The student workforce plays a substantial part in several low-paying industries such as retail and hospitality, and this has grown over time. However, there has been little recent research. The usual assumption is that students compete successfully with the local labour force for low-skill, part-time jobs, but there is little evidence for this.…

Access to lifelong learning opportunities has long been discussed in terms of the economic benefits conferred by access to and engagement in further education by members of the labor force, particularly within the global knowledge economy. However, equitable access to lifelong education opportunities, particularly for low-skilled adults in the…

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, low-skilled workers have continued to move around the labour market. Working from home presents a new set of challenges for employees and managers alike. Our new research with the Chartered Management Institute looks at the role of managers in supporting low-skilled workers to thrive in their new workplaces…

Participation in adult education and training opportunities over the entire life-course is necessary in international and technologically advanced economies. However, there is a dearth of literature on equitable access to lifelong education opportunities, particularly for at risk and underserved adults in the labor force. Furthermore,…

Research on the labour market experiences of highly skilled migrants has revealed the crippling employability challenges they face in the UK workplace resulting from the devaluation of their homeland qualifications and experiences. Studies on highly skilled migrants from Zimbabwe have revealed how migrants have to resort to semi-skilled and…

Over 25 years ago, Brown and Duguid ("Organisation Science," 2(1), 40-57, 1991) highlighted the differences between the way organisations formally describe and delineate jobs and the actual practices of their employees. This paper combines ideas from their seminal contribution with theories of "job crafting" and identity to…

This paper contributes to debates around social mobility and social capital by exploring the links between social class background, assistance from non-parental personal contacts for finding employment, and social class destination. The literature on social mobility, social capital and social networks is reviewed, drawing a conceptual distinction…

Improvements in workforce skills are essential for European countries to attain higher economic growth and to compete effectively on product markets. Literature indicates a positive relationship between levels of education and productivity growth. This report builds on and expands this body of research in two ways: (1) It investigates the…

The current policy intention, that all young people remain in some form of accredited education or training to the age of 18 by 2015, poses significant challenges. The jobs without training (JWT) group includes young people who are in full-time work and not in receipt of training leading to National Vocational Qualification level 2 (or above);…

This book assembles over 50 papers from the 7th Triennial European Research Conference of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA), which was held from the 4th to the 7th of September 2013 at Humboldt-University in Berlin. The title of the conference was "Changing Configurations of Adult Education in Transitional…

Young people who are in "jobs without training" (JWT) are commonly seen as "dead end kids in dead end jobs". They have been identified as a problem group who need to be encouraged back into formal education and training. Following the Leitch report and the new policy goal to involve all young people in education and training up…

Interviews (n=350) and a survey (n=323) of managers, trainers, and union representatives in British health care agencies showed that technology caused some job enlargement and enrichment; positive or negative effects depended on context. Other jobs were deskilled due to work organization, not technology. Technology's impact on job change was…

Examines the opportunities for and barriers to workplace learning among low-grade staff in the United Kingdom public sector and the role of managers and supervisors in providing access to learning opportunities. Describes innovative examples of workplace learning. Concludes that the reality for many low-grade manual and routine clerical staff…

The impact of United Kingdom welfare policies upon opportunities for participation in all types of post-16 learning by those receiving welfare benefits differ by age, employment status, and mode of study. A key issue is whether welfare policies help low-skilled people who are not in work to participate in learning, or whether rules and regulations…

The patterns, extent, and problems of working at home in the United Kingdom were examined through a multivariate analysis of data from the Labour Force Survey, which has questioned respondents about the location of their workplace since 1992. The numbers of people working "mainly" at home increased from 345,920 (1.5%) in 1981 to 680,612…