IER News & blogs
Physical space matters
In their new article 鈥溾, Dr Katharina Sarter and argue that the relationship between a service and requirements relating to physical space is vital for understanding service delivery.
Event: Graduate careers and Covid-19 - winners and losers

Speakers: Professors Kate Purcell and Peter Elias, CBE, Gaby Atfield and Dr Erika Kispeter
Date and time: 1.00 pm - 3.30 pm, Thursday, 10 March, 2022. Lunch will be provided for those attending in person, with the online event starting at 1.30 pm
Venue: Wolfson Research Exchange, 糖心TV University Library/Zoom
Please register on Eventbrite: or .
Rapid evidence review on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce
A rapid evidence review by Gaby Atfield, Beate Baldauf and Erika Kispeter examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education, childcare and social work and related social care workforce. The review also examines how negative effects can be mitigated. The Department for Education funded this work following a recommendation from SAGE.
The Benefits of Hindsight: Assessing the impact of apprenticeship reforms on employer behaviour
A new report from IER provides an explanation for the decline in the number of apprenticeships starts following the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in 2017. The research, funded by the Edge Foundation and Gatsby Foundation, was based on reviewing statistical evidence, and conducting interviews with a range of employers to find out how their apprenticeship recruitment had changed following the Levy鈥檚 introduction.
The report鈥檚 authors – Peter Dickinson and Terence Hogarth – explain the fall in the number of apprenticeship starts with reference to an increasing preference for employers to place people on relatively high level and more costly apprenticeships, and a fall in the number of apprentices being taken on in smaller, non-Levy paying enterprises. There are some transitional effects as well which are likely to be smoothed out with the passage of time.
The executive summary of the report is available along with the short report and the long report. Read Peter Dickinson's article in the HR Director .
New report on the contribution of creative freelancers in the UK
Based on research with 85 creative freelancers in Coventry, Northumberland and Waltham Forest, the report ' provides detail on the contribution of creative freelancers to the economic, societal and place-based impacts of the creative industries.
As the research, led by Coventry University, was undertaken in 2020 throughout the lockdowns, the report also identifies the impact of the pandemic on one of the most vulnerable groups of workers and sectors affected by Covid-19.
This report provides:
- the range of value generation for the economy and for society of creative freelancing,
- a typology of creative freelancers based on their generation of different types of value, and
- policy directions to support the full and sustainable contribution to economy, society and places of creative freelancing.