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In order to boost learning, recent UK governments have invested in trade union-led workplace learning. Investing in the supply of learning is useful but ignores the demand for learning by workers, about which there is little research. This paper addresses this lacunae by analysing worker demand for learning, which workers want learning, what learning is demanded and why, and what factors might best lever learning. Data come from two surveys of potential learners and union learning representatives. Findings reveal a large demand for learning and that unions can lever this learning. Findings also suggest further policy development to address problems associated with union-led learning.

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This article focuses on demands and interventions to improve or maintain job quality. There is a need for better understanding of what can be done, by whom, and with what impacts. The article provides a framework for reflection focused on interventions within and outwith the workplace. Drawing on secondary data, it outlines the renewed policy and academic interest in job quality, examines the multilevel reasons for intervention and the factors that shape this intervention, and evaluates the loci of intervention. On the basis of the evidence to date, it argues that there is scope for intervention and that intervention can be effective.

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This book proposes the argument that job quality matters, contributing to economic competitiveness, social cohesion and personal well-being. Focusing on ‘bad jobs’, the book outlines debates, developments, issues and trends in job quality whilst asking the question are bad jobs inevitable? The chapters contribute to defining and measuring bad jobs, explaining variation and change in job quality, and identifying workplace practices and broader non-workplace strategies for making bad jobs better. The chapters are as follows: Job quality: scenarios, analysis and interventions / Francoise Carre, Patricia Findlay, Chris Tilly and Chris Warhurst; Part one ‘International overviews and comparative approaches’ includes: Identifying bad jobs across Europe / Jose-Ignacio Anton, Enrique Fernandez-Macias and Rafael Munoz de Bustillo; Job quality in the US: the myths that block action / Paul Osterman; Good jobs, bad jobs and the Australian experience / Barbara Pocock and Natalie Skinner; A framework for international comparative analysis of the determinants of low-wage job quality / Francoise Carre and Chris Tilly; Part two ‘Influences on job quality: sectoral approaches and workplace practices’ includes: At the altar of shareholder value?: corporate governance and conditions for better jobs in Swedish manufacturing / Tony Huzzard; Making bad jobs better: the case of frontline health care workers / Janette S. Dill, Jennifer Craft Morgan and Arne L. Kalleberg; When good jobs go bad: the declining quality of auto work in the global economy / Jeffrey S. Rothstein; Frontline managers matter: labour flexibility practices and sustained employment in US retail jobs / Susan J. Lambert and Julia R. Henly; Good or bad jobs?: contrasting workers’ expectations and jobs in Mexican call centres / Jose Luis Alvarez Galvan; Thirty years of hospital cleaning in England and Scotland: an opportunity for ‘better’ jobs / Anne Munro; Part three ‘Influences on job quality: the role of public policy’ includes: Unpacking the logics of labour standards enforcement: an alternative approach / Janice Fine and Jennifer Gordon; Under the radar: tracking the violation of labour standards in low-wage industries in the US / Nik Theodore, Annette Bernhardt and James DeFilippis with Ruth Milkman, Douglas Heckathorn, Mirabai Auer, Ana Luz Gonzalez, Victor Narro, Jason Perelshteyn, Diana Polson and Michael Spiller; Employment standards ‘modernization’ in Canada / Mark P. Thomas; Are skills the answer to bad jobs?: incentives to learn at the bottom end of the labour market / Ewart Keep and Susan James. Show less

This article examines employer choice in relation to job quality (JQ). Acknowledging the important role of market, institutional, and technological constraints, the authors highlight the role of employer agency in shaping JQ by reporting on an employer-led service redesign initiative in hospital pharmacy services in Scotland. This redesign initiative aimed at upskilling employees and redirecting their work effort toward high value-added, patient-facing work using robotics implementation. The article provides a critical assessment of the success of the initiative in enhancing JQ and explores a range of factors constraining and shaping employers' JQ choices.

