Projects

The Future Leaders Fellowships is a pan-UKRI flagship programme which will receive £900 million over the next 11 years, with six funding competitions and up to 550 Fellowships awarded. The programme aims to develop the next generation of research and innovation leaders through supporting: high quality and impactful research, increased engagement between industry and academia, increased multi and interdisciplinary research and innovation, and a more equal, diverse and inclusive research and innovation workforce. It provides sustained funding for fellows (up to seven years) and supports careers across all subjects and sectors including academia, industry and the public sector. More information on Future Leaders Fellowships can be found here. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is committed to undertaking a rigorous evaluation of the programme, which will identify outcomes and support conclusions about its longer-term impact. However, evaluating the contribution of the FLF against its aims brings particular challenges. To best address and account for these challenges in the programme evaluation, UKRI commissioned the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and Professor Marc Cowling (University of Derby) to undertake a pre-evaluation stage study to scope the issues and explore the feasibility of various evaluation approaches. This scoping and feasibility study will run from November 2020 to March 2021 and provide recommendations for the full external evaluation. The study involves a number of elements. At its core is engagement with expert stakeholders within the research and innovation community including evaluation experts and those involved in developing and implementing the Future Leaders Fellowships programme. This will take place through a series of workshops, surveys and meetings. Other activities include: mapping programmes aimed at developing research and innovation capability in the UK, particularly those aimed at early career researchers and developing research leaders across academia and industry; a review and critique of monitoring and evaluation approaches including those used to evaluate researcher development programmes; a review of programme documentation, and analysis of programme monitoring data and wider data to provide a baseline to measure progress; and scoping of potential data sources to produce indicators and impact measures.

IES is supporting Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) with an evaluation of the Sir Henry Dale Fellowship scheme for early career researchers in Higher Education by undertaking survey building, some survey analysis and stakeholder interviews.

IES is providing consultancy support on career planning and coaching aspects, to assist in the development of, and tailoring of the content delivered by, a Virtual Life Coach. The ‘virtual coach’ is in testing phase for a UK Government Department and aims to provide short and long-term personal, employment and career support throughout a user’s whole employment, maximising motivation, satisfaction and wellbeing, and minimising stress and absence through a blend of automated and human support

Teach First has rolled out its Careers Employability Leadership Programme to a wider cohort of schools as part of the Careers and Enterprise Company Careers Leaders focus, following two small-scale pilots. The programme aims to support schools to effectively integrate careers and employability learning into young people’s education. IES has been commissioned to evaluate the implementation and outcomes of the programme. Drawing on previous experience of employer engagement in schools and colleges, for clients such as the Careers & Enterprise Company, our study will use a mixed-methods design, including online surveys of teachers who received training and support; and senior leaders and pupils in these schools. We will also conduct qualitative case study research in 10 schools and undertake an evaluation of a pilot of a programme of support for alumni schools in the year following their participation in the programme.

Working with the Careers Research & Advisory Centre (CRAC) and Vitae, IES supported the development of a career tracker tool to track the pathways, experiences and successes of recipients of the Royal Society’s early career fellowship schemes: the University Research Fellowships and the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships. The projects aimed to help in the evaluation of the impact of these fellowships and create an alumni network, which will inform investment in the next generation of researchers and promote the value of research. The work involves implementing the first of a series of planned surveys of fellowship recipients.

IES, working with the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) and Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), is undertaking research for the Department for Education into EU staff at UK higher education institutions to understand in greater depth individuals’ routes into working in the UK, their skills, current roles and longer-term career plans. The project will also develop the department’s understanding of how this relates to providers’ recruitment and retention plans in the short- to long-term, alongside wider workforce planning. The work involves analysis of HESA data, an online survey of HR directors, and an online survey of EU staff.

This study aims to identify and scope existing large scale datasets/sources which capture the school to work transition from a range of perspectives, and then highlight those with the potential to support the work of The Careers & Enterprise Company.

IES is supporting the Civilian HR Capabilities team to develop aspects of their Skills Strategy; specifically in developing a learning culture and the skills the organisation needs both now and in the future. Gaps have been identified in the information available on learning and development, in career development, capability building and in evaluation/audit strategies. Through a range of projects, IES will offer support to better understand the current culture within the Ministry of Defence civil service with regard to learning and development, exploring how external organisations develop a learning culture and understand how other organisations measure the benefits and return on training.

IES has been commissioned to evaluate the impact of the NHS Leadership Academy’s Aspiring Chief Executive programme. The programme aims to develop the key skills, understanding and personal qualities likely to enable participants to successfully and sustainably lead in the NHS. IES is conducting a longitudinal impact evaluation through three waves of fieldwork and perceptual data gathering on effectiveness with participants and local stakeholders, in comparison to a group of newly appointed Chief Executives (not programme participants) and their local stakeholders. IES is also analysing career tracking data.

IES has been commissioned to run a series of workshops on HR analytics, workforce planning, talent management and succession planning for the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA).