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• Personal learning accounts: Building on lessons learnt

  12 Jul 2010

  This report was funded by the UK Commission as part of a programme of activity to inform the development of the proposals in ‘Ambition 2020: skills, jobs growth’. Drawing upon international comparisons and research in the UK this report explores the challenges and potential of Personal Learning Accounts.

• Perspectives and Performance of Investors in People: A Literature Review

  10 Dec 2010

  In April 2010, the UK Commission took over strategic ownership of the Investors in People (IIP) Standard. This evidence review seeks to develop a deeper understanding of how IIP is perceived by a range of interested partners and provide evidence of the impact of the Standard on the businesses which are accredited.

• Praxis: An appetite for learning: increasing employee demand for skills development

  14 Jan 2010

  Raising the skill levels of the UK economy depends to some extent on individuals being prepared to invest in their own skill development, as well as expressing to employers and others their demand for formal and informal training. The chances of an individual actively seeking to increase their skills level depends, research suggests, on a number of ‘intrinsic’ and ‘extrinsic’ factors. People with few qualifications, those who are not employed or who work in smaller or non-unionised workplaces tend to be less likely than others to engage in, or demand, skills development.

• Praxis: Blurring Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies: Challenges for employment and skills in networked organisations

  10 Jun 2010

  An increasing number of individuals work in ‘networked’ organisations’ where the boundaries between, and hierarchies within, organisations are challenged as a result of outsourcing, subcontracting and collaborative working. As a result the nature of the employer/employee relationship is increasingly ‘complex and ambiguous’, with implications for people’s experiences of employment, skills, training and careers.

• Praxis: Encouraging small firms to invest in training: learning from overseas

  8 Jun 2010

  More adults engage in learning at work than anywhere else, and given that businesses with fewer than 25 workers account for over 90% of all employers in the UK, both the quantity and quality of the training available is of critical importance.

• Praxis: Geography matters: The importance of sub-national perspectives on employment and skills

  11 Nov 2009

  A sub-national perspective in employment and skills policy is an important complement to national and international analyses because, there are sub-national variations in employment structures and skills profiles; such that, economic opportunities and life chances vary across space – in a way that matters more for some people than for others, which in turn has led to a greater emphasis than formerly on policy making and delivery at sub–national level.

• Praxis: Job Quality in Britain

  2 Nov 2009

  In the last decade job quality has been a prominent issue in policy circles. The vision of “more and better jobs” has been advanced by the British government, and separately by both the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission. Business leaders, at the same time, have called for more skilled workers, while trade unions have been drawing attention to the increasingly demanding and stressful nature of modern workplaces and the need to improve the quality of work life (European Commission, 2008).

• Praxis: Skills are not enough: the globalisation of knowledge and the future UK economy

  3 Mar 2010

  Skills and employment policy in the UK has responded to global competition by developing a clear vision and setting goals for the development of a highly skilled working age population, able to compete effectively in higher value market places. At the same time lower skilled and lower paid industries are increasingly seen as the preserve of emerging economies – as part of a linear evolutionary process.

• Praxis: Working to learn, learning to work

  10 Jan 2011

  Why do some workplaces create ‘expansive’ learning environments, whilst others are more ‘restrictive’? In this edition of Praxis, Alan Felstead, Alison Fuller, Nick Jewson and Lorna Unwin, explore this question through six case studies.

• Product strategies, skills shortages and skills updating needs

  12 Jul 2011

  This report explores the relationship between firms' market strategies and their skills needs. Building on previous analysis and drawing on data from the National Employer Skills Survey, it addresses some key questions. To what extent do the skills available from a firm's workforce have a bearing on the markets in which it can operate? To what extent does a firm's market strategy shape its outlook on skills and its skill needs? These questions are of key importance when thinking about the economic case for skills and the challenge of galvanising sectors to improve the skills and productivity of their workforces.

• Progression from Vocational And Applied Learning to Higher Education across the UK

  9 Jun 2010

  The UK Commission asked the Universities Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) to build on work they carried out for the Westminster government looking at progression routes to higher level skills provision in England for those with applied and vocational qualifications. We asked UVAC to extend its work to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and present a picture of progression for the whole of the UK. The purpose of this study was to provide examples of good practice, to contrast policy and operational approaches, to identify issues that could be considered on a UK basis and to make recommendations to maximise progression opportunities for applied