Education and Employers
Research Digest - February 2021

Notices

6th International Conference on Employer Engagement: Preparing Young People for the Future

The conference will focus on employer engagement in general education, technical and vocational education and training, and the extent to which such interventions adequately prepare young people for the rapidly changing world of work. In particular, attention will focus on developing and capturing the skill requirements within the changing labour market and how such interventions can support young people as part of the response to Covid-19. It will also seek to reflect on reforms and policy shifts concerning education and training and employer engagement internationally. We welcome papers from a range of organisations. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, 31st March 2021. Accepted papers and proposals will be notified by Friday, 30th April 2021.

Call for papers live

Publications

Better prepared Essential skills and employment outcomes for young people 

Elnaz Kashefpakdel, Tom Ravenscroft & Chris Percy

This report builds off a snapshot of 3,016 individuals aged 16-25 in summer 2020, using a questionnaire administered by polling company YouGov. The key questions of the research are: Who has essential skills, and how does this vary by socio-economic background? • How young people build essential skills, and what are their attitudes to them? • What is the impact of essential skills on earnings and qualifications level?

Building bridges towards future jobs

City & Guild Group

This report provides a new and innovative way of re-examining the challenges facing our labour market. It recommends ways for creating a lifelong learning eco-system that will help us recover from the pandemic and enable people to reskill.

"The lockdown of physical co-operation touches the heart of adult education”: A Delphi study on immediate and expected effects of COVID-19

Bernd Käpplinger & Nina Lichte 

The article is based on the first wave of an ongoing worldwide Delphi study which is currently analysing the immediate and expected effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on adult education and adult learning.  Findings demonstrate that COVID-19 currently has fundamental effects which will continue to impact future adult education and adult learning.

Rethinking higher education case studies for the 21st Century

Katherine Emms, Andrea Laczik & Dana Dabbous​

The report provides a brief overview of the current higher education landscape. It touches on some of the overarching issues of the sector - some that existed before the pandemic's impact and some have been exacerbated since then. It includes five higher education case studies which are reimagining the traditional university campus and prioritising the holistic learning and development of its students in a different way; emphasising the development of student employability, making a clear link between theory and practice, and engaging meaningfully with external stakeholders, preparing students for life in the evolving 21st Century.

Lockdown lessons pupil learning and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic

ImpactEd

Based on the experiences of more than 62,000 pupils in England who have been surveyed, monitored and interviewed over an eight-month period, this report makes it the largest pupil-facing research project into the impact of the pandemic in the UK. Five key findings arr report of which one shows that "throughout 2020, pupils in Year 10 and
11 experienced the greatest challenges with motivation for learning; this did not change when they returned to school after the first lockdown."

Returns to workplace training for male and female employees and implications for the gender wage gap: A quantile regression analysis

Rossella Icardi

Across 14 European countries, this paper examines whether the association between workplace training and wages differ between men and women at different points of the wage. The paper uses data from the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and unconditional quantile regression for analysis.

Comments

Five reasons why online and blended learning could be a game-changer for education and training 

Deborah Talbot ​

Disabled teachers face significant workplace discrimination despite drive for more inclusive schools

Professor Nidhi Singal & Dr Hannah Ware

In Ethiopia, schools still lack basic means to contain COVID-19, as pupils return after months of interrupted learning

Pauline Rose

‘Spill-over’ effects show hidden value of prioritising education of poorest children and marginalised girls

Recardo Sabates

Realizing the promise of effective teachers for every child – a global platform for successful teachers

Jaime Saavedra

Class cancelled: how covid school closures blocked routes out of poverty

Peter Beaumont

The opportunity to build back better from COVID-19: Fostering gender parity in education and skills development for a larger workforce

Shobhana Sosale, Sarah Bunker, Laura Mcdonald & Eliana Rubiano-Matulevich

The role of school heads and why they matter during the COVID pandemic

Choyi Whang

4 Facts you should know about global education amid COVID-19

Khanyi Mlaba

Edge Foundation Policy Networks 

This group brings together policy leads and practitioners from a range of educational organisations so that collectively, we can horizon scan and spark collaborative, solution-focused discussions around the opportunities for influencing policy across the learning and skills landscape. For more information or to get involved, contact us at ewilson@edge.co.uk.

Events