IER welcomes two visitors from the Czech Republic this week (17/18 May). Ludvik Michalicka and Oleksandr Stupnytskyy from RILSA (Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs) will visit the IER to discuss local economic modelling and forecasting. Rob Wilson will be providing information about the IER’s LEFM approach. Further details of the project can be found at:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/rlmforecastingmodel/

Today sees the publication of a report of findings from research undertaken by a team at the Warwick Institute for Employment Research and the Institute of Fiscal Studies. The project considered the impact of changes in the structure of employment and pay on income inequality and poverty. It combined employment projections with a tax and benefit model to simulate the distribution of household income, poverty and inequality.

The research found that changes in the labour market, combined with changes to the tax and benefit system, over the next decade are likely to increase relative poverty rates across the UK. It also found that changes that might be expected to lead to lower poverty, such as reducing the gender pay gap or rebalancing regional growth, are (by themselves) unlikely to do so.

The full report is available on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.

IER, in conjunction with Cedefop (the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Education and Training), will be holding a Technical Workshop on Skills Forecasting from 10-11 May 2012 at the University of Warwick’s Warwick in Venice venue. This invitation-only workshop brings together experts from across the EU and other neighbouring countries to discuss issues relating to skills forecasting within the wider context of the Skillsnet network.

The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss a range of issues including a focus on the latest methodological developments and preliminary results from the 2012 work programme of the Forecasting Skill Supply and Demand project currently being undertaken by a consortium led by IER.

The main funding for the workshop has been provided by Cedefop, with additional support from the University of Warwick, the National Scientific Research Institute for Labour Market and Social Protection and  Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini.

In the second of a series of podcasts about our work at the Institute for Employment Research, Terence Hogarth talks about his research work on the economy and investment in education and training to support recovery.

The workshop on ‘Forecasting skill supply and demand in Europe: discussing and validating 2011 results’ will be organised by CEDEFOP and IER is to be held in Athens, Greece (6-7 October). The 11th technical workshop on European skills forecasting will include experts from Skillsnet, Cedefop’s international network. The Skillsnet network are a group of researchers and experts active in early identification of skill needs and forecasting or in the transfer of research results on future skill requirements into policy and practice. The aim of this workshop is to present an overview of how the improvements made in 2010 have been built in the general modelling framework and to discuss and validate in detail the results of new skills demand and supply forecast.