We author and publish a range of resources to keep you up to date with the latest developments in employment, education and skills, labour market and human resource policy and practice. All our pdf publications are free to access.
This is a qualitative study of a small sample of employers to explore in detail their perspectives on apprenticeships. The report gathers views on issues such as: reasons for participation, current pay practices, the impact of the National Minimum Wage exemptions on employing apprentices, and likely impacts of various changes to the exemptions.
This report presents findings from the Annual Small Business Survey (ASBS) 2007/08. The survey interviewed 7,783 UK Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with between 1 and 249 employees between December 2007 and February 2008.
This report was commissioned by the Society and College of Radiographers to identify the effects of Agenda for Change (AfC) on career progression on the radiographic workforce in the National Health Service in England and Wales. A multi-method approach of a full literature review, telephone interviews, and an online survey was adopted.
This report was commissioned by the Society and College of Radiographers (SCoR) at the end of 2007 to identify the scope of practice for the radiographic workforce across the spectrum of clinical imaging and radiotherapy in the United Kingdom (UK). The work undertaken for the report originates from the School of Health and Emergency Professions at the University of Hertfordshire in collaboration with the Institute for Employment Studies (IES).
This report examines wage formation in the EU from a range of perspectives. It analyses the main systems of wage formation in operation and looks at the main wage developments of the past five years. This includes an overview of recent sectoral agreements, along with an analysis of trends at company level and of the social partners’ views.
These guidelines set out the main ways in which organisations can contribute to the socially-sensitive restructuring of the labour force. The report highlights practical considerations such as: the roles that social dialogue can play at national, sectoral and company level; the role of workforce consultation, beginning with how restructuring plans should be announced to the workforce, how the workforce should be informed and consulted about the restructuring, and how negotiations concerning restructuring should be conducted; the measures that can be put into place to lessen the impact of restructuring; and, if redundancies are inevitable, the range of measures that can be implemented to cushion their impact.
This project identified the rural groups that found it most difficult to move into, remain and progress in employment. The project also described and evaluated these groups' pathways into work. The scoping study was designed to inform the development of the Commission for Rural Communities' broader programme of work on Working in 21st Century Rural England.
This paper considers three basic questions: Who gets enterprise training or work experience in small businesses? Does this make a difference to future entrepreneurial activity? And, does this improve business outcomes?
This paper outlines some of the key arguments which suggest that Britain and the rest of Europe – or at least, continental western Europe – represent incompatible varieties of capitalism, and explores this further by considering some of the meanings of that elusive concept, the ‘European social model’. The paper looks at the complex interconnection between economic integration and social (or labour market) regulation within the EU.
Since the seminal Birch job creation study (1979), policy-makers across the world have been keen to promote entrepreneurship as a mechanism for creating new employment opportunities. In parallel with this political desire, researchers have sought to isolate what types of people become entrepreneurs and what types of entrepreneurs create the most jobs. At the basic level, we observe that men constitute the majority of the total entrepreneurial stock. But our research finds that (a) much of the observed differential is easily accounted for by differences in sector and occupational characteristics of men and women, and (b) the true gender difference is diminishing rapidly over time.