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In countless project evaluations and reports the success of union learning has been well documented. However, only union learning representatives seem able to enthusiastically tell you about the potential of union learning. For the first time in the UK that potential has been quantified and is set out in this research paper. [This report] is the product of a telephone survey of workers in unionised workplaces and postal surveys of union learning representatives and union officers. Its conclusion, unsurprisingly, is that there is a latent demand for union learning, that union activity in the workplace creates its own demand for learning and that a projected 400,000 workers in unionised workplaces in Scotland intend to undertake learning at some point in the future. It provides irrefutable evidence that the most important influence on an individual's intention to undertake learning is that of being positively encouraged by union provision. It also identifies the future types of learners and learning demanded by workers in union workplaces.

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The purpose of this research project is to map women's participation within the manufacturing cluster labour market in Scotland and to identify occupational segregation, gendered skills gaps, and gender differences in participation in related Modern Apprenticeship frameworks and other skill pipelines. Moreover, the research will examine the impact of women's participation on earnings and on the gender pay gap within the manufacturing cluster.

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In-work poverty describes the experiences of households where at least one person is in work and the household's income after housing costs is below 60 per cent of the median household income. Housing and other costs, the income provided by the in-work benefits system, as well as low pay, can contribute to in-work poverty. Given the important contribution that low pay makes to in-work poverty, how employers arrive at decisions on pay and their understanding of in-work poverty are important areas of study. The research reported here included interviews with key stakeholders and employers. It focused on understanding employers' approaches, perceptions and experiences in relation to in-work poverty, and looking at the key drivers for employer change, particularly in low-paid sectors, to understand how businesses might – and might be influenced to – make work a better route out of poverty. In this report we set out a 'Framework for Employer Action on In-Work Poverty', which summarises insights from our research on in-work poverty; how employers might be incentivised, influenced and supported to take action; and the stakeholders who need to be involved.

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This research investigated the potential role of trade unions in contributing to better skills utilisation in workplaces in Scotland. The report presents findings from three case studies in which management, unions and employees have worked together to improve the development and deployment of workers' skills to address business or organisational needs. The initiatives were investigated at different stages of development in order to highlight the challenges that emerge as skills utilisation interventions progress. The report raises awareness of the potential of skills utilisation initiatives to help employers to enhance performance, improve recruitment, selection, retention and progression, improve innovation and extend employee engagement.

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This paper examines shifts in skills policy in Scotland towards emphasising the importance of effective skills utilisation. Turning policy into practice, however, requires a better understanding than currently exists of skills utilisation in order to facilitate better measurement, evaluation and intervention. This paper aims to contribute to such an understanding. We suggest that effective skills utilisation comprises two distinct elements: the use of better skills and the better use of skills, with the former crucial to the development of a high skills economy and the latter crucial to realising existing untapped workforce potential. We further argue that skills utilisation is most likely where workers have the ability, motivation and opportunity to deploy their skills effectively. We conclude by advocating greater collaboration in skills utilisation practice and research between relevant stakeholders, drawing on European experiences and an approach - which we call ASPiRRE - that envelops actors, structures, protocols, responsibilities, resources and expertise in order to align distinct stakeholder interests and encourage innovative practice in skills deployment.

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The persistence of gendered pay inequality raises questions as to what sustains it. Recent contributions highlight the role of low skills visibility and valuation in pay inequality in predominantly female occupations. This article examines the skills and rewards of early years workers, the organizational processes through which their skills are measured and rewarded and the institutional and organizational influences on grading and pay systems. The article does so at an important juncture when the importance and regulation of the ‘early years’ sector has increased significantly and following pay equality initiatives. It concludes that while the application of more systematic forms of skill and job measurement has improved the relative rewards of nursery nurses, gendered constructions of their caring skills contaminate evaluation of their educational role such that undervaluation of their work persists. This finding raises implications for other work that incorporates caring skills.

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