The net benefits to employers’ investments in apprenticeships : case study evidence from the UK

In a flexible labour market where people can move relatively easily between jobs and employers, there can be disincentives to train. Employers will be reluctant to train if they are, other things being equal, unsure about the extent to which they will be able to recoup their training costs. In the UK, public policy is committed to increasing the number of people completing apprenticeships in recognition of the benefits this form of training confers on both employers and individual apprentices. Considerable efforts are being made by the public agencies responsible for apprenticeships to persuade employers to participate in this form of training by persuading them of the benefits of doing so. Based on a limited number of employer case studies, this paper outlines the net costs borne by employers in training apprentices and the period over which these costs are recouped by the employer. It demonstrates that employers are able to recoup their costs over one to two years in many instances

Parent support advisor pilot : first interim report from the evaluation

The Parent Support Adviser (PSA) pilot is a government funded initiative to support 20 Local Authorities (LAs) to introduce PSAs into their workforce. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) commissioned the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) to evaluate the PSA pilot programme from September 2006 – August 2008. A government grant (£40 million) has been made available to fund employment of PSAs over this period. To date, 717 PSAs are in place, supporting parents in 1167 schools. This first Interim Report is based on semi-structured interviews with 97 PSAs, 85 line managers and 23 other professionals in 12 case study LAs during Phase 1 of the evaluation, which was carried out between April and June 2007. Phase 2 of the study will take place during the period October to December 2007; phase 3 will take place during March to June 2008. In addition to these interview-based studies with the 12 case study LAs, an analysis will be made of the data collected by all 20 LAs over the period of the pilot using a standard database devised by CEDAR. Data are being collected on the PSAs’ work with parents and, where this occurs, with children. Finally, a cost effectiveness study will be undertaken. The findings from these phases of the project will be reported in the final report

Skills in England 2003: Volume 2, research report

Skills in England 2003 is presented in four volumes this year. Volume 1 provides key messages and an overview of the research findings in the other three volumes. Volume 2 is the main research report and this year, as well as containing the same core of information as in previous years - separate chapters on skills supply, skills demand, mismatches between demand and supply, and future skill needs - also contains other chapters that look at issues which are particularly topical this year. To this end a chapter is contained on the latest developments in policy given the publication of several important policy documents since last year's Skills in England report. Given the emphasis in policy on stimulating the demand for skills, a chapter is presented on the links between investments in skills and training and organisational performance. It is also important to recognise that the benefits of economic growth and investments in training and skills do not affect everyone equally. There are groups in society who fail to obtain advantage from training and skills development and to illustrate this a chapter on social exclusion and equality of opportunity has been included this year. An important element of combating social exclusion has been the use of labour market programmes such as New Deal. Labour market programmes often contain a large element devoted to training of one kind or another and have been an important tool of labour market policy in many European countries. Arguably there is much more emphasis on active labour market policy in Britain today than hitherto with programmes such as New Deal, so a chapter has been devoted to this aspect of skills development. Finally, Volumes 3 and 4 provide evidence related to industrial sector and regional/local trends respectively. Terence Hogarth Rob Wilson Joint editors Skills in England 200