Education and Employers
Research Digest - December 2021

Publications

An international comparison of technical education funding systems: What can England learn from successful countries? 

David Robinson & Gerard Dominguez Reig 

This report reviews successful upper secondary (16-19 in England) technical education and funding systems and compares them with England, to understand what lessons we can learn, how England could achieve a world-standard technical education and the likely barriers to doing so. The countries chosen are Denmark, Norway, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. These countries have been selected because of their high literacy and numeracy levels of young people and/or labour market returns from upper secondary.

Non-state Actors In Education 

UNESCO

 The report’s rallying call – ‘Who chooses? Who loses?’ – invites policymakers to question relationships with non-state actors in terms of fundamental choices: between equity and freedom of choice; between encouraging initiative and setting standards; between groups of varying means and needs; between immediate commitments under SDG 4 and those to be progressively realized (e.g. post-secondary education); and between education and other social sectors.

Trends in Careers Education 

The Careers & Enterprise Company 

This report presents trends in careers education over the past two years. It is focused on areas relevant to current debates and where there has been a substantial change since before the pandemic. The results were compared with data from two years previously to see how careers education has changed since before the pandemic and reviewed alongside wider evidence published during the last year.

The Real Costs and Benefits of Apprenticeships 

St Martin’s Group 

This report aims to provide further education and skills and business sectors with up-to-date insights into apprenticeships. In doing so, it seeks to debunk myths and clearly communicate the real costs of hiring an apprentice in the current UK landscape. It also demonstrates how businesses and individuals benefit from apprenticeships, with the aim of encouraging greater participation as the UK recovers from the pandemic.

Guidance Matters 

National Centre for Guidance in Education 

The edition highlights how different types of guidance services continue to support young people and adults to access and continue with education and training, cope with transitions and aim to progress and prosper in an ever-changing world. The edition spotlights so many wonderful initiatives in schools that provide careers information and resources to support whole school guidance practice which enables students to develop their own well-informed careers, education and life choices.

The educational outcomes of refugee and asylum-seeking children in England   

Jo Hutchinson & Mary Reader 

The report is informed by new research from the Education Policy Institute, which found that asylum-seeking children who enter the UK separated from their parents are on average over three years behind non-migrant children at school by the time they take their GCSEs. The new report also reveals that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children experience higher rates of fixed-period school exclusions (7.1%) than non-migrant children (5.2%), as well as slightly higher school absence rates of 6.8% compared to 6.6% for non-migrant children.

A narrowing path to success? 16-19 curriculum breadth and employment outcomes  

David Robinson & Felix Bunting 

In this research report, the authors consider trends in the diversity of level 3 (A levels or equivalent) qualifications taken by 16-19–year olds. Specifically, we count how many of
the following subject groupings students have taken qualifications from science, technology & engineering, mathematics, languages, humanities, arts & social sciences, and vocational and professional. Using new sources that link administrative data from schools, further education and higher education records with job records we then consider the relationship between young people’s breadth of study and their subsequent employment outcomes.

New research on the stereotypes formed at a young age, their long-term impacts and what can be done to tackle them successfully    

Nick Chambers   

This article looks at new research published by the University of Houston (see below) on gender stereotypes starting at a young age. Written for the Higher Education Policy Institute it also examines other studies on stereotypes formed at a young age and their long term impact and what can be done to tackle them.

Comments

Gender stereotypes about interests start early and cause gender disparities in computer science and engineering 

Allison Master, Andrew N. Meltzoff, & Sapna Cheryan​​​

Education practitioners’ and students’ perspectives on youth mental health first aid provision within education settings in England 

Sveta Mayer 

Interdisciplinary, interactive climate change education: A STEAM approach 

Jennifer Rudd  

2021 Trends in Careers Education: a reflection 

Oli de Botton

There is room for all actors in education, as long as we have the same vision for change 

David Moinina Sengeh 

Learning losses from COVID-19 school closures could impoverish a whole generation  

UNESCO  

The future of an entire generation hangs in the balance  

Yasmine Sherif  

Framing Non-state Engagement In Education  

Prachi Srivastava

Women in Engineering: The Role of Role Models  

Agurto, M.; Bazan, M.; Hari, S.; Sarangi, S.   

Notice

Events