Britain’s employees are feeling more insecure and pressured at work than at any time in the past 20 years, national survey results published on Monday, 20 May 2013 show. The findings are based on face-to-face interviews with 3,000 workers aged 20 to 60.

Strikingly, public sector workers no longer feel more secure than those in the private sector. In addition to fear of job loss – to be expected during a recession – they are increasingly worried about loss of status and unfair treatment at work.

These are among early findings from the 2012 Skills and Employment Survey (SES) – hosted by the Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES) at the Institute of Education (IOE), London. The survey, conducted every six years, is jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).

“Fear at Work”, one of three reports published today, says: “The major change that occurred between 2006 and 2012 was that for the first time public sector employees were quite clearly more concerned about losing their employment than those in the private sector.” People in workplaces that had downsized or reorganised are the most likely to feel these concerns.

These reports show that:

• In 2012 more than half of employees (51%) were concerned about job status loss. The biggest concern was about pay reductions, followed by loss of say over their job.
• People are working harder. “Work intensification”, which was previously rife in the early 1990s, has resumed since 2006. Both the speed of work and pressures of working to tight deadlines have risen to record highs. Technological change is a key factor, but contrary to common belief, work intensification is not associated with downsizing.
• Job stress has gone up and job-related well-being has gone down since 2006.

Francis Green, Professor of Work and Education Economics at the IOE, says: “Since the start of the recession, the growth of fear not only of employment loss but of unfair treatment and loss of status was particularly strong in the public sector. Attention should be paid to the deteriorating climate of employee relations in this area.”

The researchers also note that employees were more content and less anxious about job or status loss “where employers adopted policies that gave employees a degree of involvement in decision-making at work”.

“The slowness with which employers in Britain are enhancing employee participation is becoming an issue of considerable concern,” says Professor Alan Felstead of the Cardiff School of Social Sciences. “In general, better job control entails increased employee involvement and participation. The intention should be to improve the balance between the benefits of hard work and the costs.”

Editors’ notes

Three reports have been published today (May 20): Fear at Work in Britain, Work Intensification in Britain and Job-related Well-being in Britain.

Press contacts:

To interview Professor Green or for copies of the reports please contact:

Diane Hofkins: d.hofkins@ioe.ac.uk  07976 703455 or

The IOE press office: 

James Russell: j.russell@ioe.ac.uk   020 7911 5556 or

Jennifer Sheldon: j.sheldon@ioe.ac.uk  020 7911 5423

Or

UKCES

Alex.Curling@UKCES.org.uk or 07748 090500

Skills and Employment Survey, 2012

SES2012 is the sixth in a series of nationally representative sample surveys of individuals in employment aged 20-60 years old (although the 2006 and 2012 surveys additionally sampled those aged 61-65). The numbers of respondents were: 4,047 in the 1986 survey; 3,855 in 1992; 2,467 in 1997; 4,470 in 2001; 7,787 in 2006; and 3,200 in 2012.

The Skills and Employment Survey is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills through the ESRC Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES) which acts as the host institution. It is directed by Alan Felstead (Cardiff University and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education) in collaboration with Duncan Gallie at the University of Oxford and Francis Green at the Institute of Education.

The IOE

The Institute of Education is a college of the University of London that specialises in education and related areas of social science and professional practice. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise two-thirds of the Institute’s research activity was judged to be internationally significant and over a third was judged to be “world leading”. The Institute was recognised by Ofsted in 2010 for its “high quality” initial teacher training programmes that inspire its students “to want to be outstanding teachers”. The IOE is a member of the 1994 Group, which brings together 11 internationally renowned, research-intensive universities. More at www.ioe.ac.uk

Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES)

This ESRC-funded Research Centre investigates the role of lifelong learning in promoting economic competitiveness and social cohesion, and in mediating the interactions between the two. Key areas of research include: i) the social and cultural foundations of learning, knowledge production and transfer, and innovation, within the context of a changing economy, and ii) the effects of knowledge and skill distribution on income equality, social cohesion and competitiveness.

