Chris Warhurst is the co-editor of a new journal special issue on ‘Cross-disciplinary perspectives on the duality of digital technologies’.

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

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.

Dr Sally Wright was invited to participate in a technical workshop on ‘Practices towards algorithmic management and their impact on workers’. The technical workshop, held 15 & 16 June, was jointed hosted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and organised as part of the EU-funded project on the Future of Work.

The workshop was aimed at developing new evidence around several specific but understudied themes. The workshop considered how algorithmic management and other practices that are often associated with platform work are being increasingly used beyond digital labour platforms, by traditional companies, thus leading to ‘platformisation’ of work.

The experts considered the extent and how the introduction of a new digital outsourcing model, new tools and modalities for work planning, monitoring and surveillance are likely to impact on business models, work organisation, working conditions, employment and industrial relations.

IER staff and PhD students participated virtually in Beyond 4.0’s second summer school, held again in San Sebastian in Spain. Beyond 4.0 is a Horizon 2020 funded project that examines the future of work and welfare in the digital age.

The summer school offered a mixture of themes: careers guidance for PhD students, plus research on the digital transformation of workplaces; regional responses to digitalisation; historical analysis of industrial transformations; and social policy contexts.

Among the 22 speakers, Professor Chris Warhurst and Dr Sally-Anne Barnes presented sessions during the Summer School. Two of IER’s PhD students Wafaa Elmezraoui and Gianni Anelli Lopez were among the 21 PhD students who participated in the event. Congratulations to Wafaa. Having ‘pitched’ her PhD topic in a poster session during the event she was awarded first prize.

Watch a short explanation of the summer school in this video.