Search Results

This review looks at the framework for determining employment status and provides a snapshot of the UK labour market in 2015. In order to gain a greater understanding of some of the issues being faced, officials were asked to consider what the UK labour market looks like and suggest ways in which government could deliver a framework that strikes the correct balance between the rights of the individual and the needs of business, supporting growth and prosperity in the 21st century. The review involved discussions with a number of stakeholders and this report represents the findings of that review.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

Higher education in the United Kingdom (UK) is a successful public-private partnership of government funding and institutional autonomy. This White Paper sets out the government's reforms for higher education with a view to tackling three challenges. The first is to shift public spending away from teaching grants and towards repayable tuition loans, to ensure that higher education receives the funding it needs even as substantial savings are made to public expenditure. The second is to ensure that higher education institutions (HEIs) deliver a better student experience; improving teaching, assessment, feedback and preparation for the world of work. The third challenge is to ensure that HEIs take more responsibility for increasing social mobility. The reforms are designed to deliver a more responsive higher education sector in which funding follows the decisions of learners and successful institutions are freed to thrive; in which there is a new focus on the student experience and the quality of teaching and in which further education colleges and other alternative providers are encouraged to offer a diverse range of higher education provision. The overall goal is higher education that is more responsive to student choice, that provides a better student experience and that helps improve social mobility.

Excerpts from publication. Show less

The UK government has published this consultation in response to the ‘Richard review of apprenticeships’, published in November 2012. It sets out the government’s long term vision for apprenticeships, together with proposals for achieving this. The review looked at how apprenticeships in England can meet the needs of the changing economy. This government response accepts the review’s assessment of the challenges and opportunities to come and endorses its recommendations for reform, in particular to: place control of apprenticeships more firmly in the hands of employers; and ensure that all apprenticeships are rigorous and responsive to employers’ needs. The government’s response also launches a consultation on the practical steps needed to turn this vision into reality. The government invites contributions from those interested in the future of apprenticeships by 22 May 2013. These will be considered and used to inform the government’s future approach and implementation plan in 2013.

Excerpts from publication. Show less

In response to UK government reports that only six per cent of people with learning difficulties are currently in employment, a taskforce was formed to examine the accessibility of apprenticeships for people with learning disabilities. The aim is to see training opportunities and apprenticeships made more accessible so that young people with learning disabilities are more easily able to enter the workforce. Working with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE) the task force aimed to create three million apprenticeships by 2020 and halve the disability gap. The taskforce, led by Paul Maynard and including employers, training providers, charities and educational experts, met three times throughout May and June: once to identify issues, then to explore solutions and finally to form recommendations to make to ministers.

These two documents contain the recommendations of the taskforce and the response from the government response through BIS and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Show less

This business case sets out the rationale for creating a new non-departmental public body and assesses the estimated costs and benefits. Estimates are taken from the impact assessment for the Higher Education and Research Bill, which sets out detail on underlying assumptions. The white paper 'Success as a knowledge economy: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice' sets out plans for the creation of the Office for Students (OfS). This new public body will be a new market regulator in place of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Office for Fair Access (OFFA).

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

This publication presents experimental outcome based measures covering the destinations (into employment and learning) and progression of post-19 learners completing funded further education training in 2010 to 2011. The measures make use of administrative datasets already held by government to observe learning and employment activity in 2011 to 2012, and prior attainment of learners to measure progression.

Excerpts from publisher's website. Show less

This paper sets out what the [UK] Government has done since 2010 to promote a quality system of vocational education and training for adult learners and explains how the government has positioned skills as a core component of industrial strategy, introducing the concept of a dual mandate for adult vocational education. The paper analyses how and why England’s performance on higher level vocational education is weaker than many of its comparator nations and sets out the challenge that this poses to productivity. It also highlights higher level skills shortages in some of the sectors identified in the Industrial Strategy as critical to growth. It describes how the government has approached three key themes associated with higher level vocational education under the core themes of: funding; institution building; and the ownership and development of qualifications, standards and curricula. It identifies options for further development and poses a series of questions designed to develop thinking on the three themes stated. It focuses on the second part of the dual mandate: the importance of adult and vocational education’s role in ensuring that individuals are given a second chance to gain the fundamental skills required for life and work. The implications of the dual mandate for adult further education colleges are examined, against a background of wider change in the way in which the Government funds education for adults, and the Government’s wider strategy of empowering local places to make decisions on economic development.

Excerpt from publication. Show less

No one source of data gives a comprehensive picture of the income of the self-employed. However, by looking at a range of sources, some tentative conclusions can be formed: (1) the self-employed as a group have seen falling income since the recession; (2) but this is mostly down to the changing composition of self-employment; (3) those individuals who have been self-employed over a number of years have seen income levels sustained, although with some self-employment earnings replaced by other sources; and (4) there is little difference in overall life satisfaction levels between the self-employed and the employed.

Edited excerpt from publication. Show less

[This paper] reports research findings on the [UK] government's proposal for adults aged 24 and above, who study for qualifications at level 3 and above, to make greater contributions to the costs of their learning. The government proposes to remove grant funding for these further education learners and courses. This will allow the government to focus investment on younger and lower-qualified learners who are less likely to invest in themselves. Instead, the government will provide income-contingent loans to cover the resulting upfront costs, in line with its principles of promoting fairness and personal responsibility. These 24+ Advanced Learning Loans will be made available to new learners from the 2013 to 2014 academic year, with the first full year expected to be the 2014/15 academic year. [Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] BIS carried out an impact assessment to show the economic costs and benefits of this proposal, and an equality impact assessment to look at how the proposal will affect different types of learners. This research provides a greater understanding of four specific learner groups: those aged 40+, and particularly those out of work; those with mental or physical disabilities or learning difficulties that have particular needs regarding communication and information; those seeking to take up Advanced/Higher Apprentices; and Muslim learners. This research indicated that most learner groups are unlikely to be put off by the loans proposition, provided it is communicated effectively. It also highlighted groups which are likely to face specific issues and challenges.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

Data indicates that computer science graduates are more likely to be unemployed six months after graduating than the average graduate and [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] STEM graduates in particular. Employment outcomes for computer science graduates significantly improve 3.5 years after graduation although they are still lower compared to other graduates. These findings are seemingly contradictory to evidence of increasing employer demand for digital skills and above average levels of recruitment difficulty in the [information and communications technology] ICT sector. This research explores the reasons behind the poor employment record of computer science graduates through interviews with graduates with an undergraduate computer science degree. The interviews covered graduates' views on their degree and their subsequent employment experience, along with steps they have taken to enter employment since graduation. The findings suggest that the overarching issue for the computer science graduates interviewed is not that they don’t eventually achieve positive employment outcomes - because virtually all were in work at the time of interviewing - but that they are relatively slow to move into work.

Excerpts from publication. Show less