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 how access to 'assumed knowledge' - certain unspoken, untaught information that helps them ‘get ahead’ - varies among young people based on socioeconomic background, and the way it hinders social mobility.

This report explores the barriers that people face getting into work, how those barriers might be addressed, and the potential that could be unlocked by doing so. It provides new primary research, using SMF survey data on the challenges, needs, and wants of those seeking employment.

New technologies and new challenges mean that young people today will need more than just technical skills and knowledge to be prepared for the careers of tomorrow. Baroness Morgan outlines the importance of character development in education, and considers what policymakers can do to ensure it is prioritised appropriately.

In-work poverty is not just a problem experienced by workers in the private sector. In this report, we explore the experiences of Londoners who work in the public sector and are living in poverty.

The past decade has brought a decline in the number of school students in England participating in work experience. Far too many have to rely on their parents’ connections to get worthwhile and beneficial experiences. Amidst growing calls for work experience to be accessible for all, in this report we provide a roadmap for rolling out high quality, universal work experience to students in England, in a way that is both equitable and does not compromise quality.

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 report calls attention to the scale of in-work poverty in the UK and London today, what drives it, and the impact it has. It is a part of a wider project – created in partnership with Trust for London - to develop a new benchmark that helps businesses tackle in-work poverty.