Education and skills
The Education and Skills Programme looks at the cost-effectiveness of different options for delivering education. It also analyses the broader educational environment, including the implications of choice, competition and academisation.
A well-educated and trained workforce is key to economic productivity and to the reduction of social inequality. It is crucial for economic growth that education and skills evolve with the needs of modern labour markets.
Improving educational outcomes for those from disadvantaged backgrounds is a central driver of social mobility. There are many ways to invest in education, a core focus of the programme has been to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different options for delivering education. For school-related policies this has included analysis of the efficacy of additional expenditure; pedagogical interventions (such as the "literacy hour" of the late 1990s and more recently synthetic phonics); and changing school structures. We have also analysed the broader educational environment, considering, for example, the implications of choice, competition and "academisation" for how students perform at school. A summary of what we have learnt so far is in the book Making a Difference in Education: what the evidence says by Robert Cassen, Sandra McNally and Anna Vignoles. Our research on these issues continues.
How education is delivered is only one factor determining student outcomes. Our programme also researches the causes and consequences of differential access to a good education, often influenced by neighbourhood, location, peers, composition of schools, and the policies and economic forces that shape these.
What of the longer-term effects of educational policies beyond school? We have, along with our Centre for Vocational Education Research worked extensively on linking newly available Department for Education data (eg Longitudinal Education Outcomes data) following students as they move into post-16 education, university and the labour market. Following the paths individuals take through school, further and higher education allows us to understand how the skills delivered by the system affect their labour market opportunities and social mobility.
Featured Work
Education and skills publications
Lucas Gortazar, Claudia Hupkau and Antonio Roldan
22 March 2023
Chiara Cavaglia, Sandra McNally and Guglielmo Ventura
21 February 2023
Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela
12 January 2023
Stephan Maurer, Guido Schwerdt and Simon Wiederhold
9 January 2023
Jo Blanden, Matthias Doepke and Jan Stuhler
1 January 2023
Cheti Nicoletti, Almudena Sevilla and Valentina Tonei
8 December 2022
Chiara Cavaglia, Sandra McNally and Guglielmo Ventura
8 December 2022
Nye Cominetti, Rui Costa, Andrew Eyles, Kathleen Henehan and Sandra McNally
5 December 2022
Alison Andrew, Sarah Cattan, Monica Costa Dias, Christine Farquharson and Almudena Sevilla
1 December 2022
Sönke Hendrik Matthewes and Guglielmo Ventura
11 November 2022
Julien Combe, Olivier Tercieux and Camille Terrier
6 November 2022
Jo Blanden, Matthias Doepke and Jan Stuhler
20 October 2022
Jake Anders, Lindsey Macmillan, Patrick Sturgis and Gill Wyness
13 October 2022
Esteban M. Aucejo, Claudia Hupkau and Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela
7 October 2022
Marina Della Giusta and Almudena Sevilla
22 September 2022
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