Publications

The Activity Agreements (AA) Pilots were launched in April 2006 in eight areas of England. The AA pilots were an initiative aimed at testing the effectiveness of conditional financial incentives, along with intensive support and brokerage, of tailored activities in re-engaging young people aged 16 -17 who had been NEET (not in education, employment or training) for at least 20 weeks. In taking part, young people were offered a weekly allowance in return for committing to a plan and completing agreed activities to reintegrate them back into learning and/or employment. Three levels of incentive payment were tested. This is the third paper resulting from the ‘focused studies’ element within the programme theory evaluation and explores the theories related to provision and brokerage. It is based on research undertaken among a sample of young people in three Connexions Partnership areas who signed up to the AA between December 2007 and April 2008.

The Activity Agreements (AA) Pilots were launched in April 2006 in eight areas of England. The AA Pilots were an initiative aimed at testing the effectiveness of conditional financial incentives along with intensive support and brokerage of tailored activities in re-engaging young people aged 16 -17 who had been NEET (not in education, employment or training) for at least 20 weeks. This is the fifth paper resulting from the ‘focused studies’ element within the programme theory evaluation and explores the Small Step Progression theory. It is based on research undertaken among a sample of young people in three Connexions Partnership areas who finished their AA between December 2007 and July 2008.

This report presents the most detailed, comprehensive and authoritative assessment undertaken of the income and expenditure of students in Higher Education (HE) in England. The survey looks at students’ financial situations under both the new and old financial support systems, and compares these with the previous survey (2004/05).

This report presents the most detailed, comprehensive and authoritative assessment undertaken about the income and expenditure of students in Higher Education in Wales. It builds on a series of earlier surveys which were undertaken at regular intervals since the mid 1980s, but in particular updates the findings of the most recent SIES undertaken in 2004/05.

This research explored implementation and delivery of the first three Jobcentre Plus-led stages of the enhanced Jobseekers Regime. The revised regime, intended to provide increasing levels of support for customers during the first 12 months of unemployment, was trialled in four Jobcentre Plus sites, and qualitative research undertaken over a six to eight month period.

This publication was authored by Catherine Rickard (née Chubb) before she joined IES.

This research examines the factors underlying women’s progress through organisational structures and the reasons why women in senior management positions in the USA and in Europe decide to accept or decline board-level jobs. We hope that the research will inform the debate in the US and worldwide, and illuminate the development of further coaching topics and strategies that might be needed to help greater numbers of women progress into board-level positions.

Train to Gain was designed as a national service for businesses that provided help to identify and source training that would improve their business performance and the skills of their workforce. It aimed to encourage employers to invest in the development of the skills and qualifications of their employees. This report presents the findings from the second wave of the Train to Gain learner evaluation and is based on survey analysis of 7,614 learners.

Train to Gain was designed as a national service for businesses that provided help to identify and source training that would improve their business performance and the skills of their workforce. It aimed to encourage employers to invest in the development of the skills and qualifications of their employees. This report presents the findings from the third wave of the Train to Gain learner evaluation, and is based on a telephone survey of 8,385 learners, plus qualitative interviews with 100 of those learners.

The term ‘talent management’ is clearly a big hit with HR people, but will the recent talent craze yield real business value? If talent management does help, it will do so by shifting our thinking and/or by helping us to act more effectively.