find more information about the event and access the presentation from the Paths2Work team, click on the link below:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/pathways/event/

A new blog just in our series of Paths2Work Blogging after the elections from Professor Phil Mizen on Young Workers and the Next Parliament. To read the blog, click on the following link:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/pathways/blogs/

We continue with our blog contributions from members of the Paths2Work team. In this blog, Professor Noel Whiteside talks about policies for young people in the 1930s and today as part of the Paths2Work -Project 1:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/pathways/blogs/

Employment researchers predict unpaid work could soon become the norm for all young people trying to enter the job market.

A team of researchers from the universities of Warwick, Leicester, Aston and the Open University are about to start a large-scale project to look at the often ‘unstable and fragmented’ experiences of young people as they begin their careers.

Previous studies from the University of Warwick revealed that 41% of graduates had taken on unpaid work experience during their course and after graduation. The public sector was shown to have the highest number of students and graduates who had done unpaid work (see Futuretrack).

The new project, Precarious Pathways to Employment for Young People, will examine the experiences of all young people, not just graduates, from school leaving age upwards. The project is sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Project leader Professor Kate Purcell, from the University of Warwick’s Institute for Employment Research, said: “For increasing numbers of young people in the UK, the pathways into employment to work are unstable and fragmented. As employers demand evidence of 'employability skills', work placements and internships have become an integral part of secondary and higher education, and of early labour market experience.

“Unpaid, temporary and part-time work may soon become the norm for all young people as they start on their chosen career paths. Much of this activity is unrecorded in employment statistics. The increased early labour market experience of (often involuntary) temporary or part-time work that provides experience of employment but does not provide a living wage for young job-seekers, adds to the precarious picture of current youth access to opportunity.”

The Precarious Pathways to Employment project will have four interlinked strands looking primarily at the areas of Coventry, Birmingham and Leicester, together with a broader analysis of employment trends and unwaged work in the UK.