John Sutherland

Employer characteristics and employee training outcomes in UK SMEs: a multivariate analysis

Workforce development is becoming a higher priority for government, both as a means of addressing social exclusion and raising competitiveness. However there is limited evidence of the contribution of training to the success of individual firms and even less evidence of the impact of such training activity on small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) employees. This paper draws on a survey of 1,000 employees to investigate the impact of a training intervention on employees in SME workplaces. It explores issues associated with the equity of provision of training in the workplace and the impact of training on the employability of SME employees in the labour market. The results suggest that training interventions lead to positive outcomes for the majority of SME employees, particularly those working in organisations with relatively formalised training practices. It concludes by suggesting that there should be a greater focus on the employee dimension in research and policy regarding training in SMEs.

Job‐to‐job turnover and job‐to‐non‐employment movement

This paper analyses an establishment‐based data set of voluntary quits. Exit interview data identifies two discrete types of quitters, viz. those who quit to accept alternative jobs offering superior terms and conditions of employment and those who quit for other reasons and without having alternative jobs to go to. A binomial logit model is estimated to identify the probability of quitting for reasons of having been offered and having accepted alternative employment. This probability is seen to be both gender and grade related. Females are less likely to quit for this reason. Individuals occupying the financially better rewarded grades are more likely to quit for this reason. Policy recommendations are forwarded based on the analysis.

Encouraging the Transition into Self-employment

SHUTT J. and SUTHERLAND J. (2003) Encouraging the transition into self- employment, Reg. Studies 37 , 97-103. A feature of the current New Deal policy is the encouragement now given to young people to consider becoming self- employed. This article reports the findings of an evaluation of a Princes Trust sponsored scheme in the Yorkshire and Humber region to facilitate the transition into self-employment and uses these findings to make policy recommendations of relevance to the current operation of the New Deal programme.

Different skills and their different effects on personal development: An investigation of European Social Fund Objective 4 financed training in SMEs in Britain

This paper examines a data set that has its origins in European Social Fund Objective 4 financed training programmes in small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain to examine the extent to which three different personal development outcomes are attributable to different types of skills acquired during the training process. The three outcomes in question are: whether an individual gains more confidence at the workplace; whether an individual obtains a qualification; and whether an individual quits the company at which the training took place. To the extent that it is possible to isolate one skill dimension from an inherently multi‐dimensional bundle, it is observed that some of these skill dimensions have important, if sometimes different, impacts on the likelihood that the outcome in question occurs.

Accrediting Prior Learning

Describes the nature of accrediting prior learning (APL). Examines its potential from the perspectives of professional bodies, such as the IPM and the Government. As a prelude to examining a case study evaluation of a “Portfolio Exercise” used to detect non‐standard entrants to a suite of programmes in higher education discusses some problems of putting its principles into practice.

The experience of work

This paper uses a matched workplace‐employee data set to examine the extent to which individuals’ experiences of work and experiences of practices at work, as measured by selected indicators of worker wellbeing, are explained by the nation state of the head office of the workplace. Seven dimensions of worker wellbeing are identified and examined. The paper establishes that employees have different experiences if employed in a workplace in which the head office is located in France, Germany, Japan or the USA relative to the reference category of being employed in a workplace which is UK‐owned.

Workforce reduction strategies: an empirical examination of the options

This paper discusses the workforce reduction strategies of management (such as natural wastage, redeployment, redundancy etc), identifying some of the factors that influence management’s choice between them. It then proceeds to use a WIRS based data set to examine the relationship between these adjustment options and variables reflecting the size, status and industrial/employee relations characteristics of organisations. It was found that the variables associated with “voluntary” adjustment were different from those associated with “compulsory redundancy”. In particular, variables reflecting “good” industrial/employee relations “styles” were associated with the use of adjustment options which sought to reduce manning levels without resort to to compulsion.

The trainee system in professional football in England and Wales

The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) became operational nationally in September 1983. In May 1990, Youth Training (YT) was introduced to replace YTS. Throughout the economy, substantial numbers of new entrants to the labour market were subsidized by both schemes. In professional football in England and Wales, the former ad hoc system of “apprenticeship” was replaced by a more uniform systemic programme of both “specific” and “general” training, operating under the aegis of the Footballers’ Further Education and Vocational Training Society. Examines data to show how, subsequent to the implementation of the YTS/YT schemes in professional football, the number of registered contract professionals has increased: the ratio of contract professionals to trainees has decreased and the inter‐divisional distribution of apprentices/trainees has changed, with proportionately more trainees than before now registered with clubs in the lower divisions. Additionally, describes the “specific” (i.e. football club‐based) and “general” (i.e. college‐based) components of the training programme.

Viewpoint – investing in young people: some changes and some challenges

Examines some of the changes that have occurred in the labour market for young people in the last quarter of a century. Then proceeds to describe the nature of the relevant policy interventions during this same period, in particular the exhortation that “learning pays”. This provides the context for the identification of three challenges for all those directly and indirectly associated with the labour market for young people. In the viewpoint of the author, these challenges are: to espouse the cause of education and training; to create a flexible learning structure to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to learn both through and over time; and to improve the quantity and quality of information flows within this learning infrastructure.

Taxonomy of firms with reference to human resource strategies

Presents the results of a survey of employers, investigating the human resource strategies and policies of firms with particular reference to women returners. Produces a taxonomy of firms with regard to their organizational responses to external environmental change and their external and internal labour market strategies of recruitment, selection and training. Details four types of firm based on their personnel policy. Discusses the implications of this taxonomy for prospective employees, especially women returners.