It has a programme of multi-disciplinary and mixed method research which addresses these issues at the level of the individual life course, through studies of city-regions and sectors in the UK, and through comparative analysis across OECD countries. More at www.llakes.org

ESRC

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK’s largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC’s total budget for 2012-13 is £205 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes. More at www.esrc.ac.uk

UKCES

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills is a publicly funded, industry led organisation providing strategic leadership on skills and employment issues in the four home nations of the UK. More at http://www.ukces.org.uk

Peter Taylor-Gooby, who is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, attached to the LLAKES Centre, has had a new book published by Palgrave:

The Double Crisis of the Welfare State and What We Can Do about It

The NHS, education, social care, local government, employment services, social housing and benefits for the poor face major challenges from a government determined to entrench a radical and divisive liberalism permanently in British public life. This book analyses the immediate challenge from headlong cuts that bear most heavily on women, families and the poor, and from a root-and-branch restructuring which will fragment and privatize the bulk of public services. It sets this in the context of escalating inequalities and the longer-term pressures from population ageing. It demonstrates that a more humane and generous welfare state that will build inclusiveness is possible by combining policies that limit child poverty, promote more equal outcomes from health care and education, introduce a greater contributory element into social benefits, invest in better child and elder care and address low wages and workplace rights. It analyses the political forces that can be marshalled to support these shifts and shows that, despite declining public sympathy for the poor, the welfare state can attract mass support, given appropriate political leadership.

Internet book sites and http://www.palgrave.com/Products/title.aspx?pid=668106

LLAKES Research Seminar: Top team demographics, innovation and business performance: findings from English firms, 2008-9

Dr Max Nathan, National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR)

 Tuesday 4 June 2013, Room 731, Institute of Education

Abstract

High levels of net migration to the UK have contributed to growing cultural diversity, and researchers are turning their attention to the long-term effects of diversity on productivity. Yet little is known about these issues. This paper asks: what are the links between the composition of firms’ top teams and business performance? What role do ethnic diversity and co-ethnic networks play? And do cities amplify or dampen these channels?

The seminar will explore these questions, drawing upon research conducted on a rich dataset of over 6,000 English firms. Research results will be presented relating to diversity and business performance, including outcomes for minority and female-only top teams.

Max Nathan works at NIESR and at LSE, where he is a Research Fellow at the Spatial Economics Research Centre. He has over 12 years’ experience of working in UK think tanks, consultancy and public policy. Most recently he worked at the Department of Communities and Local Government as an ESRC-DCLG Senior Policy Adviser, covering a range of economic development and governance issues. In 2004 Max helped to set up the Centre for Cities think tank, where he ran the research programme for three years. He is now a member of the Centre’s Research Advisory Board. He is also an Associate at Demos, the Centre for London, and the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Attendance at the seminar is free; please reserve your place via llakesevents@ioe.ac.uk

A national survey of more than 3000 workers aged 20-60 published on 24 April 2013 shows that across the job market there are now more posts requiring degrees than ever before.

Although unemployment among young graduates has increased during the current recession, jobs requiring degrees at entry level have reached an all-time high – over a quarter of all posts. Those requiring no qualifications fell to historically low levels. The proportion of jobs requiring intermediate qualifications has barely changed.

These are among first findings from the Skills and Employment Survey – led by the Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES) based at the Institute of Education, London. The six-yearly survey is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

The survey has been conducted every five or six years since 1986 and shows employment trends over time. Today’s report shows that for the first time, more jobs need a degree (rising from 20% in 2006 to 26% in 2012) than need no qualification at all (falling from 28% to 23%).

“Employers in Britain have been slow to take up the swathes of better qualified workers but now they are starting to wake up to the use of graduate labour,” said Professor Francis Green of the Institute of Education.

The findings also suggest that fewer graduates are now in jobs for which they are overqualified. “Those who are getting jobs are more likely to be in graduate employment,” says Green.

