There's more to learning than earnings

The Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning (WBL) investigates the benefits that learning brings to the individual and to society as a whole. WBL's main objectives are to clarify, model and quantify the outcomes of all forms of intentional learning so as to inform the funding, implementation and practice of educational provision through the life course.  It is funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Our research looks to inform policy, to deepen understanding of the complex ways in which learning can benefit individuals, and to provide robust evidence about the scale of these effects and the returns they represent.

Recent discussion papers from the WBL  
Leisure contexts in adolescence and their associations with adult outcomes: a more complete picture (2007)

We examine youth club attendance, in particular the implications of attendance in combination with other forms of leisure and of attending structured versus unstructured clubs. The overall purpose of this analysis to better understand how youth clubs and other forms of leisure can encourage positive later-life outcomes in young people.

Discussion papers

New research report from the WBL

(2008) Ricardo Sabates, Leon Feinstein and Anirudh Shingal

Education inequality and juvenile crime: An area-based analysis

This study examines the relationship between educational inequality and juvenile conviction rates for different offences for three recent cohorts of young people in England. The research is innovative in the application of statistical methods to provide a robust estimate of the relationship between educational inequality and crime.

Research Report 26