The Family Learning Awards Are Now Open For Nominations

A national award looking for the most imaginative, innovative and inclusive ways of delivering learning opportunities to families has opened for nominations.   The Family Learning Awards, organised by the National Centre…

From wild food foraging and cold-water dips to mental health and menopause awareness – discover how two FE colleges are marking Learning at Work Week

Learning at Work Week (12-18 May) is a unique annual event that aims to put a spotlight on the importance and benefits of continual learning…

Coalition calls for family learning reform to support every child and parent in England

A group of organisations from across the adult education, early years and family support sectors is calling for long-term reform to family learning. Coordinated by…

The new childcare entitlements and access to further education

Expanding Childcare: Time for children, parents and family learning The recent Spring Budget announcements included extending free childcare to support more parents returning to work…

The new childcare entitlements and Skills Bootcamps

Expanding Childcare: Time for children, parents and family learning A central plank of the Chancellor’s Spring Budget earlier this year was supporting people to return…

The childcare revolution: A new opportunity for parental partnerships in child learning

Expanding Childcare: Time for children, parents and family learning Estonian inspiration Estonia’s famed affordable childcare system has got politicians around the world flocking to Tallinn…

Women, employment and childcare

Expanding Childcare: Time for children, parents and family learning More working women A major social change in Britain has been the re-entry of women with…

The childcare sector: Providers and the workforce in England

Expanding Childcare: Time for children, parents and family learning Both the present Conservative Government and Labour opposition plan to expand childcare in England. A realistic…

Childcare and a new social contract

Expanding Childcare: Time for children, parents and family learning When you stop to think about it, we have an identity crisis in Britain when it…

Expanding Childcare: Time for children, parents and family learning

A wider vision of the benefits of childcare is needed to fully inform a national debate on access to childcare entitlements, according to a new…

Increasing employer demand for work placements for level 3-5 vocational courses in England

Work placement has been an essential element in vocational courses for many years. The presence of work placement should hardly be surprising given the importance…

Increasing employer demand for higher technical education and training in England

Henry Ford is perhaps the most eloquent champion of the power of staff development. He is famously quoted as saying, “the only thing worse than…

Increasing employer demand for level 4-5 technical education in England

The case that employers in the UK invest too little in the training and development of their new and existing employers is established. In 2022,…

Increasing employer demand for post-16 apprenticeships in England

We know that apprenticeships are great for learners of all ages and all levels. There is also significant demand from employers for apprentices, so supporting…

Increasing employer demand for management training

We know that employers want and need management skills. We also know that management capability is fundamental to future productivity performance and public service improvement.…

Encouraging employer demand for training

Investing in training and development is critical for tackling skill gaps and improving workplace productivity. Yet, despite its importance, evidence suggests that employers in the…

Increasing employer investment in training

With 80% of the 2030 workforce already in work, getting workplace training right, including upskilling and re-skilling, has never been more important. The UK underperforms…

Raising employer investment in training

Debates on the role of employers in skills often focus on how the publicly-funded system can best meet their needs. This is important, but we…

Why should employers invest in training with large net worker migration into the UK?

On Thursday, 23rd June 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union and some three and a half years later, on Friday, 31st January…

Why should employers invest in training in a flexible labour market?

The recent ‘Slouching towards utopia: an economic history of the twentieth century’ by the US economist J Bradford DeLong shows a turn in the world…

FE colleges, business innovation and meeting employer skills needs

There are 163 further education colleges in England. They work with around 130,000 employers – an average of 800 employers each. There are around 2.4…

Universities, R&D, business innovation and meeting employer skills needs

Universities play a vital role in the UK’s business and innovation ecosystem; their network of labour, skills, research and commercial activity is an important part…

Local inward investment, business support and employer demand for training

The 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are business led partnerships between the private, public and third sector. They play a central role in determining the…

Job quality, job design and driving-up employer investment in training

Evidence shows that employer investment in training in England remained stable in real terms between 2015 and 2019 (see Table 1). But there was a…

Transitioning to net zero, green skills and employer investment in training

Transitioning to net zero is an economic challenge and it must work for the whole of society. Central to transitioning to net zero will be…

Strategies to drive-up employer investment in training

The starting point for progress is to recognise that in England, the rights, roles and responsibilities of employers in relation to skills are remarkably unclear.…

Derived demand, British management and employer investment in training

“Skills are a derived demand: employers’ skills needs are a consequence both of their product strategy and the firm’s characteristics. Management is a key determinant…

Employer investment in training in England

Over decades, a problematic trend in the UK has emerged – employers are failing to invest in training the workforce, despite technological change and the…

UK enterprises and investment in capital and training

The UK enterprise population It is often said that small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, are the backbone of the UK economy. According to the…

Investment in the round

The UK is in a period of stagnation, with our economy defined by the toxic combination of low productivity growth and high inequality. Years of…

The Cost-of-Living Crisis and Universities

The cost-of-living crisis is a significant challenge for the whole country, particularly as we move into the winter. This will only be compounded by recent…

The Cost-of-Living Crisis - The Response of Staffordshire University

Earlier this year, we co-authored a report with Citizens Advice Staffordshire North and Stoke- on-Trent (CASNS). This warned of a “pending poverty catastrophe” in North…

The Cost-of-Living Crisis and Adult Education Providers

Adult education is one of the solutions in improving productivity and supporting social justice. Traditionally, adult education has grown in importance in periods of recession…

The Cost-of-Living Crisis and Independent Training Providers

The cost-of-living crisis cannot be tackled without recognising the double whammy of tight labour market conditions and stagnant economic growth. Poor productivity and low attainment…