The report, ‘Skills at Work in Britain’, says: “For the two decades from 1986-2006 the prevalence of over-qualification had been rising, but it fell between 2006 and 2012. Although mismatches remain quite high, this turnaround may signal more effective use of qualifications at work by employers.”

While the graduate over-qualification rate fell from 28% to 22%, the graduate unemployment rate rose from 3% to 4%. The net result is that the proportion of graduates who are matched in graduate jobs rose from 69% to 74%.

At the same time, a second study, ‘Training in Britain’, found that there is now less training than during previous surveys. The proportion of British workers engaged annually in more than 10 hours’ training declined from 38% in 2006 to 34% in 2012. This fall is especially concentrated among women.

“Our best estimate is that average training hours per worker per year fell by just under a third (32%),” says Professor Alan Felstead of the Cardiff School of Social Sciences, another member of the research team..

The study also shows that both the quality and the volume of training is greater for those who already have higher levels of education. “This gradation reinforces inequality”, says the report.

“It is an all-too-familiar finding that training often reinforces skill differences because it is concentrated among the better educated. Our evidence is that the high educated group receives twice as much long training as lower educated workers,” Professor Felstead added.

The third report focuses on ‘Job Control in Britain’.

Research Seminar: Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE I)

Arne Carlsen, Director, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning

Wednesday  2013, 3.00-4.30 pm, Room 642, Institute of Education

In this  research seminar, Arne Carlsen will present the Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE I),  the first report of its kind. GRALE I draws on 154 national which were submitted by UNESCO Member States to the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), on the state of adult learning and education. He will also comment on GRALE II, which is expected to be published in the coming months, and which will report on progress in the field of adult education since 2009.

Arne Carlsen has served as Director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), based in Hamburg, since June 2011. He was formerly Director for International Affairs at the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University in Copenhagen, and has a long-standing professional background in teaching and research, having played a leading role in several international initiatives in lifelong learning.

Attendance at the seminar is free; please reserve your place via llakesevents@ioe.ac.uk

Professor Karen Evans (of the LLAKES Centre), Dr Geoff Stanton and Dr Andrew Morris were invited to form the Advisory Panel for the design and development of The Role of Coaching in Vocational Education and Training, published recently in the City and Guilds Insight Series. The publication sets out to show that:

• Coaching has the potential to play an important role in promoting excellent  workplace performance, as part of vocational learning.

• Coaching  is already widely used in vocational education and training, although it often not structured or referred to as structured coaching practice. It has the potential to improve the learning experience when conducted effectively.

The full publication is freely accessible and may be downloaded at:

http://www.skillsdevelopment.org/research_projects/the_role_of_coaching_in_vet.aspx#.UQqax-40OHc

LLAKES Research Seminar: Wednesday 1 May 2013, 3.00 to 4.30 pm, Room 822, Institute of Education, University of London

Geoff Mason: “Rethinking sector-focused industrial policy in the UK: foreign ideas and lessons, home-grown programmes and institutions”

Public discussion about industrial policy in the UK often emphasises the lessons which can be learned from other countries which have proved to be more successful than the UK in terms of innovation, and, especially, in commercialising the results of research and innovation. However, in evaluating industrial policy options for any country, it is important to take account of country-specific characteristics such as product and labour markets, and socio-economic institutions.

In the case of the UK, these market and institutional settings have contributed to a situation where only a small minority of businesses engages in innovation of any kind. This restriction poses many challenges for those programmes and initiatives which have been designed in the past to promote innovation and commercialisation of research results – for example, in supporting two-way knowledge transfer between universities and businesses.

