Institute for Employment Research » IER News & blogs (tag [young people])

Observing World Youth Skills Day: Reflections from research in Sierra Leone - Blog by Jamelia Harris

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:00:00 GMT

World Youth Skills Day recognises the strategic importance of providing young people around the world with the necessary skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship. July 15th was first declared World Youth Skills Day by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014 and has been celebrated each year since. This year, the theme centres on “Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future.”

IER team visited India for project launch workshop in spring 2019

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 09:50:00 GMT

In late April/early May Clare Lyonette, Gaby Atfield and Sudipa Sarkar visited India for the first of a series of workshops as part of the ESRC Global Challenges Research Fund project 'Inequalities and skills acquisition in young people: Identification of factors affecting successful outcomes in the DDU-GKY Indian skills programme for unemployed young people’.

The IER team was joined by Bhaskar Chakravorty, an IER PhD student and research assistant, and Himadri Sinha, co-investigator on the project, based at Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS). During the first workshop visit, the IER team delivered workshops to Master's students at XISS on quantitative and qualitative research methods, as well as engaged with key local stakeholders.

Talent Match youth employment programme keynote

Sat, 15 Dec 2018 19:36:00 GMT

Gaby Atfield was invited to give a keynote speech at Talent Match Staffordshire's conference and awards ceremony in Lichfield on 22nd November 2018. Talent Match is a five-year, £108m Big Lottery-funded programme supporting young people who are furthest from the labour market, including hidden NEETs who are completely outside the benefits, work and training system, gain the skills they need to get into employment.

IER, in partnership with CRESR at Sheffield Hallam University, City-REDI at Birmingham University and Cambridge Economic Associates, have been evaluating the programme across the 21 youth unemployment hotspots in England since 2014.

The presentation on findings from the national evaluation can be found here.

Work experience, contacts and confidence needed to secure fulfilling employment, researchers find

Tue, 10 Oct 2017 09:48:28 GMT

A new study led by IER raises concerns that employment and career development opportunities for young people are becoming polarised between those with the resources to access secure, fulfilling employment and those on the path to precarious and unpredictable working lives with poor prospects.

The report, Present tense, future imperfect? Young people’s pathways into work was published on September 28. It presents the findings of a three-year study examining the youth labour market in the Midlands from the perspectives of young people themselves, and their employers. The project was conducted by a team led by Kate Purcell.

The study finds evidence that young people with solid educational and family backgrounds, with the contacts and confidence to seek out career opportunities, are highly likely to gain access to work in secure occupations with good conditions of employment and career development. By contrast, job-seekers without these advantages are increasingly found in low-skilled, low-paid jobs, very often on short-term contracts with no guaranteed hours and with few opportunities for progression.

This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Nurturing the talent pipeline in Northern Ireland

Sun, 13 Nov 2016 19:02:49 GMT

The way in which teenagers think about their future in education and employment has a significant impact on what becomes of them as adults. Good-quality careers education and young people's exposure to the world of work can make a real difference to academic, social and economic outcomes, according to IER's Dr Deirdre Hughes OBE Principal Research Fellow and Chair of the Senior Advisory Group for Skills Northern Ireland. Deirdre is chairing a breakfast meeting with NI business and education leaders, including a keynote address by Peter Weir MLA, Minister of Education, Northern Ireland.

Organised by Prospects Events, sponsored by NIE Networks and supported by Ulster University, a brand new major Skills Northern Ireland event at the Titanic Exhibition Centre on 8 & November 2016 offers young people and parents the opportunity to meet employers, discover careers and learn more about Northern Irelands major skills shortages.

Work Experience Week #WEWeek2016

Sat, 15 Oct 2016 08:16:30 GMT

Dr Deirdre Hughes OBE delivered a keynote presentation at the official launch of Work Experience Week at the Guildhall, London. Work Experience Week is dedicated to raising awareness of the benefits of high quality work experience. It covers all experiences of work, from apprenticeships to traineeships, internships to volunteering as well as more traditional work experience programmes. It was an opportunity for organisations across the country to host activities showcasing their work experience provision, and to demonstrate the difference a high quality placement can make to an individual’s employment prospects and life. This year’s launch event showcased experiences of the world of work for young people that help employers develop a talent pipeline for their businesses and expand development opportunities for their existing workforce.

ADVANCE NOTIFICATION - The Third Midlands Youth Labour Market Forum

Fri, 15 Jul 2016 12:37:34 GMT

Following successful events at the University of Warwick in 2014 and Aston University in 2015, The Third Midlands Youth Labour Market Forum, will be held on Wednesday 23^rd November 2016 at College Court, the University of Leicester’s leading conference venue. The forum was developed to engage with all those concerned with young people’s transitions from education to employment as part of the ESRC-funded Paths2Work research project, Precarious Pathways into Employment for Young People?

Melanie Simms, Professor of Work and Employment at the University of Leicester School of Management, is hosting the event this year and further details about the forum meeting, including instructions about how to register, will be sent to you later in the summer. In the meantime, please put the date in your diary to ensure that you will be able to attend what promises to be a very exciting event, now that we have entered the final year of the research project and have a great deal of data to discuss with you.

If you have any queries, please contact Dr Arlene Robertson, A.Robertson2@warwick.ac.uk Tel: +44(0)24 76 522328)

Lynn Gambin at Policy-UK forum on Apprenticeships

Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:33:34 GMT

Lynn Gambin will be chairing the second session at a Policy-UK forum on 10th March 2016 at the Royal Society of Chemistry, London. The forum, 'Creating a generaton of Apprentices - funding, quality and a route to employment', is scheduled to coincide with National Apprenticeship Week 2016 and will provide delegates with an opportunity to hear the latest progress and policy priorities aimed at ensuring young people have the skills required by employers. With the Government committed to creating 3 million new apprenticeships by 2020, this for will consider how these new apprenticeships will be funded, what can be done to ensure their quality, particularly since concerns have been raised by Ofsted about the number of apprenticeships being awarded for ‘low-level’ skills (examples include tea making and cleaning floors), as well as how to encourage more employers to provide training and qualifications for young people, including the success of Trailblazer groups. Delegates will also discuss the availability of Higher Level apprenticeships and how their status can be improved and recognised as an alternative to university, as well as assessing whether the post-apprenticeship route into employment is adequately defined and supported.

IER's Lynn Gambin will chair the second half of the event which includes sessions entitled 'Are apprenticeships delivering for young people?' and 'What employers want - do apprenticeships address the skills shortage?'.

Details of the event can be found at here.

IER Business Class Evaluation report published

Fri, 27 Nov 2015 12:31:06 GMT

On 26 November, Business in the Community published its report Destiny should not be determined by demography which considers the impact of school-business partnerships on young people’s employability, as well as the effects of such partnerships on schools and businesses. The report is based on research carried out by Terence Hogarth and Lynn Gambin at the Institute for Employment Research which aimed to assess the impact of employer-engagement activities, the uplift of employability skills and added-value impact on pupils of the Business Class programme. This research was carried out over the past two years in conjunction with Education and Employers Research.

The full evaluation report can be downloaded from http://www.bitc.org.uk/programmes/business-class/business-class-evaluation.

Reports from Talent Match National Evaluation

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 10:48:15 GMT

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.