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.

This invitation only event, taking place at the University of Warwick on 29 September 2011, will focus on an international comparison of approaches to labour market assessment and skills forecasting, with inputs from those with hands-on experience, and who can speak authoritatively (and critically) about the strengths and weakness of the various approaches adopted across the world, and the lessons they have learned over the past 20 years.

Professor Rob Wilson is giving a public lecture on “Skills Anticipation in Europe” at Monash University, Melbourne, on Tuesday 2 August 2011. He is currently visiting the Centre of Policy Studies (Faculty of Business and Economics) as part of a collaborative research project on Anticipating Future Skill Needs, funded by the Monash-Warwick Strategic Funding Initiative. The public lecture is hosted by the Centre of Policy Studies, the Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (Faculty of Education) and Skills Victoria (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development)

The 2011 meeting of the heads of research councils in the G8 countries , scheduled this year in the UK, was held at Scarman House from 10 to 12 July. This annual event, held in turn in each of the G8 countries, provides an opportunity for the research council heads and senior representatives to hold relatively informal discussions and to hear presentations on a topic of common interest. For the July event, Peter Elias organised a workshop entitled: ‘Access to research data: new developments and old problems’. This workshop included contributions from Professor Paul Boyle (Chief Executive of the ESRC and International Champion for RCUK), from Professor Paul Burton (genetic epidemiologist, University of Leicester) and from Ms Melanie Wright (director, Secure Data Service, University of Essex). Visits were organised to the Warwick Innovative Materials Research Centre (WIMRC) and to the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford. A formal dinner, attended by the Vice-Chancellor and by Robert Lindley, Peter Elias and Margaret Birch from IER, was held at Mallory Court. The event was organised by RCUK and facilitated at Warwick via IER in close liaison with RCUK staff.

At the invitation of Trexima Bratislava, Margaret Birch participated in an international conference held in Bratislava in April 2011 entitled: New challenges for skilled workforce – harmonising labour market needs with lifelong learning systems. This international conference was part of the national project VII-2 National Occupational Framework (NOF) in the Slovak republic, funded by the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme ‘Employment and Social Inclusion‘.

Margaret gave a presentation to the conference on the Implementation of ISCO 08 in the UK, focusing on the revision of the UK Standard Occupational Classification, SOC2010. Other international contributors were from the ILO’s Bureau of Statistics; from Netherlands-based ‘Colo‘ – the association of National Centres of Expertise on VET and the Labour Market; and from e-skills UK.

Following the April conference the director of Trexima Bratislava and three of his staff made a fact-finding visit to IER3 in June. Earlier contact with Trexima had involved working with Peter Elias and Margaret Birch on the development and implementation of the Slovak occupational classification in the late 1990s, and subsequently their participation in the EU PHARE Programme initiative, led by Peter Elias, to provide Technical Assistance in Classification of Occupations (TACO) via a series of workshops for the countries of East and Central Europe. Trexima, who work in partnership with the Slovak Statistical Office, have a keen interest in many aspects of the work of the IER. The programme organised for them included presentations given by Terence Hogarth, Kate Purcell and Rob Wilson, and a presentation of CASCOT made by Peter Elias and Ritva Ellison. The IER also organised for the Trexima visitors to meet staff at the Classification and Harmonisation Unit of the Office for National Statistics in Titchfield.