Latest Publications

This report explores the key enablers and barriers for SMEs in taking on more young apprentices in skilled trade roles, including green jobs. It presents new panel data on the attitudes of trades firms, incorporating insights from interviews with skilled trade workers. Additionally, it discusses policy solutions to support these businesses in effectively increasing their apprentice intake.

This report examines school leavers and adult learners’ experiences of careers information, advice and guidance (IAG) in England. Drawing on focus groups with school leavers, adult learners and parents, plus discussions with experts and practitioners, it presents new evidence on the way that people engage with IAG. The report makes policy recommendations in order to increase the personalisation, accountability, and accessibility of IAG.

This report draws attention to the home heat workforce - the plumbers, heating and gas engineers, and installers - who will be playing an essential in delivering the UK's net zero targets. It provides much-needed insight into the challenges and barriers facing the industry, and highlights the need for policymakers to step in and address them.

This paper discusses the issue of signalling in education – the possibility that some forms of education may do little directly to improve learners’ skills and effectiveness, but may be used primarily to demonstrate or ‘signal’ their pre-existing traits or ability.

Disrespect causes disruption – Decision-makers and people with influence urgently need to address the deficit in respect between graduates and those without a degree, recognising that the emphasis on high-level...

In this briefing, we present the results of a nationally representative survey which shows that the general public believe vocational qualifications to be just as useful and desirable as a university degree.

This essay is not a conventional think-tank report. It is not, directly at least, about government policies or national priorities, but about the climate in which policies and priorities are set.

This report, supported by the Further Education Trust for Leadership, examines the relationship between further education (FE) and higher education (HE) and assesses how the two sectors cooperate and compete.

This report explores the role that adult education does and could play in improving the labour market outcomes of low-income households. It draws on desk research, quantitative analysis and in-depth interviews with both participants and non-participants in adult education from low-income households, and provides a series of policy considerations