Erika Kispeter was invited to present research on workforce digital skills to the All- Party Parliamentary Group on Digital Skills on 26^th April. The virtual meeting focused on the topic of ‘Digital skills and work: The role of national government’.

Drawing from the evidence review on current and future digital skills needs of the UK economy she had conducted with Sally-Anne Barnes, as well as from other relevant projects, in particular, Beyond 4.0, and One by One, Erika spoke to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Digital Skills on Tuesday about the challenges public policy makers face and the need for a design framework when planning public policy for digital skills provision.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched the first government survey of the UK-wide research and innovation workforce.

We ask anyone in the diverse occupations that are vital to innovation and research in the UK to complete it to offer better data for policy decisions that impact this whole workforce.

Find out more about the short survey and complete it online here.

Since 2018 the Commission on Social Security has been working on a plan for a decent social security system in the UK. The Commission has adopted a consensus building and participatory model and its work was supported by four secretariat members, including IER's Michael Orton.

The Commission has recently published its Plan calling for major changes, for example, replacing Universal Credit with a ‘Guaranteed Decent Income’ for all and the introduction of a new disability benefit. The Plan is available in a written and an audio version and it is accompanied by a Project Report and a Technical Note, that contain further details and the statistical modelling of the impact of the Commission’s proposals.

Speakers: Professors Kate Purcell and Peter Elias, CBE, Gaby Atfield and Dr Erika Kispeter

Date and time: 1.00 pm - 3.30 pm, Thursday, 10 March, 2022. Lunch will be provided for those attending in person, with the online event starting at 1.30 pm

Venue: Wolfson Research Exchange, Warwick University Library/Zoom

Please register on Eventbrite: face-to-face event or online event.

Chris Warhurst talked about the social construction of skilled and unskilled work on BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed programme with presenter Laurie Taylor and fellow guest, Natasha Iskander of New York University.

Chris argues that skilled and unskilled work are not objective categories, rather, skill has ‘a complex history’, one which has ‘favoured male workers’. Listen to the programme aired on 2 February 2022 on the BBC website. 

Further reading: Warhurst, C., Tilly, C. and Gatta, M. (2017) 'A New Social Construction of Skill' in Buchanan, J., Finegold, D., Mayhew, K. and Warhurst, C. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training. Oxford University Press.