Research Online provides free access to the widest range of
labour market intelligence and analyses sourced from around the
world. The service focuses on labour market issues relevant to
Scotland but also covers material from a wider UK, European and
international perspective.
The service is managed and funded by Skills Development Scotland
(SDS). The service is maintained by IDOX Information
Solutions and managed by the Evaluation and Research team in
SDS. Research Online currently provides access to around 9,000
labour market reports. Around 100 websites and 100 journals
are regularly scoured to provide source material for Research
Online and many academic institutions and partner organisations
routinely make their labour market reports and analyses available
via Research Online.
The service includes books, reports, grey literature and journal
articles on labour market issues such as careers, demographics,
employment, labour demand, learning and skills and unemployment and
activity. Each article has a summary abstract providing
information on the source, content and author. Most material
on Research Online is available to download, in full, free of
charge.
A key feature of Research Online is its legacy aspect - it
contains all the seminal labour market research from the last ten
years. As organisational structures change, and as websites
and web services are redesigned it's comforting to know that there
is a single hub where you can still find this key material.
SDS has recently made a number of improvements to Research
Online including:
- a most popular downloads feature
- changes to the search function which now allows users to filter
results generally by Scottish, UK or international material or by
Scottish local authorities
- a personalised alerts registration service, so users are
alerted to new material of interest to them
- a search box which can be placed on partner websites, so
Research Online can be accessed directly from there
- the inclusion of careers guidance material from a range of
websites and journals.
By registering on the site, users can specify how frequently
they wish to be alerted to new material of interest.
Career and labour market information
is essential to inform our careers IAG services. Research Online
gives us quick and easy access to a wonderful range of information.
I am a regular user of Research Online and have already registered
for the new service to personalise alerts. I would encourage all
careers practitioners to register and to read the Skills in Focus
presentations and papers. As I am based in Inverness, I have not
been able to attend any of these events but the papers are
available on the site and can contribute to personal development
plans/CPD.
Liz Galashan, Head of Career
Management Skills at Skills Development Scotland.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is the first partner
to promote Research Online by including a search box on the SQA website. The search box
allows users to search for material from the SQA website. The
search box will also be appearing on the Improvement Service
website shortly.
We were delighted to be able to work
with SDS and IDOX to embed the Research Online search box in the
SQA website. It was very easy to do and it is great to be able to
provide our 2 million web users with direct access to the wealth of
material available through this system. SQA and SDS share the aim
of helping Scotland to succeed. This is a simple but smart way in
which 'team Scotland' can work together for the benefit of the
people and business of Scotland. By doing so we make vital
information more readily available, moving it where it is needed
more efficiently.
Steve Borley, Head of
Marketing at the SQA.
Research Online is already well used amongst those with an
interest in economic development and labour market
research. The recent addition of careers guidance material has
also proven popular with the wider career guidance community.
As lecturers in career guidance
involved in the training of careers advisers we have found Skills
Development Scotland's Research Online an invaluable source of
labour market intelligence and a powerful resource for our
students. There is a lot of talk in the career guidance world about
the need for good LMI and Research Online walks the talk by
providing it in an intelligible and useable format.
The breadth and depth of information
Research Online provides on LMI is a terrific resource for career
guidance students researching both projects and dissertations.
Also, the opportunity to become familiar with LMI allows students
to integrate LMI into their practice from the earliest stages of
their training, developing their confidence of job and training
opportunities.
Graham Allan and Janet
Moffett, Lecturers in Career Guidance and Development at the
University of the West of Scotland.
Research Online is an excellent
resource that we recommend to all our students. It is a good
example of the advantages of having a specialist labour market
team. It is the kind of initiative that benefits not just SDS
advisers, but the whole guidance community in Scotland.
Peter Robertson, Programme
Leader Postgraduate Diploma in Career Guidance at Edinburgh Napier
University.
Research Online is a very useful
resource for Councils and others that have an interest in the
labour market. It provides a great way of keeping up to date
with what's happening in terms of labour market research and
emerging good practice. The online search facility enables you
to cut through the mountain of published and semi-published
research to find what is really of interest and relevance to your
particular needs. I would urge all Councils to take up SDS's offer
to embed a direct link to Research Online within your own
website.
Dr Andrew McGuire, Programme
Manager at the Improvement Service.
I find Research Online invaluable
for both finding and disseminating information. When I am
looking for labour market intelligence it's always my first port of
call as I know the information contained will be up-to-date, robust
and relevant. It is also a very important channel for Scottish
Enterprise to disseminate relevant research to a wide range of
interested bodies.
Gail Rogers, Economic
Research Manager, Scottish Enterprise.
Research Online is a valued
repository of labour market intelligence for the Scottish Funding
Council, to which we are happy to contribute
material. Personalised alerts of new content, sophisticated
search capabilities and the sheer volume of material available make
it an invaluable resource.
Dr Andre Reibig, Senior
Policy Officer at the Scottish Funding Council
Research Online is Scotland's Labour
Market Intelligence Hub. Our aim is to make it the source for
everyone in Scotland looking to access labour market intelligence
and analyses, whether this is to support economic development
programmes, inform careers guidance or underpin labour market
research.
Dr Patrick Watt, Head of
Evaluation and Research at Skills Development
Scotland.
Visit the Research Online website to
browse the wealth of labour market intelligence available and sign
up for regular email alerts.
If you are interested in having a Research Online search box
included on your organisation's website, please contact Ashley Rhymer, Labour
Market Researcher at Skills Development Scotland.