The role of skills: from worklessness to sustainable employment with progression : UK Commission for Employment and Skills Evidence Report no. 38

This study is shaped by the recognition that while there has been a great deal of policy development around the transition from unemployment and inactivity to employment over the last decade, policy can still be informed about how best to nurture sustainable employment for those at risk of labour market exclusion. There remain challenges associated with, for example, the cost-effectiveness of intervention, the „low pay no pay‟ cycle and access to training. As a consequence, the opportunities for sustainable progression, upward social mobility and alleviating poverty remain unrealised for many workers in lower paid occupations. The methodology underpinning this study is predominantly based on a literature search and review of the research and evidence base post 2005. This is supplemented with the development of four international case studies (Australia, Denmark, Germany, United States contained in a separate annex) and an e-consultation with country experts

The role of skills from worklessness to sustainable employment with progression

This study is shaped by the recognition that while there has been a great deal of policy development around the transition from unemployment and inactivity to employment over the last decade, policy has not been sufficiently informed about how best to nurture sustainable employment for those at risk of labour market exclusion. The review focused on evidence from 2005: it provides a review of data, UK and international literature and, incorporates findings from four international case studies ( Australia, Germany, Denmark and the United States. The report provides an overview of the economic context for low pay and low skilled work and highlights the need for a continuing commitment to promoting opportunities in the labour market as a means of progression and alleviating poverty and encouraging social mobility. The report argues that there is an inextricable link between skills and ‘better jobs’. The authors conclude that a long-term view is required to decide how best to support someone at the point of worklessness: to address employability barriers in the short-term; and prepare the individual to retain, and progress in, employment. The concept of career is explored as a framework for progression: a combination of career guidance, a career / personal development plan and career management skills are identified as tools to raise aspiration and enable individual’s to take action once they are in work to support their own progression. Thinking about the workplace, the report reviews the evidence on the role of job design, line management and progression pathways in facilitating workplace learning as a route to progression

The Role of Social Novelty in Risk Seeking and Exploratory Behavior: Implications for Addictions.

Novelty preference or sensation seeking is associated with disorders of addiction and predicts rodent compulsive drug use and adolescent binge drinking in humans. Novelty has also been shown to influence choice in the context of uncertainty and reward processing. Here we introduce a novel or familiar neutral face stimuli and investigate its influence on risk-taking choices in healthy volunteers. We focus on behavioural outcomes and imaging correlates to the prime that might predict risk seeking. We hypothesized that subjects would be more risk seeking following a novel relative to familiar stimulus. We adapted a risk-taking task involving acceptance or rejection of a 50:50 choice of gain or loss that was preceded by a familiar (pre-test familiarization) or novel face prime. Neutral expression faces of males and females were used as primes. Twenty-four subjects were first tested behaviourally and then 18 scanned using a different variant of the same task under functional MRI. We show enhanced risk taking to both gain and loss anticipation following novel relative to familiar images and particularly for the low gain condition. Greater risk taking behaviour and self-reported exploratory behaviours was predicted by greater right ventral putaminal activity to novel versus familiar contexts. Social novelty appears to have a contextually enhancing effect on augmenting risky choices possibly mediated via ventral putaminal dopaminergic activity. Our findings link the observation that novelty preference and sensation seeking are important traits predicting the initiation and maintenance of risky behaviours, including substance and behavioural addictions.VV is a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow in Clinical Neurosciences (093705/Z/10/Z). The study was conducted at, and supported by, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLOS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.015894

The Perioperative Surgical Home: A New Paradigm in a Surgical Episode of Care

An overview and review of a Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) pilot developed using hte guiding principles of the patient-centered medical home. The PSH coordinates care and decisions from the decision to operate through return to primary care. The pilot demonstrated that a PSH improves efficiencies, decreases waste, improves patient and physician satisfaction and decreases care costs

Socio-Environmental Factors Associated With Pubertal Development in Female Adolescents: The Role of Prepubertal Tobacco and Alcohol Use

This cross-sectional study of 3,106 female adolescents, aged 11–21 years, evaluated the association between prepubertal alcohol and tobacco use and the onset of puberty. Ages at initial breast development, body hair growth, and menarche were self-reported. Prepubertal alcohol and tobacco use were defined as the age at first use before the age of pubertal development and accompanied by regular use. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using Cox proportional hazard models. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between substance use and delayed puberty, defined as lack of breast development by the age of 13 years