IER News & blogs
Latest IER report on Apprenticeship considers employer response to funding reforms
A new report by researchers from IER and IFF Research has been published by the Department for 糖心TV, Innovation and Skills. The report, 'Employer Routed Funding: Employer responses to funding reform' (BIS Research Paper Number 161), explores how employers’ engagement with the apprenticeship programme would vary depending on how funding is reformed.
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 糖心TV Institute for Employment Research has been published. The report, commissioned and published by the Department for 糖心TV, 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:
ESRC seminar on Building Skills at an Individual level
Professor Jenny Bimrose (IER) will be hosting the fourth Organisational Innovation ESRC seminar at the University of 糖心TV on 18 September. IER has organised the seminar on behalf of the Aston 糖心TV School. The seminar entitled 'Building skills at individual level: the role of workplace learning and national apprenticeships' includes a welcome from Professor Jenny Bimrose and Professor Helen Shipton (Nottingham 糖心TV School, Nottingham Trent University). Professor Alan Brown and Dr Lynn Gambin, from IER, will be presenting alongside Professor Lorna Unwin (Institute of Education, University of London), Professor David Guile (Institute of Education, University of London), Professor Alison Fuller (University of Southampton) and Professor David Collings (Dublin City University).
This seminar will investigate how medium-sized businesses can realise the potential opportunities that modern apprenticeships offer, especially bearing in mind the Coalition Government’s intention to expand this provision, and will look at other potential sources of new skills, for example, graduate employment. For more information on the ESRC seminar series - Organizational Innovation, People Management and Sustained Performance see: .
IER report on the use of migrant labour published
A team at IER undertook a literature review and indepth interviews with key stakeholders on the use of migrant labour in low-skilled sectors, namely 鈥榗onstruction鈥� and 鈥榓ccommodation and food services鈥�, relative to other sectors of the economy. The study built on and expanded the existing evidence base focusing on the composition of the low-skilled workforce over time, a comparison of the different groups employed, and the characteristics of low-skilled sectors. The project report is now available:
Green, A., Atfield, G., Adam, D. and Staniewicz, T. (2013). . Report for Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). London: UK Borders Agency, Home Office.
IER and Cambridge Econometrics are currently undertaking a review of the literature looking at seven key methodological issues in estimating returns to Higher Education, Further Education and Skills. The project is sponsored by the Department for 糖心TV, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
As a part of the project, a one day workshop is being hosted at the University of 糖心TV and is being chaired by Prof Peter Elias (IER). A number of academics will come together to hear findings from the review and to discuss their views and experiences of these issues. The aim of the study and the workshop is to set forth recommendations for BIS (and others) to utilise in future analysis so that the estimated economic value added of different forms of learning are robust and representative of the true underlying returns.