ÌÇÐÄTV

The IER and , were commissioned by to analyse the factors shaping the employment of military spouses/partners and to formulate recommendations for effective support services.

The , launched by AFF at the Royal Horseguards Hotel in London on Tuesday 19th June, with speakers including the Right Honourable Esther McVey, contains a series of key recommendations for supporting military spouses/partners into employment.

The research involved five separate phases of data collection, undertaken between October 2017 and April 2018. Data was collected from an online survey with almost 1500 spouses/partners from all three Services, 32 telephone interviews, an online survey with 38 employers and 14 stakeholder interviews.

'Military spousal/partner employment: Identifying the barriers and support required' - report to Army Families Federation.

Sally Wright and Professor Chris Warhurst have a new ESRC-funded Impact Accelerator Award to support their work for the tasked with responding to the job quality recommendations made in the UK Governments’ Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. The working group is co-chaired by Martyn Evans, Chief Executive of the Carnegie UK Trust, and Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Arts.

In July 2018, and from the University of Bologna will visit the IER for a month, working with Dr Daria Luchinskaya (IER) and Dr Charoula Tzanakou (PAIS) to develop a collaborative programme of research on graduate employment between the University of ÌÇÐÄTV and the University of Bologna.

In May, a delegation of senior staff from IER visited the and research groups at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Brussels. This visit was part of ÌÇÐÄTV’s new strategic collaboration with the VUB. A Memorandum of Agreement has been signed by the two universities on 6 June.

IER will be developing joint research and PhD studentships with the two groups, both of which have research specialisms in job quality, labour market transitions and careers guidance.

Following the success of the visit, Catherine Vassallo, IER’s departmental administrator said:

‘IER and its counterparts at VUB (Interface Demography and TOR) were able to identify clear areas of shared interest, which have real potential to achieve innovative outcomes and build on our shared commitment to Europe-wide research.'

In April the CIPD launched the first report from its new . It found that whilst half of respondents would work even if they didn’t need the money, over half of respondents also said that their jobs fail to provide decent career development. A team from IER helped develop the survey tool and analyse its results, with Dr Sudipa Sarkar seconded to the CIPD as part of this work.