Research

Research: represented by a magnifying glass in yellow, capturing the idea of illumination and discovery: research as the thing that lights the way for evidence-based practice and informed decision-making.

Education systems run on assumptions. Assumptions about what skills employers need, what credentials learners value, how different countries are solving the same problems, and what actually works when policy meets practice. Good research replaces those assumptions with evidence: and evidence, when it’s done properly, changes what people decide to do.

That’s the standard we hold our research to. Not reports that confirm what clients already believe, and not academic papers that sit behind paywalls while the problems they describe go unsolved. Applied research that translates complex educational challenges into clear recommendations, and that’s built to be used.

Our work spans international comparative analysis, policy benchmarking, needs assessments, survey design and analysis, and the contextual adaptation of global practice to local regulatory and cultural settings. We’ve worked across New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, the Pacific, the Middle East, UK, and the EU, as well as with global organisations. Mixed-methodology is our default: combining quantitative survey data with qualitative insight because neither alone tends to tell the full story.

Published research includes work for GIZ on credentials in the platform-based gig economy (involving surveys of over 1,600 workers across Africa, Asia, and North America), ConCOVE on the place of micro-credentials in New Zealand and on AI-generated assessment development, Food and Fibre CoVE on dynamic modular learning, and a joint ConCOVE and FFCoVE study on appreciating and supporting neurodiversity. We’ve also undertaken large-scale needs assessment work for a global organisation about vocational education teachers.

We contribute regular thought leadership to FE News, and we’ve presented research at conferences across the world: the Warsaw Microcredentials Summit, EfVET, JVET, APAIE, ITENZ, the NZ VET Research Forum, ePIC in Paris, and The Badge Summit in Boulder, Colorado.

The value of research isn’t in the methodology. It’s in what gets done differently afterward.

To discuss a research project, contact us at stuart@georgeangusconsulting.com