In October 2014, ACTCOSS and the Women’s Centre for Health Matters collaborated to release a report for Anti-Poverty Week titled Creating Opportunity or Entrenching Disadvantage? which explored ACT labour market data and trends, and the female share for the largest employing industries in the ACT. Now 5 years later, approximately 37,000 people live in low-income households in the ACT, and women are over-represented in Canberra’s low-income households. With the cost of living in the ACT also increasing and Canberra’s overall CPI increasing above the national rate, we have revisited the latest data to determine what changes have occurred in the labour market and how women have fared though the changes compared to men.

This research engaged students and key stakeholders in order to provide a rich account of the impact of RAW on schools, students, industry, and civic organisations. Central to this is the identification of enablers and barriers to participation in, and success of, RAW. The central questions of the study were: Research Question 1. What do participants report are the impacts of RAW on schools, students, industry and civic organisations? Research Question 2. What are the enablers and barriers of participation in RAW and the perceived success of RAW?

This report summarises the deliberations and proposals of the GAP Taskforce on Youth Transitions - a multidisciplinary stakeholder group established by Global Access Partners (GAP) in 2018 in the context of the NSW Curriculum Review. The group operated as an informal advisory body to Prof Geoff Masters AO and the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), and through them to the NSW Minister for Education. The Taskforce was co-funded by GAP and NESA and was chaired by David de Carvalho, Chief Executive Officer of NESA. He left that role in February 2019 but continued to chair the Taskforce.

Based on data on vocational education, skills, employment and labour market outcomes compiled in 2019, this report provides an overview of trends and developments in ETF partner countries and aims to raise awareness on the use of indicators to drive the policy cycle.

This report provides an overview of the changing skills needed in today's workforce and what to do to get them. Rhe report provides a set of key recommendations that leverage the common principles of these tactics as a foundation: personalization at scale, increased transparency, and leveraging the ecosystem. These recommendations leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to assist organizations in closing skills-related gaps.

The Smart Specialisation approach has been part of EU regional innovation policy since 2010 and yet the role of skills and vocational education and training in implementing Smart Specialisation Strategies has only recently attracted attention. Despite being raised in earlier policy documents, it was the 2017 Communication on Strengthening Innovation in Europe's Regions, drawing on experience of implementing smartspecialisation in practice, which illustrated its significance for regional innovation policy. In the proposals for Cohesion Policy post 2020, education and skills for innovation are important priorities. Therefore, this technical report is timely since it explores trends in Vocational Education and Training (VET), looks at where it has contributed to Smart Specialisation in specific cases, and highlights elements to consider in regional strategies.

This technical note underscores the value of employment-based interventions in situations of fragility, for youth and the broader society. The note presents relevant policy frameworks, as well as operational approaches and tools applied in addressing the need of young women and men exposed to the consequences of conflicts and natural disasters. Drawing on ILO knowledge and country experiences, it offers insights for policy advice and programme making.

Helping young people prepare to engage in work and life as productive adults is a central challenge for any society. In theory, the path to employment providing financial security in adulthood is simple: finish high school, enroll in and complete college or training that is affordable and a good fit, gain some work experience along the way, and launch a career. But given that 17 per cent of young adults ages 18 to 24 are out of work in mid to large cities in the U.S., totaling 2.3 million young people, this path does not appear to work equally well for all, particularly in light of the effects of the Great Recession and the declining rates of employment among teens and young adults since about 2000. Though millions of young Americans are out of work, they are not monolithic. We used cluster analysis to segment out-of-work young adults into five groups, represented by personas, likely to benefit from similar types of employment and educational assistance. We grouped young people together based on similarities in their work history, educational attainment, school enrollment, English language proficiency, family status, and other characteristics. Lastly, the report provides recommendations for state, local, civic, and institutional leaders to help all young people successfully navigate the transition into the labor market.

In 2017 there was overhaul to the apprenticeships system in England: large firms were required to pay 0.5 per cent of their wage bill into an apprenticeship levy, while regulations on training and delivery were firmed up. Two years on, this briefing note takes stock of the system, looking at what’s changed, why and where policy makers should consider moving next. The system today is smaller: there were 25 per cent (124,000) fewer apprenticeship starts in 2017/18 than there were in 2014/15, and this fall was primarily driven by a reduction in starts at lower levels (i.e. GCSE-equivalent) of study, which nearly halved. On the other hand, there was a rise in starts at higher levels of study: overall, the number of apprenticeship starts at Levels 4 and above (higher-education equivalent) more than doubled (to 48,000) from 2014/15 to 2017/18. Critics of the levy are quick to blame it for the overall fall in starts, but this briefing note finds that levy-paying firms are just as likely as non-levy payers to invest in the types of lower-level programmes that have experienced substantial reductions in numbers. Instead, it looks as though regulatory reforms, which required more training (and more money), offer a more convincing explanation for the reduction in numbers. The types of programmes that experienced the largest falls were, on average, at lower-levels of study, in lower-paying sectors. Apprentices in these areas spent fewer than average hours in formal training and a higher-than-average share of them were unaware of the fact they were classed as an apprentice. While there is little evidence to suggest that the levy was responsible for the fall in lower-level starts, there is some evidence to suggest it encouraged growth at higher-levels. On average, levy payers were more likely than non-levy payers to invest in these areas. Worryingly, starts at these higher levels are not typically undertaken by those at the beginning of their careers. In fact, a Department for Education survey published in 2017 found that 83 per cent of all higher-level apprentices aged 25 and over said they were employed by the same firm prior to beginning their apprenticeship. Given projections that the apprenticeships budget could be overspent by as much as £1.5bn in 2021, policy makers are considering how to prevent an overspend, while stakeholders wrangle for position. This briefing note argues that they should hold firm on their recently implemented training rules, and put into place strong monitoring and enforcement systems. They should also ensure that the system offers a clear route to a good career for young people and new starters. To that end, they should consider requiring levy payers to dedicate at least half of their levy expenditure to the under-30s and an overlapping half to new starters to the firm.