World Youth Skills Day recognises the strategic importance of providing young people around the world with the necessary skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship. July 15th was first declared World Youth Skills Day by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014 and has been celebrated each year since. This year, the theme centres on “Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future.”

The event features presentations on Cedefop's future shortage indicator, drivers of recruitment difficulties and skill shortages in Canada.

IER’s skills expert Terence Hogarth will be a panelist, discussing policy responses to shortages along with fellow panelists Ben Kriechel (Economix), Sylvain Renouvel (Federation of European Social Employers) and Tuscany Bell (European Federation of Public Service Unions).

The online event will take place on 22 June 14.00 - 15.30 hours UK time. For further details and registration please visit the Cedefop website.

In January, IER’s new collaborative project ‘Bridges 5.0’ kicked off with a launch in Brussels attended by officials from the European Commission. The project seeks to identify the digital and green skills needed to support Industry 5.0 and then develop training pathways for companies to acquire these skills. The project is led by TNO in the Netherlands and involves 21 partners including high profile companies as well as other universities and, within Warwick, Warwick Manufacturing Group. For further details contact Chris Warhurst: c.warhurst@warwick.ac.uk

Terence Hogarth made presentations on the role of employers skills surveys to the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITCILO) training course on 2nd December and on ‘Delivering VET – The Way Forward’ at Cedefop’s Future of VET conference on 6th December.

During the Cedefop/ German Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) seminar on the Future of Vocational Education and Training (VET) on 8^th and 9^th September in Bonn, he made a presentation on the institutional factors shaping VET provision.