Commercial Awareness: what it means to employers and students

A research project focusing upon a pilot study exploring views, perceptions and understandings of the term commercial awareness. It draws upon data from a number of sources: research and practitioner-based literature, interviews with graduate employers, and interviews/discussions with current University students. This research work was commissioned by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (2008).

How do they picture themselves now?

A survey of graduates from the Yorkshire and Humber region exploring career aspirations and employment. This survey work was conducted on behalf of Graduates Yorkshire (2007).

Entrepreneurial intentions survey

This substantial research project surveyed over 7,000 University students in the North of England, seeking their views on their entrepreneurial intentions. This project was funded by the Centre for Graduate Entrepreneurship in Yorkshire (2007).

Evaluation of Moving on Lancashire

Moving On Lancashire is a Big Lottery Funded Community Interest Company not-for-profit social enterprise aiming to counter adult social isolation and worklessness through programmes of group activities, one-to-one support, volunteering and return to work assistance. The evaluation method was to tell the story of the beneficiaries of Moving On through data gathered on a number of levels. At ground level, the journeys of the people who have been through at least some of Moving On’s services and support were mapped through a survey collecting and synthesising quantitative data through an easy-to-complete, paper-based questionnaire. The themes and issues that emerged from this informed the development of instruments for a series of three focus groups. We supplemented these focus groups with a series of one-to-one interviews to animate our data reporting with individual stories, which form the photo case studies in this report.

Impact and legacy: National HE STEM funded projects (Yorkshire and Humber)

The National HE STEM Programme has been a three-year initiative funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils for England and Wales (HEFCE/HEFCW). It started in August 2009 and ran until July 2012. The Programme sought to increase and widen participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and enhance the skills and knowledge base of the workforce in these areas. Although encompassing the STEM subjects more generally, it primarily focused its support on the disciplines of Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics and Physics with concomitant benefits to the STEM sector as a whole. Each of the nine projects presented here were designed to share good practice amongst outreach practitioners and encourage staff from different institutions to share ideas, effective working practices and the use of STEM as a means for delivering team work, communication and problem solving skills. In our report, we have captured some of the highlights of the outcomes of these projects and collective endeavours. Some of our funded projects were primarily focused upon developing the potential of Looked After Children; others were focused upon widening participation more generally.

Mental Health in the Workplace

Research Toolkit Limited was commissioned by the Yorkshire Health Improvement Partnership to evaluate the effectiveness of their mental health awareness raising programme in May 2010, with an emphasis on its impact on the attitudes and behaviour of line managers once they returned to work.

The evaluation was survey based, with all participants on the programme asked to complete questionnaires immediately before starting their training, and immediately after finishing it. For those that were willing to take part, we carried out a follow-up survey two to three months after the course had taken place. Between June 2010 and January 2011 we collected a total of 603 paper survey
returns from 48 separate Skills for Line Managers courses across Yorkshire and
North Lincolnshire. This report presents the summarised results of our survey work.

3EP European Entrepreneurship Educators Project: Evaluation

The European Entrepreneurship Educators Project (3EP) was funded through the European Union’s Competitive and Innovation Framework (EU CIP) Programme; an initiative designed to support innovation activities, provide better access to finance and deliver business support services in the EU regions between 2009 and 2012. This report presents a summarised overview and synthesis of locally collected survey data from partner institutions participating in the programme.

Evaluation of Reaching Out

This project involved the evaluation of the WomenCentre’s outreach programme of holistic support for socially isolated women in the Upper Calder Valley, in Brighouse, Rastrick and Elland, and West Park in Halifax. The evaluation led to a full, designed report and a short DVD of interviews with five of the women who took part, as well as project staff and volunteers. Our report was commended by the Big Lottery Fund as a thorough and value-adding evaluation.

Working Journeys: the Skills Passport Employability Programme at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Following from a successful Yorkshire Forward/NHS funded Employability pilot at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Trust developed their own ‘Skills passport’ initiative in 2009. This evalaution tells the story of that programme through the evidence provided from participant group interviews and individual story-telling sessions. The interviews and story-telling sessions formed the basis for the case studies included in the report, and also for the accompanying DVD. This evalaution work was commissioned by the Sheffield Work and Skills Board (2009).

Evaluation of Working Minds

Working Minds is a city-wide Leeds project specialising in working with people who have experience of mental health difficulties to access and sustain employment related opportunities. Research Toolkit was commissioned by the Project Managers at Working Minds to conduct an evaluation of its effectiveness from the perspective of service users, employers and the Board members of Working Minds.

Parents and carers: a report outlining activities and strategies available across West Yorkshire to support Parents and Carers in developing their own educational aspirations, as well as those of their children

There is an extensive body of research which confirms that the role of parents and carers as key stakeholders in the education of children and young people is indisputable. This evaluation work captured the essence of a range of positive approaches to working with parents and carers from across the West Yorkshire region. This evalaution work was funded by Aimhigher West Yorkshire (2010).

Work and Health: Changing People’s Lives

This is an evaluation of the Yorkshire and the Humber NHS Regional Employability Programme, supported by Yorkshire Forward, which has established projects for economically inactive people to access training and work placements in their local hospitals and facilities, with many entering substantive employment both in the NHS and other sectors of the economy. The project was commissioned by NHS/Yorkshire Forward (2008).