Research library

This online library provides a comprehensive repository of the different and effective approaches to employer engagement and careers education. Developed over the last decade it brings together the latest thinking with selected research published over the past 40 years for the benefit of researchers, academics and policy makers.

Free to access and searchable by keyword, it features summaries of a wide range of studies with abstracts and links to the full reports. With research articles and reports from leading figures and education bodies, you can examine issues such as employer-led learning, youth employment, career related learning in primary schools, and social mobility, as well as information on gender, ethnicity, and specific subject study such as STEM.

The main library is complemented by an extensive online video collection and a physical library. The video collection comprises over 150 videos of researchers discussing their work and its implications for policy and practice, together with conference presentations and seminars.

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Beyond ‘NEET’ and ‘tidy’ pathways: considering the ‘missing middle’ of youth transition studies (School of Education, University of Southampton)

October 4, 2020

Steven Roberts Abstract Jones’ (2002) discussion of polarised transitions and the ‘fast and slow lanes to adulthood’ espoused by Bynner et al. (2002) are good examples of how dualistic language often permeates youth transitions discourses. This often results in transitions research concentrating on a dichotomy of experience during the youth phase. The primary purpose […]

Education to Work Transitions: How the Old Middle Went Missing and Why the New Middle Remains Elusive (University of Liverpool)

October 2, 2020

by Kenneth Roberts University of Liverpool Abstract Middling youth were centre stage in research on school-to-work transitions from the early-20th century up to and throughout the 1980s. Since then they have been overshadowed by sociological attention to the young unemployed/NEETs on the one side, and university students and graduates on the other. Simultaneously, economists […]

A Multination Study of Socioeconomic Inequality in Expectations for Progression to Higher Education: The Role of Between-School Tracking and Ability Stratification (Australian Catholica University, University College London)

October 2, 2020

Philip D. Parker, John Jerrim, Ingrid Schoon, Herbert W. Marsh In recent decades there have been significant declines in inequality of expectations and attainment for tertiary education by gender and ethnicity. But large differences in educational expectations and attainment by socioeconomic status have remained. Educational expectations are the most important predictor of attainment, but […]

The Aspiration Gap (The Prince’s Trust)

October 1, 2020

This report by the Prince’s Trust highlights an “aspiration gap” as the pandemic in the UK impacts young people’s ambitions and aspirations. According to the survey, more than a third of young people (39%) have abandoned their aspirations for the year ahead. This increases significantly among those respondents who are NEET. 44% of NEET young […]

How do essential skills influence life outcomes? An evidence review (The Centre for Education and Youth, Skills Builder Partnership)

October 1, 2020

New research by The Centre for Education and Youth in partnership with the Skills Builder Partnership explores the relationship between essential skills and young people’s life outcomes. Existing work often emphasises the importance of building essential skills in light of structural changes in the labour market, including technological disruptions and changing work norms. This report […]

Aspirations and the Future of Work (International Labour Organization)

September 16, 2020

Youth Aspirations and the Future of Work: A Review of the Literature and Evidence Drew Gardiner, Micheline Goedhuys International Labour Organization Richard Barrett Research Associate at Education and Employers has written an article about the report – read it here. Suggested citation: Gardiner, D., Goedhuys, M. 2020. Youth Aspirations and the Future of Work: A […]

The long shadow of deprivation: differences in opportunities

September 15, 2020

Social Mobility Commission Social mobility in England is a postcode lottery, with large differences across areas in both the adult pay of disadvantaged sons and the size of the pay gap for sons from deprived families, relative to those from affluent families. Both the adult earnings of sons from disadvantaged families, and the difference […]

Education at a Glance 2020

September 15, 2020

OECD This edition of Education at Glance provides an overview of education during the Covid-19 crisis. It touches on the health aspects of the crisis as well as the economic crisis and the impacts for education, such as the impact of lockdown on disadvantaged people. The lockdowns have interrupted conventional schooling with nationwide school closures […]

Work exposure, exploration and experience

September 9, 2020

Scaffolding vocational education and successful youth transitions through Work Exposure, Work Exploration and Work Experience: The WE3 Continuum and Activities Dave Turner August 2020 This paper has been written by Dave Turner, an Australian with 30 years of international experience in youth employment and careers education and was commissioned by Toi Economic Development Agency in […]

Young people’s aspirations for education, work, family and leisure

September 3, 2020

Young people’s aspirations for education, work, family and leisure Paula McDonald Queensland University of Technology, Australia Barbara Pini Curtin University, Australia Janis Bailey Griffith University, Australia Robin Price Queensland University of Technology, Australia Abstract Young people are arguably facing more ‘complex and contested’ transitions to adulthood and an increasing array of ‘non-linear’ paths. Education […]