Organised by FGB, Applica and Ockham IPS, Sally-Anne Barnes gave a keynote address on 'The “distance travelled” approach: Measuring results towards employability' at the ESF+ Data Network meeting, 21 October. The meeting brought together representatives from EU member states and the European Commission to explore data collection methods for quality monitoring.

Sally-Anne's presentation included evidence from recent work with Sally Wright on distance travelled models. It provided some context for the event, which also included presentations from Paul Geraghty (ESF-funded Social Inclusion and Community activation Programme, Ireland) and Łukasz Mikulec (Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Poland).

Sally-Anne Barnes will be delivering the keynote presentation at the upcoming Mutual Learning webinar 'Measuring employability' for the European Network of Public Employment Services.

The event will be held on 27 February and is organised by FGB. Sally-Anne will be drawing up on her recent work on distance travelled models and trends in profiling jobseekers. The presentation entitled 'Measuring the distance travelled and soft outcomes for long-term unemployed people' will discuss evidence on distance travelled models as a way of monitoring and evaluating labour market programme recipients’ outcomes and progression to the labour market.

Dr Daria Luchinskaya has been appointed as a co-convenor of the Employability, Enterprise and Work-based Learning network for the SRHE (Society for Research into Higher Education).

Together with convenors Dr Heike Behle and Dr Ciaran Burke, Daria will be organising SRHE network events and other network activities - look out for the Network's forthcoming events on the SRHE website.

Dr Heike Behle delivered a keynote on ‘Employability as an outcome of tourism education beyond TEF: Theoretical conceptualisation and measurement’ at the Association For Tourism in Higher Education (ATHE) conference on 'Creativity & Transformation in Tourism Education' on 6th December 20018 at Leeds Beckett University.

A new study led by IER raises concerns that employment and career development opportunities for young people are becoming polarised between those with the resources to access secure, fulfilling employment and those on the path to precarious and unpredictable working lives with poor prospects.

The report, Present tense, future imperfect? Young people’s pathways into work was published on September 28. It presents the findings of a three-year study examining the youth labour market in the Midlands from the perspectives of young people themselves, and their employers. The project was conducted by a team led by Kate Purcell.

The study finds evidence that young people with solid educational and family backgrounds, with the contacts and confidence to seek out career opportunities, are highly likely to gain access to work in secure occupations with good conditions of employment and career development. By contrast, job-seekers without these advantages are increasingly found in low-skilled, low-paid jobs, very often on short-term contracts with no guaranteed hours and with few opportunities for progression.

This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).