Employment, Welfare and Skills

Understanding employment and skills issues for a fairer society

In the context of the global economic crisis, understanding employment issues and raising skills are two of the most important challenges facing government today. 

As the recession deepens, measuring the impact of job losses on individuals, communities and industry will be crucial to ensure effective strategies are in place to minimise the negative effects.

At the same time though, it will be important to prepare for the future by raising skills and improving productivity to help build towards future economic recovery and a fairer, and more prosperous, society.  

 

What we do

Ipsos MORI's Employment, Welfare and Skills team have a well-established reputation for conducting high quality research in this area.  In recent years, our research has played a key role in informing policy development as well as evaluating what works on a range of issues such as work incentives and the role of government support in removing barriers to work, learner funding mechanisms and publicly funded training provision. 

These are some of the many areas we conduct research in.

• Welfare reform – Helping to get people back into sustainable employment as well as ensuring there is a sufficient level of provision for the most vulnerable
• The skills agenda – Working to improve the skills base of the UK so we can remain competitive through, for example, the implementation of the Modern Apprenticeship
• Poverty – Working to reduce poverty through improving life chances and aspirations and ensuring that everyone gets the benefits they are entitled to
• Pension reform – Tackling the dual problems of an ageing population and an undersaving workforce
• Innovation and business development – Identifying the factors that help give businesses the edge
• Employment law – Ensuring employers comply with legislation and that workplaces are kept safe
• Fraud and error – Working with departments to help them reduce the amount of public money lost as a result of benefit fraud and tax evasion as well as customer error

Our clients

We work with the main government agencies to help them understand these complex issues.

Our clients include:

• Learning and Skills Council (LSC),
• HM Treasury, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC),
• the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP);
• the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Our approach

We are experts in research methodologies as well as policy, and are skilled in using a range of approaches, from innovative qualitative methods such as ethnography, discourse analysis and citizen’s juries, to large-scale quantitative policy evaluations across a wide range of audiences and using a variety of methodologies.