Lynn Gambin has been invited to provide evidence to the Select Committee on Education, Skills and the Economy for their inquiry into apprenticeships and the 'skills gap'. Lynn will appear before the committee along with other academic experts, apprenticeship training providers and the National Union of Students on 8th June at 2pm. For more information on the Committee's Inquiry and the evidence session, see http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-skills-and-economy/news-parliament-2015/apprenticeships-evidence-16-17/

Previously, Lynn served as Specialist Adviser to the Education Select Committee on its inquiry into Apprenticeships and Traineeships for 16-19 year old (see the Committee's report here).

This morning, marks the launch of the new EU Skills Panorama - brought to you by the European Commission and powered by Cedefop. IER is pleased to be a part of a Consortium supporting Cedefop by providing data analysis and intelligence on skills and labour markets for the new Skills Panorama. This consortium is composed of Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini, Cambridge Econometrics, RAND Europe and the University of Warwick’s Institute for Employment Research.

In the Skills Panorama launch video, James Calleja, Director of Cedefop, highlights that the Skills Panorama "combines labour market data and expert knowledge with powerful technology that enables you to surf Europe's skills landscape for information and data to find intelligence and evidence to enable informed decisions and choices about skills in Europe." The Skills Panorama "places the best available information on skills and the labour market in Europe at your fingertips".

The new website will provide a more comprehensive and user-friendly central access point for information and intelligence on skill needs in occupations and sectors across Europe. Data can be explored by skills themes, sectors, occupations and countries. It is intended primarily for policy-makers and experts, providing them with a tool for developing evidence-based education and training and planning policy, including measures to tackle labour market mismatches.

See the launch video and the new Skills Panorama at: http://skillspanorama.cedefop.europa.eu/launchevent/.

For further details of IER's involvement contact: Terence Hogarth or Lynn Gambin

On the 1 December at 11.00 (CET) Cedefop will launch the new Skills Panorama website. Skills Panorama turns labour market data and information into useful, accurate and timely intelligence that informs policy-makers about skills and jobs in Europe. The new website will provide a more comprehensive and user-friendly central access point for information and intelligence on skill needs in occupations and sectors across Europe. The new Skills Panorama is intended primarily for policy-makers and experts. It provides them with a tool for developing evidence-based education and training and planning policy, including measures to tackle labour market mismatches.

Skills Panorama is brought to you by the European Commission and is powered by Cedefop. The Consortium composed of Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini, Cambridge Econometrics, RAND Europe and the University of Warwick’s Institute for Employment Research supported Cedefop by providing data analysis and intelligence on skills and labour markets for the new Skills Panorama. Register for the online event and learn more about the new Skills Panorama. For further details of IER's involvement contact: Terence Hogarth or Lynn Gambin

Like Skills Panorama on Facebook and follow it on Twitter and on YouTube.

As part of the Social Sciences Festival celebrating the University of Warwick 's 50th Anniversary, the University's network on Connecting Research on Employment and Work (CREW) will be holding an event on 8th May, 11 am - 3 pm, to be held at the University's Ramphal building.

This event will identify key changes in work and employment that have taken place over the years since the University of Warwick was established in 1965. In the morning session senior scholars will review some of the continuities and changes (and how we think about them) in their fields of study. After a complimentary lunch, there will be presentations by newer members of the faculty looking ahead to future trends and practices.

Colleagues from trades unions, enterprise or training councils and other academic organisations are welcome to attend and further details of the event can be found here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/festival2015/eventprogramme/friday8thmay/looking_back_v3.pdf

An independent Wolverhampton Skills and Employment Commission has been established to provide Wolverhampton City Council and its local partners with a set of practical recommendations on how to ensure that Wolverhampton has the appropriately skilled workforce required to support the City’s economic growth, to support the sustainability of businesses in the city and critically to ensure that residents and young people have access to the right skills provision to give them the best chance of securing employment. Anne Green, who was formerly Chair of the West Midlands Regional Observatory's Economy and Labour Force Topic Group and who has undertaken a series of research projects on local skills issues, has been invited to serve on the Commission and attended its first meeting at Molineux Stadium, the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, on 6 January 2015. For more details see the Commission's website.