On 5 October, Sally-Anne Barnes and Professor Ross Parry, from the University of Leicester, were invited by the French Ministry of Culture to participate in a professional day dedicated to digital strategy in museums. Sally-Anne and Ross presented the early findings of the One by One project: building the digital literacies of UK museums. The event held at the Institut National du Patrimoine, Paris, provided an opportunity for those in the museum sector to reflect on how to set up digital strategies and support digital transformation. #MuseeNumerique

In September IER hosted a second cohort of labour market officials from the Nigerian Government’s Industrial Training Fund. The visitors receive training in the labour market data and analysis techniques developed by IER, covering: higher and vocational education; labour market classification, measurement and forecasting; and careers guidance and labour market information for all. The aim is to help build greater capacity in labour market analysis in Nigeria as the country seeks to diversify its economic base.

The Horizon 2020 funded QuInne project presents key findings in late September, focusing on questions such as: Does innovation produce more and better jobs? Does innovation combat or exacerbate inequalities? What aspects of job quality facilitate innovation?

Presenters include Professor Chris Warhurst.

The event takes place on 26 September 2018, 15.00 – 17.00, in Brussels and registrations are requested before 19 September. For further event details read here. 

Sudipa Sarkar has a new ESRC-funded Impact Accelerator Award to work on NGO held data. She will be working with the NGO, Child Rights and You (CRY) to build a collaboration that will focus on the issue of child labour in India through better usage and analysis of NGO held data.

A workshop is scheduled on 6th February 2019 at IER discussing the issue where both academic and non-academic researchers will be present.

The Institute for Employment Research has produced the annual report for the West Midlands Productivity and Skills Commission. The report synthesises the Commission’s understanding of the regional productivity and skills challenges across the Five Foundations of Productivity - Place, innovation, Infrastructure, People and Ideas/Innovation (as outlined in the Industrial Strategy) - within three of the region’s priority sectors – Business, Professional and Financial Services (BPFS), Building & Construction Technologies, and Automotive.

This analysis forms the basis for a set of recommendations for each of the Foundations.