1st Edition
Understanding Employer Engagement in Education Theories and evidence
This collection focuses on employer engagement in education, how it is delivered and the differentiated impact it has on young people in their progression through schooling and higher education into the labour market. The focus is not narrowly on vocational or technical education or work-related learning, but on how employer engagement (eg, work experience, internships, careers education, workplace visits, mentoring, enterprise education etc) influences the experiences and outcomes of the broad range of young people across mainstream academic learning programmes. The essays explore the different ways in which education can support or constrain social mobility and, in particular, how employer engagement in education can have significant impact upon social mobility – both positive and negative.
Leading international contributors examine issues surrounding employer engagement and social mobility: conceptualisations of employer engagement; trends in social mobility; employer engagement and social class; access and management of work experience; social capital and aspiration; access to employment.
The book makes employer engagement an innovative focus in relation to the well established fields of social mobility and school to work transition. By examining what difference employer engagement makes, the essays raise questions about conventional models and show how research drawing on different fields and disciplines can be brought together to provide a more coherent and convincing account. Building on new theorisations and combining existing and new data, the collection offers a systematic exploration of the influence of socio-economic status on school-to-work transitions, and addresses how educational policy can shape more efficient labour market outcomes. In doing so, it draws on, and speaks to, existing literature which has considered such questions from the perspectives of gender, ethnicity and social disadvantage.
Foreword
Professor Robert Schwartz, Academic Dean, Harvard Graduate School for Education, Harvard University
Introductory Essay
Louise Archer, Anthony Mann & Julian Stanley
Part 1 -Conceptualising employer engagement in social mobility
Julian Stanley, University of Warwick & Dr Anthony Mann, Education and Employers Taskforce
What Difference Does it Make? – Building a Theoretical Understanding of What Employer Interventions Do
Dr James Stone III, National Research Centre for Career & Technical Education, University of Louisville, USA
College and Career Ready - A Conceptual Framework for the American Labour Market: Engagement, Achievement and Transition
Part 2 -Trends in social mobility
Prof. Yaojun Li, Prof. Fiona Devine, School of Social Sciences, Manchester University
Origin, Education and Destination: An Analysis of Social Mobility in Britain (1991-2005)
Prof Ken Mayhew, Craig Holmes, SKOPE, University of Oxford
Room at the Top – and the Bottom, Too: The Winners and Losers in the "Hourglass" Economy
Employer engagement and social class
James Dawkins, Education and Employers Taskforce
Looking Back, Moving On: The Views of Young Britons (aged 19-24) on Their Teenage Experiences of School- Mediated Employer Engagement and Correlations with Subsequent Labour Market Outcomes
Prof Prue Huddleston, Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick & Dr Anthony Mann, Education and Employers Taskforce
Perhaps You are a Barrister and Can Help a Current Wykehamist Discover Something About Chamber Life? - Employer Engagement in High Performing English Independent Schools
Part 3 - Access to work experience and internships
Dr Tricia Le Gallais, Birmingham City University
What a Person Can Be They Must Be - An Exploration of the Efforts of One School in the West Midlands, England to Raise Aspirations and Widen Horizons for their Students Through Their Work Experience Programme.
Gill Frigero, Career Studies Unit, University of Warwick
Social Mobility and Unpaid Work Experience in Higher Education: Lessons from a HEFCE Funded Undergraduate Internships Scheme
Social capital and aspiration
Dr Keith Kintrea, Dr Ralf St.Clair & Dr Muir Houston, College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow
Knowing Their Place: How Location Makes a Difference in Young People’s Aspirations: A Report on a Longitudinal Study of Three British Communities
Emma Charlotte Norris with Prof Becky Francis, Royal Society of Arts
Not Enough Capital? Exploring education and employment progression in Further Education
Part 4 Access to employment
Professor Alison Taylor, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta
High School Apprenticeships in Alberta: Exploring Social Mobility
Jill Collins, Squadron Leader Glynis Dean & Mary Guy, The Royal Air Force and Sheffield Hallam University
Ensuring the Future Workforce - A Royal Air Force Perspective: The Exploration of a Strategic Response to the Under-Representation of Females in Technical Occupations
Dr Richard Pettinger, University College London
Employer Engagement: A Strategic Human Resource Management Perspective
Afterword
Hugh Lauder, Professor of Political Economy, University of Bath and editor of the Journal of Education and Work
Biography
Anthony Mann is Director of Policy and Research at the Education and Employers Taskforce.
Julian Stanley is Head of Centre, Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick, UK.Louise Archer is Professor of Sociology of Education at King’s College London, UK.