A free national conference to identify effective approaches to increasing employment chances and breaking down barriers in the labour market.

Sessions from key speakers will be integrated with evidence collected by researchers at the universities of Sussex and Brighton about the work of the Equal Brighton & Hove project.

Everyone attending will have the opportunity to feed in their views and experiences through an innovative process of creative visioning and via Open Space Technology groups.

Background

The UK today has the worst record on labour market inequality within Europe and a growing polarity between the good jobs and those at the bottom of the pile.
Many EU and UK policies reflect a commitment to reducing unemployment amongst job seekers and drawing economically inactive people back in to the labour market. However, key issues still needing to be addressed include:

• How to engage with employers to break down the barriers to employment blocking disadvantaged groups?
• How to balance supply-side interventions with focus and concern about the quality and sustainability of jobs?
• How to protect social and human rights in the labour market?

About the research

In the final phase, (EBH Action 3), researchers from the universities of Sussex and Brighton have been employed to research, identify and disseminate good practice in local projects and partnerships and to mainstream these approaches to influence strategy, policy and practice locally, regionally, nationally and across the EU.

Speaker biographies

• Hilary Wainwright, Chair, editor of Red Pepper magazine, is Research Director of the New Politics Programme at the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam. She is a regular contributor to the Guardian Comment pages and also an honorary fellow of the Sociology Department, The University of Manchester
• Natalie Branosky is a senior advisor at the independent think tank Inclusion. A former congressional advisor in the USA, she now works closely with the DWP to support local authorities and JobCentre Plus in improving local employment rates
• Philip O’Connor directs the Dublin Employment Pact (DEP), an EU-supported partnership with a remit to develop and pilot innovative and sustainable solutions to employment-related issues

Registration

Please register online by visiting: The Centre for Continuing Education website.
For more information please email: Aureliane Beauclair.