Education and Employers
Research Digest - May 2022

Publications

Meet the future

OECD

The report looks at how employers benefit by engaging with schools and young people. It builds on substantial work done over many years, looking at the benefits for young people of engaging with the world of work. The OECD PISA international data shows that few students have opportunities to connect regularly with employers whilst at school. By engaging directly with employers while still in school, students gain first-hand insights into the world of work, which helps them become more employable.

Evaluation of the Q-Step programme
Final report 

Cristina Rosemberg, Rebecca Allinson, Dr Marika De Scalzi, Dr Adam Krčál, Dr Billy Bryan, Dr Kristine Farla, Dr Charlie Dobson, Rita Cimatti, Dr Martin Wain, & Zsuzsa Jávorka

This is the final report of the evaluation of the Q-Step programme. The evaluation was commissioned by the Nuffield Foundation and carried out by Technopolis Group between July 2017 and November 2021. The final report provides a concluding assessment of the implementation of the programme and its impact – understanding that further impact is expected to materialise outside the life of the study, including the institutional impact and the impact of the Q-Step programme on students’ careers. 

Labour market and skills demand horizon scanning and future scenarios

Fay Dunkerley, Michaela Bruckmayer, Lillian Flemons, Joanna Hofman, Mann Virdee, Sally Wright, & Terence Hogarth

The objective of this study was to scan the horizon of the labour market over the next 15- 20 years to identify the drivers and emerging trends, and to create 5 different scenarios of what the labour market could possibly look like in the future. The purpose of these scenarios is not to predict. Rather, it is to help decision-makers envisage different possible futures and support them in assessing which policy levers might be useful under which circumstance. Accordingly, scenario building can be a useful policy planning tool.

Building on COVID-19's Innovation Momentum for Digital, Inclusive Education

OECD

This report provides data and analysis from the OECD as background for ministers and union leaders to address the questions that concern how school systems, school communities, teachers and policymakers can work together to design and implement education policies that will ensure educational equity. It also helps address the questions about what teacher unions and governments can do to improve schools, including those with significant numbers of students with disabilities and or those from socially and economically deprived backgrounds. Finally, the report delves into how education systems can how they are achieving equity and inclusion.

Gender report: Deepening the debate on those still left behind 

UNESCO

The 2022 Gender Report presents fresh insights on progress towards gender parity in education with respect to access, attainment and learning. It showcases the results of a new model that provides coherent estimates, combining multiple sources of information, on completion rates. It also reviews the results of learning assessments released over the past 18 months, which present an almost global picture of the gender gap in reading, mathematics and science achievement in lower and upper primary and lower secondary grades. They provide a baseline against which to assess the impact of COVID-19 on inequality when post-pandemic data start being released next year.

Pathways to professions: understanding higher vocational and professional tertiary education systems 

OECD

There is debate about the type of education and training that can help achieve the desired mix of skills in an economy and society. Learners not only need the skills and qualifications to find a first job but also the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances for a lifelong career and participation in society. For tertiary programmes, the question arises about the proportion of programmes that should take their point of departure as a target occupation as opposed to an academic field. While there is no simple answer, the first step is to monitor what countries are doing in this area and improve the quality of comparative data to allow for benchmarking and research. This project was therefore launched to help improve comparative data on professional tertiary education and to inform policymaking. This report compares professional tertiary education across OECD countries, drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, and sets out proposals to develop internationally agreed definitions.

Skills shortages in the UK economy

Edge Foundation

Skills mismatches are undoubtedly one of the greatest threats to UK productivity. The report intends to address this and pave the way for a skills-first education system that leads young people to good jobs. The Government’s response echoes these sentiments, but we still have some way to go to turn rhetoric into reality.

Comments

Why do girls not pursue careers in maths and science if they’re so good at it?

Matthias Eck, Justine Sass, Juliane Hencke, Dirk Hastedt, Ana Maria Mejia-Rodriguez

An uneven playing field: Sosaznetwork.org inequity across Arizona schools 

Sosaznetwork.Org 

Belonging as an intervention: An opportunity to consider the adult that the child will become 

Lisa Cherry 

How one girl broke through the gender-based barriers and became an engineer 

Rabia Nusrat

The career development Plan: How large-group teaching helps to embed employability into the University curriculum for Business and Management students

Sarah Brooks 

Technology and education 

Mary Burns

Events