LLAKES Centre Mid-Term Review Proposal

LLAKES中心对终身学习在促进经济竞争力和社会凝聚力方面的作用进行研究。特别是，它试图确定有助于调和不同政策目标并带来社会和经济利益的学习政策和做法。当前的全球和国家背景，以持续的经济动荡和不确定为特点，引发了重大的经济和社会挑战和矛盾。削减公共和私人债务的衰退效应，使寻找新的投资和增长来源成为当务之急。收入差距的扩大和社会流动的障碍因经济危机而加剧，可能会破坏社会凝聚力，特别是在联合王国，对个人机会和公平回报的信念传统上在团结社会方面发挥着如此重要的作用。对于年轻人来说，情况尤其严峻，他们的机会受到了危机的不成比例的影响。教育和培训政策可以通过提高技能对创新和生产力的重大贡献，以及通过确保社会不同群体平等获得机会，来帮助缓解这些紧张局势。LLAKES中心将在当今经济和社会挑战的核心领域开展跨学科和混合方法研究。已经制定了13个相互关联的研究项目，这些项目围绕三个大的主题进行分组。主题一是“年轻人、代际流动和公民价值观”，调查了年轻人机会的变化，这些机会如何影响他们的公民价值观，他们找到了新的“上进”和工作方式，以及学生债务对参加不同形式高等教育的影响。主题二“学习、工作和经济”探讨：技能在创新和增长中的作用、创意产业中的跨专业学习、保健部门中以员工为主导的创新、员工对技能和工作质量的看法，以及影响获得优质工作的因素。题为“教育、不平等和社会凝聚力”的主题调查：为什么一些国家的儿童和成人之间的技能分配更加不平等，终身学习的不同阶段对不同国家公民价值观和社会凝聚力的影响，以及不同类型的私立学校如何影响其周围地区的公共教育。除研究方案外，该中心还致力于在社会和经济领域应用的跨学科、混合方法研究方面建立未来的研究能力，并促进和支持利用这类研究的证据制定政策。该中心将派驻20多名博士生和博士后研究人员。他们将通过不同伙伴机构的博士课程接受研究培训，并受益于参加LLAKES中心培训讲习班和公共研讨会，以及通过与高级学者合作开展和撰写研究以及制定研究标书。此外，我们亦会为政策制定者、从业员和其他与研究有关的人士举办外间工作坊，以便更好地为教育和培训的不同阶段制订政策，从而提高创新和经济增长所需的技能，缩小社会在技能和机会分配上的差距，以及减轻不平等程度上升和社会流动性下降对社会凝聚力的不利影响。

The LLAKES Centre conducts research into the role of lifelong learning in promoting economic competitiveness and social cohesion. In particular, it seeks to identify learning policies and practices which help to reconcile different policy objectives and which deliver both social and economic benefits. The current global and national context, characterised by continuing economic turbulence and uncertainty, throws up major economic and social challenges and contradictions. The recessionary effects of public and private debt reduction make it imperative to find new sources of investment and growth. Growing gaps in incomes and barriers to social mobility, exacerbated by the economic crisis, can undermine social cohesion, especially in the United Kingdom where beliefs in individual opportunities and fair rewards have traditionally played such an important part in uniting society. For young people, whose opportunities have been disproportionately affected by the crisis, the situation is particularly critical. Education and training policies can help to mitigate these tensions through the substantial contributions that enhanced skills can make to innovation and productivity and through ensuring equitable access to opportunities for different groups in society. The LLAKES Centre will conduct interdisciplinary and mixed-method research in a number of areas which are at the heart of today's economic and social challenges. Thirteen inter-linked research projects have been developed which are grouped around three broad themes. Theme One, on 'Young People, Intergenerational Mobility and Civic Values', investigates: the changing opportunities available to young people, how these affect their civic values, the new ways they find to 'get on' and get into work, and the effects of student debt on participation in different forms of higher education. Theme Two, on 'Learning, Work and the Economy', explores: the role of skills in innovation and growth, inter-professional learning in the creative industries, employee-driven innovation in the health sector, employee perspectives on skills and job quality, and the factors affecting access to good quality jobs. Theme Three, on 'Education, Inequality and Social Cohesion', investigates: why some countries have more unequal distributions of skills amongst children and adults, the effects of different phases of lifelong learning on civic values and social cohesion in different countries, and how different types of independent school affect public education in their surrounding areas. In addition to its research programme, the Centre aims to build future research capacity in interdisciplinary, mixed-method research applied across the social and economic fields, and to promote and support policy-making which draws on evidence from this kind of research. Over 20 doctoral students and post-doctoral research officers will be attached to the Centre. They will undergo research training through the doctoral programmes in the different partner institutions, as well as benefitting from participation in LLAKES Centre training workshops and public seminars, and through working with senior academics in conducting and writing-up research and developing research bids. External workshops will also be organised for and with policy-makers, practitioners, and others for whom the research has relevance.The research will enable the better design of policies for different phases of education and training so as to: enhance the skills available for innovation and growth in the economy, narrow the gaps in the distribution of skills and opportunities in society, and mitigate the adverse effects on social cohesion of rising inequality and declining social mobility.