IER's Professor Terence Hogarth has successfully secured Horizon Europe funding for his project Skills2Capability. The project is about understanding how skill systems across Europe can reduce the level of skills mismatch in their labour markets.

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.

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.

In March, IER Director Chris Warhurst was invited to participate in an expert roundtable on skill in R&D, hosted by the UK Government’s Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). His contribution focused on skills for innovation.

It complements research led by Professor Terence Hogarth for BEIS on the talent pipeline for UK R&D.

The Institute for Employment Research with the Edge Foundation facilitated the latest in a regular series of workshops with the Directors of Skills of Mayoral Combined Authorities on 10th March.

The workshops provide an opportunity for the Directors of Skills to discuss issues which are most relevant to them and share experience and practice. This is especially important given the role that the Mayoral Combined Authorities will play in supporting their local economies to emerge from the impact of COVID-19.

The workshop also included a presentation on Good Work by Gail Irvine of the Carnegie UK Trust and Chris Warhurst, Director of IER. Both Gail and Chris were involved in the Taylor Review of modern working practices, and have both been involved in the post-review working group on developing the recommendations.