Dr Jan-Jonathan Bock, Programme Director at Cumberland Lodge, talks to two participants and guest speakers from the Cumberland Lodge conference on Working Identities, on 11-12 March 2019: Sietske van der Ploeg (Head of Evidence & Impact at The Mayor's Fund for London) and Anna Thomas (Co-founder and Director of the Institute for the Future of Work).

They introduce their work, and talk about the most pressing issues facing society today, regarding work. They go on to talk about what their key take-aways from the conference will be, in terms of shaping their work and projects, going forward.

Anna remarks on the timely nature of the conference, with the Brexit deadline looming, at a time when "our identity as a country is up for grabs". She speaks of the importance of looking at work from different angles, and of enriching public discourse to advance our understanding of the changing nature of work and working identities - and of the meaning and purpose that work brings - to help us think about the vision of work that we want.

Sietske describes her renewed motivation to tailor programmes for young people that take into account varying experiences of work cultures and unemployment. She talks about identity in relation to improving opportunities for young people, and about how experiences of unemployment can have a big impact on identity formation and how young people engage with society more broadly.

Find out more about this conference at: https://www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk/whats-on/working-identities. Further recordings, resources and publications from the conference are available, or will shortly be available, at: https://www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk/reports-resources-publications.