The long term effect of vocational qualifications on labour market outcomes

"London Economics were commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to undertake an assessment of the long-term effect of vocational education and training on labour market outcomes. We combined learner attainment information from the Individual Learner Record (ILR) between 2002/03 and 2005/06, annual earnings information (between 2003/04 and 2009/10) and employment information (between 1999/00 and 2009/10) from HM Revenue and Customs, and benefit receipt and duration information (between 1999/00 and 2009/10) from the Department for Work and Pensions. The number of individuals contained in the ILR totalled almost 6.9 million learners that could be subsequently matched to the HMRC and DWP data sources (presented in Figure 1). For the analysis we retained both achievers and individuals who enrolled in the course but failed to achieve the qualification aim." - page 8

Exclusion through Openness? : A Tentative Anatomy of the Ritual of ‘Migration Debates’

This article examines ‘migration debates’ in Europe as mediated political rituals. It argues that the consistent meta-commentary within such debates-never regarded as sufficiently ‘open’ or ‘honest’ – can be taken as a starting point for exploring the simultaneous trace and disavowal of race and racializing discourses in public debate. It examines the disjuncture between the normative expectations of democratic deliberation and decision-making present in migration debates, and the ways in which migration stands for the transformation of the political conditions on which such normative eexpectations depend. Under these conditions, ‘debate’ must be approached as having ritual forms of value, and these forms of value are explored in a case study of a short-lived ‘burka debate’ in Ireland in late 2011