果冻传媒

The Futuretrack Survey closes on 2 March 2012. The research team are keen to encourage as many people as possible to participants in the survey, to contribute to building a full picture of the labour market and a deeper understanding of the relationship between higher education and employment. Applicants to full-time higher education through UCAS in the academic year 2005/06 are eligible to participate, and have a chance to win a cash prize for completing the questionnaire.

Futuretrack is the most extensive investigation of the relationship between higher education and employment ever undertaken in the UK. The survey is being undertaken by IER on behalf of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU)

Dr Lucy Hearne from the Department of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Limerick visited IER from 21-24 February. Dr Hearne has been awarded funding by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) for new research into the career resilience of career practitioners. She used her visit to undertake some data collection with Adult Guidance Practitioners in the region, and worked with IER colleague Jenny Bimrose on an academic article submission and developing ideas for potential research collaboration.

IER's Professor Peter Elias was mentioned in a Radio 4 programme "Mark Thomas: The Manifesto", first broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday 15 February 2012. In the programme, comedian-activist Mark Thomas presented proposals for his People's Manifesto, suggested by members of the audience. One of the proposals was 3 Years' free education for all between the ages of 25 and retirement, to help the economy by retraining and developing people’s skills, and giving them a second chance at higher education. Professor Elias was reported to have countered this proposal with a suggestion that if the aim was to improve access to education, the reintroduction of the Education Maintenance Allowance would be a better way to achieve this.

The programme is available to listen again until Tuesday 21 February.

In the fourth of a series of podcasts about our work at the Institute for Employment Research, Professor Anne Green speaks about her recent work on spatial inequalities in the UK and the importance of sub-national perspectives on employment and skills.

IER's Bernard Casey gave a presentation at the conference "The Cyprus Economy at a Time of European Uncertainty: Managing Reform and Sustainability", organised by the Hellenic Observatory of the London School of Economics and held at LSE on 10-2-12. His talk on "The Fiscal Implications of Demographic Change" gave an overview of the challenges of addressing pension and care provision for Cyprus's ageing population. Other presenters at the event included the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus, Prof. Chris Pissarides, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Economics, the head of sovereign debt rating for Europe, Middle East and Africa from Standard & Poor's, experts from the World Bank and the European Commission and academics from the University of Cyprus.