In this seminar, Geoff Mason will review the success and failure of home-grown programmes such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (formerly the Teaching Company Scheme), and overt efforts by UK governments to emulate foreign programmes, such as the US Small Business Innovation Research programme. He concludes that UK industrial policy needs to focus on the specific challenge presented by the relatively small number of firms with any track records in innovation. In some cases, growth in the proportion of innovative firms may be achievable through the scaling-up of existing home-grown programmes. In other areas, there are lessons to be learned from foreign examples of programme design, but these will still need to be adapted to the specific UK policy challenge, namely, how to secure the involvement of hitherto non-innovative firms.

Geoff Mason is Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London. His research interests are in the areas of education, training, labour markets, productivity and innovation. Recent academic publications include articles in Labour Economics, Education Economics, Economics of Innovation and New Technology and Research Policy.

His work on skills and productivity issues has been widely cited in UK public policy debates and contributed to his being invited to work as Research Advisor to the National Skills Task Force and to serve on the Royal Society Working Group on Higher Education. He has also served on academic panels for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and the Cabinet Office’s Workforce Development Project. He can be contacted by e-mail at gmason@niesr.ac.uk.

There is no charge for attending the seminar, but it is helpful to notify attendance in advance. Please e-mail llakesevents@ioe.ac.uk to reserve a place at the event.

The Institute of Education is located at 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAL. Directions to the Institute are given at http://www.ioe.ac.uk/sitehelp/1072.html.

LLAKES Research Seminar: Wednesday 1 May 2013, 3.00 to 4.30 pm, Room 822, Institute of Education

Geoff Mason: “Rethinking sector-focused industrial policy in the UK: foreign ideas and lessons, home-grown programmes and institutions”

Public discussion about industrial policy in the UK often emphasises the lessons which can be learned from other countries which have proved to be more successful than the UK in terms of innovation and, especially, in commercialising the results of research and innovation. However, in evaluating industrial policy options for any country, it is important to take account of country-specific characteristics such as product and labour markets and socioeconomic institutions.

In the case of the UK, these market and institutional settings have contributed to a situation where only a small minority of businesses engages in innovation of any kind. This restriction poses many challenges for those programmes and initiatives which have been designed in the past to promote innovation and commercialisation of research results – for example, in supporting two-way knowledge transfer between universities and businesses.

In this seminar, Geoff Mason will review the success and failure of home-grown programmes such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (formerly the Teaching Company Scheme), and overt efforts by UK governments to emulate foreign programmes, such as the US Small Business Innovation Research programme. He concludes that UK industrial policy needs to focus on the specific challenge presented by the relatively small number of firms with any track record in innovation. In some cases growth in the proportion of innovative firms may be achievable through the scaling-up of existing home-grown programmes. In other cases there are lessons to be learned from foreign examples of programme design but these will still need to be adapted to the specific UK policy challenge, namely, how to secure the involvement of hitherto non-innovative firms.

Geoff Mason is Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London. His research interests are in the areas of education, training, labour markets, productivity and innovation. Recent academic publications include articles in Labour Economics, Education Economics, Economics of Innovation and New Technology and Research Policy.

His work on skills and productivity issues has been widely cited in UK public policy debates and contributed to his being invited to work as Research Advisor to the National Skills Task Force and to serve on the Royal Society Working Group on Higher Education. He has also served on academic panels for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and the Cabinet Office’s Workforce Development Project. He can be contacted by e-mail at gmason@niesr.ac.uk.

There is no charge for attending the seminar, but it is helpful to notify attendance in advance. Please e-mail llakesevents@ioe.ac.uk to reserve a place at the event.

The Institute of Education is located at 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAL. Directions to the Institute are given at http://www.ioe.ac.uk/sitehelp/1072.html.

Professor Lorna Unwin served as Academic Adviser to the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL). The Commission’s summary report is now available at http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/node/26611.

LLAKES Research Paper 41, entitled: “Vocational Education and Training in Eastern Europe: Transition and Influence”, by John West, is now available.

A number of the formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe joined the European Union in the mid 2000s, some fifteen years after the collapse of their socialist regimes.  A further set of countries in the Western Balkans are moving towards EU membership.  This paper examines the changes in their Vocational Education and Training systems during this period of change