天美传媒

The ramifications of the current Covid-19 crisis are likely to be felt in all areas of our lives. Many of the future projections we hear and read about every day are understandably stark and doom-laden, but are there any potentially positive implications of the pandemic?

The sharp rise in the number of people being required to work solely from home during the current crisis has led to a surge in interest in the longer-term outcomes of wider flexible working, with many researchers in the UK and elsewhere discussing Covid-19 as a possible turning point in our attitudes towards greater flexibility (; ).

Lifelong guidance policies and practices are viewed as crucial parts of current EU policy initiatives around validation of learning and the Pillar of Social Rights.

The aim of the research, undertaken by Dr Sally-Anne Barnes together with colleagues at the IER and the Finnish Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyv盲skyl盲, was to examine lifelong guidance policies and practices and to provide an evidence base for priority-setting, as well as supporting dialogue with stakeholders on lifelong guidance and, more widely, skills strategies.

The final presents findings from the research identifying 11 key features of lifelong guidance systems in the EU, lifelong guidance actors and innovations in practice. It concludes with some recommendations for the Commission and those in working in the careers field. Read the press release here.

Professor Jenny Bimrose was awarded the Rodney Cox Lifetime Achievement Award at the CDI鈥檚 鈥楿K Career Development Awards鈥� held on 11 March. The presentation was made by Dave Cordle, the CDI president, on behalf of the CDI鈥檚 board of directors.

The award is in recognition of Jenny鈥檚 sustained and significant contribution to the careers sector in which she has worked in for over 40 years. Jenny recently retired from IER, but has continued her research in the careers field. The award was sponsored by C&K Careers.

While Jenny was unable to attend the official award ceremony because of self-isolation, she is now holding the CDI Award in her hands.

You can read more on Jenny鈥檚 career and her recent publications in this 天美传媒 press release.

It is a widely accepted notion that involving parents in careers education and guidance (CEG) is highly desirable. Although parents and carers undoubtedly influence the career development of young people in their care, with a range of consequences, robust evidence of what, when and how parental behaviours constructively support their children鈥檚 learning about career progression remains elusive.

Sally-Anne Barnes, with Jenny Bimrose, Alan Brown and John Gough, have been undertaking an international evidence review to understand how parents and carers can be better supported by schools and colleges to feel more informed and confident in how they support education and career choices. This has been undertaken with the support of the Gatsby Foundation and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation. This study has produced a wealth of experiential evidence on the engagement of parents, as well as an overview of what is happening in practice.

The evidence report has now been published. Sign up to find out more or join an upcoming webinar. Read the press release here.

The new article written by Professors and IER鈥檚 Clare Lyonette addresses two sizable gaps in knowledge concerning male part鈥恡imers. Are men's part鈥恡ime jobs of lower quality than men's full鈥恡ime jobs? Are male part鈥恡imers more or less satisfied with their jobs compared to their full鈥恡ime peers? For both questions, the article examines whether men's part鈥恡ime employment varies by occupational class.

The article is motivated by the large body of work on female part鈥恡imers, even though male part-time work has been increasing in recent years. Its theoretical framework is rooted in one of the most controversial discussions in the sociology of women workers: the 鈥済rateful slave鈥� debate that emerged in the 1990s when researchers sought to explain why so many women expressed job satisfaction with low鈥恞uality part鈥恡ime jobs. Innovatively, this article draws upon and challenges those contentious ideas to provide new insights into male, rather than female, part鈥恡ime employment.

The results provide clear evidence of low鈥恞uality male part鈥恡ime employment in the UK, when compared with men's full鈥恡ime jobs. Men working part鈥恡ime also express deteriorating satisfaction with jobs overall and in several specific dimensions of their jobs. Male part鈥恡imers in lower occupational class positions retain a clear 鈥渓ead鈥� both in bad job quality and low satisfaction. For more details see .