HOST Policy Research: Our Clients
Since we were established in 1986, HOST has built an international reputation for bringing a fresh approach to market intelligence and policy research in education, employment, training and related studies. HOST has also built up a strong track record across the public sector for practically focused evaluation studies. Recent client organisations have included:
- Government Departments, including the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), the Office of Manpower Economics (OME), the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Home Office, and various other directly managed national and regional agencies, including a number of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs).
- HOST has held framework agreements for research and evaluation services for a number years with several of these departments/agencies including the Skills Funding Agency (for Good Practice research; Operational Evaluation; Strategic Evaluation; Offender Learning; Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF); and Adult Learning) and for DWP (for Ageing and Pensions; General Labour Market Research; Integrating Employment and Skills and Welfare to Work Programme Evaluation). We also hold a joint DWP/HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) framework agreement for research and evaluation on Commissioning, Performance and Business Delivery.
- HOST has also worked extensively with non-departmental agencies in policy research, evaluation and programme review including for many years with the former Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), the National College of Schools and Childrens Services Leadership (NCSL), Skills for Care (SfC), Skills for Health (SfH) and a range of other policy development and quality assurance bodies.
- Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), and Standard Setting Bodies (SSBs) - HOST has worked with the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) to build SSCs’ research capacity and expertise.
- Non-governmental, voluntary, and advisory organisations, including the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) and JISC (formerly the Joint Information Systems Committee).
- Outside the UK, HOST has worked since the mid 1990s in similar capacities with the International Labour Office, European Commission and Cedefop among others.
HOST’s work across all these clients is widely recognised as practical as well as authoritative. Our work programme has included numerous sector and cross-sector studies to inform policy developments, and enhance participation and the delivery of education and employment programmes.
“I gained more knowledge about how best to gather information for research purposes and the limitations.”