RESEARCH

Main areas of work include:

• labour market intelligence
• skills, competencies and work-related learning
• evaluating policies and programmes
• market research

and involve research methods such as literature reviews, analysing major data sets, focus groups, in-depth interviews, postal, telephone and on-line surveys.

about our current and recent projects

Return of investment on seeking excellence

During 2018 we’ve been helping The Manufacturing Institute to assess whether it is possible to estimate the return on investment for businesses that commit to seeking enterprise excellence by applying the Shingo model.  An initial framework has been created and the first phase of testing completed. The aim is to be able to report results in Spring 2019.

Evaluating support for businesses

A project to assess the support provided for new StartUp Loan recipients was completed in 2017. We helped the StartUp Loans Company judge a new support regime they were piloting from mid-October 2017. The research included interviews with delivery partners and new loan recipients and analysis of monitoring and survey data.

Researching the market for Scottish Qualifications Authority services

We can’t say too much about this project as it’s intended to help the awarding body wing of the Scottish Qualifications Authority assess the extent to which they may be able to offer their services in a new potential market. Extensive desk research was used to help define the parameters of the market and develop a sampling frame for primary research. The latter included twenty-five in-depth interviews and a further contributions from thirty other organisations via an on-line survey. The final results were presented in mid-April 2016.

Evaluation of All Wales Academy for Local Government E-learning Platform Development

The project involved:

• a review of the project business plans, minutes of board meetings and other background papers;
• creation of on-line questionnaires to collect demographic data on learners and feedback on their experience studying a module;
• eighteen in-depth interviews, both face-to-face and by telephone, with eighteen stakeholders, including local authority HR directors, learning & training staff, representatives of the Welsh Local Government Association and Wales TUC, the project manager and a representative of the IT platform developer;
• e-mailed feedback questionnaires for the small number of local authorities not covered by the interviews;
• three focus groups with learners.

The main focus for this study was on the efficacy and efficiency of the processes and organisation of an ESF-funded project to create an e-learning platform for all 22 local authorities in Wales. Interviews and focus groups were, with the permission of participants, digitally recorded, transcribed and coded. An analytical framework was developed from the coding and the narrative developed from this was integrated with results from the surveys to form the final report and executive summary in September 2015.

Project Space becomes Review Frame – cost-effective on-line consultation

Project Space, our on-line consultation platform, has been substantially overhauled and is now available as Review Frame. You can run bespoke on-line surveys or consult people on documents. For more information go to the dedicated Review Frame page.

Click to… Lastest news and useful links to resources that you may find helpful

Click to… Find out more about past projects