Centre for Learning and Life-Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies

NIESR is a partner in this ESRC-funded Research Centre which is led by Professor Andy Green and Professor Lorna Unwin at the Institute of Education, University of London. Other research partners in the Centre are the University of Bristol and the University of Southampton.

The principal aims of the Centre are to investigate the role of lifelong learning in promoting economic competitiveness and social cohesion and to learn more about the tensions and complementarities between these two policy objectives.

LLAKES’ research is organised in three strands:

  1. Models of Lifelong Learning and the Knowledge Society
  2. Regenerating City-Regions: Learning Environments, Knowledge Transfer and Innovative Pedagogy
  3. Life Chances and Learning Throughout the Life Course

NIESR researchers are involved in the following LLAKES research projects:

Strand 2

Industrial Competitiveness, Social Inclusion and the Upskilling of Adult Workers

Project leader: Geoff Mason

This project is investigating the tensions between competitiveness and social inclusion objectives which arise in publicly-funded training initiatives in the UK. Telephone surveys of employers in different city-regions and industries suggest that many adult workers have skill upgrading and improvement needs even though they are already qualified to NVQ Level 2 or above. However, present government funding for adult training tends to focus support, in the name of social inclusion, on individuals who have not yet gained a Level 2 qualification. As a result, there is little incentive for providers (including further education colleges) to service the skill upgrading and updating needs of the majority of the adult workforce, despite the importance of such skills upgrading to productivity and competitiveness at firm level. The project is also investigating trends in education and training participation by adults in the 25-64 age group in the UK, including the impact of the current recession on employer-provided training for adult workers.


Innovation, Knowledge Transfer, and the Role of Higher Education

Project leader: Geoff Mason

This project is exploring the contribution made by higher education institutions to innovation and knowledge transfer at city-region level, with particular emphasis on universities’ interactions with enterprises engaged in innovation. In particular, it is investigating the role of universities in the following areas:

  • The supply of highly-qualified personnel to innovative enterprises
  • The provision of technical problem-solving, consultancy and training services to industrial clients
  • Research carried out jointly with industrial partners
  • Participation in industrial supply-chains and networks engaged in innovation
  • The efforts of publicly-funded regional institutions to promote research collaboration, knowledge transfer and network-building

Strand 3

Economic Experience in Working Life

Project leader: Martin Weale

The purpose of this research is to understand factors that influence the socio-economic experience of men and women of working age, and the influence of education and training undertaken prior to commencing work and while of prime and late working age. It is identifying the importance of basic skills, education, vocational training and work experience on dynamic progression through the life course, the average effects of such factors, their impact on disturbances people face to their income and employment, and the magnitude of incentives to take up education and training as a function of age.

Among other things, the project aims to assess the welfare gains from participation in life-long learning in terms of their effects on future earnings and income uncertainty, and to compare what emerges from this with the actual take-up of life-long learning to indicate the nature of gaps in provision. At the same time it is taking account of evidence that the social benefits of learning investment can be larger than private benefits. For example, learning investments may impact on the lives of others not undertaking such investment through learning spillovers or other complementarities in production between high and low skilled workers. The project is investigating how such spillovers are affected by technical change and what their consequences are for oldeFebruary 4, 2011 12:48 PM Seminar Series – Spring/Summer 2010

The Effects of Lifelong Learning on Earnings Dynamics

Richard Dorsett, Silvia Lui and Martin Weale

Tuesday 23 February 2010
Elvin Hall

This seminar presents finding from a study which used the British Household Panel Survey to explore the economic effects of life-long learning. It found that men’s earnings are clearly affected by lifelong learning only if they upgrade their qualifications. Women's earnings, however, are affected by lifelong learning even if the qualifications they gain are at the same level as those they already possess. However, for both men and women, gaining qualifications at the same level increases the probability of employment. The model that underpinned this research is shown to out-perform more conventional approaches to modelling hourly earnings.


Globalising Bologna

Roger Dale

Committee Room 2
23 March 2010

This seminar will trace the development and changing nature and influence of the ‘external dimension’ and ‘globalising’ of the Bologna Process/European Higher Education Area. This effectively began at the 2005 Bergen Ministerial meeting, with the announcement of what was called then an ‘External Dimension’, whose purpose was to improve the worldwide attractiveness of European HE and ‘enhance the understanding of the Bologna Process in other continents by sharing experiences of reform processes with neighbouring regions’. The seminar will discuss some of the key features and consequences of these developments, including their consequences for systems of higher education across the world, in particular in Latin America and the United States, for the European signatory countries, and for HE globally. It will focus on the economic, social and educational consequences of these changes.


The Anatomy of Inequalities in Educational Achievements: An International Investigation of the Effects of Stratification

Tarek Mustafa

Room 834
12 May 2010

This paper analyses the mechanisms of stratification involved in producing unequal educational achievements. The main objective is to determine how stratification leads to unequal educational outcomes and how inequalities are channelled through student characteristics, school characteristics and peer effects.

On the one hand, a descriptive analysis is used to shed light on the education systems of the five selected countries and to provide insight into the functioning of stratification. The countries are Japan, the UK, Italy, Germany and Finland, and the dataset used is PISA 2003. On the other hand, a multilevel econometric model is elaborated in order to quantify the effects of student, school and peer characteristics on performance scores. The results on the regressions are then interpreted according to the institutional context of each country. In the last section, policy implications, based on the regression results, are derived.


Negotiating Political Identities: Multiethnic Schools and Youth in Europe

Daniel Faas

Clarke Hall
Thursday 10 June
13.30-15.30

The seminar for LLAKES and the Citizenship SIG will focus on Faas’ recently released book entitled Negotiating Political Identities: Multiethnic Schools and Youth in Europe. The book proceeds from the notion that globalization, European integration, and migration are challenging national identities and changing education across Europe. The nation-state no longer serves as the sole locus of civic participation and identity formation, and no longer has the influence it once had over the implementation of policies. Drawing on rich empirical data from four schools in Germany and Britain, he shows how schools mediate government policies, creating distinct educational contexts that shape youth identity negotiation and integration processes. The study is the first of its kind to bring together between-country and within-country differences in identity formation among young people. By delving into the discourses of ethnic majority and Turkish minority youth, the book unravels a wide range of factors shaping contemporary identities and offers new insights into the particular role school policy approaches play in this process. The book situates these discussions within broader European and transatlantic theoretical and empirical debates on immigrant incorporation and offers a much-needed synthesis of European and American scholarship. The presentation will highlight some key findings from the fieldwork in Germany and Britain and will discuss the relevance and implications of these findings for school policy approaches and the wider debate on immigrant incorporation.