Institute for Employment Research » IER News & blogs (tag [skills])

Hilda Ragnarsdóttir appointed as board member for Employability and Skills at the Centre for New Midlands

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:30:00 GMT

Hilda Ragnarsdóttir at IER has joined the Board for Employability and Skills at the Centre for New Midlands, a not-for-profit think tank focused on creating and sharing new ideas to strengthen the West Midlands.

She will be undertaking research and contributing to the conversation on how to reduce economic inactivity, improve employability and address the skill gap in the region.

Supporting the digital and green transitions

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT

IER's Peter Dickinson joined meetings in the Horizon Bridges 5.0 project in Vienna.

He led one of the workshops as part of the foresight element of the project, discussing the policy implications across a range of potential scenarios that the transitions might bring.

Global Labour Markets Conference

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT

At the end of January, Professor Peter Elias, CBE and Prof Chris Warhurst of IER attended the 3rd Global Labour Markets Conference (GLMC) in Riyadh. There were over 5000 delegates at the conference. Now an annual event, the GLMC is a bit like Davos for labour markets, attended by lots of government ministers, company CEOs and senior trade union officials.

Drawing on his recent experience of co-developing the UK Standard Skills Classification, Peter was asked to talk about how skills could be measured. Chris was asked to talk about policy development to help support the business case for good jobs.

Skills2Capabilities comes to a close: reflecting on IER’s role and contributions

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

The Skills2Capabilities project has formally concluded, marking the end of a three-year Horizon Europe collaboration that explored how skills systems can better support labour-market transitions across Europe. The project, coordinated by 3s (Austria), brought together seven interlinked work packages to tackle some of the most pressing questions facing Europe’s labour markets: how to support workers to update their skills, navigate career transitions and stay resilient throughout life – and how to give employers access to a workforce ready for the demands of green and digital transitions.

Launch of the UK Standard Skills Classification

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

For the past two years research staff at IER and the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with Omnifolio, have been working to create the first Standard Classification of Skills (SSC) for the UK on behalf of Skills England.

The prototype version of this classification was released on November 27, 2025, accompanied by a Skills Explorer tool, allowing users to browse the classification and explore links to occupations and qualifications, plus an interim report, detailing the methodology, information sources and examples of use cases. An overview of the tool and its beneficiaries is provided in the Skills England blog. Initial responses to the release of the prototype have been favourable.

IER: still doing a good job in 2025

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:00:00 GMT

It’s been a good year for good jobs policy

IER was established 45 years ago with funding from the UK Government and what is now the European Commission. Its task then was to provide labour market forecasts to support policymaking. Although government emphasis on skills has remained constant, government interest in employment policy more broadly has waxed and waned over the years.

IER at the CIPD Conference

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

IER’s Peter Dickinson participated in the Evidence Lab at the CIPD's Annual Conference in Manchester. He gave a presentation on the main findings emerging from the work IER has been doing on the implications of the green transition for jobs and skills. Following this there was a Q&A session with the audience.

Join us for an online event about skills policy and the future of work – 2 December, 2:30-3:00 pm

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 11:00:00 GMT

In conversation with Chris Warhurst, the author of a new book, Skills Policy in Britain and the Future Of Work, Tom Bewick, will explain his motivation for writing this study; what he has learnt from a 30-year career as both a policy maker and practitioner in post compulsory education and training; and what specific skills policy does he believe countries should adopt in pursuing new approaches to human capital.

Please contact Lynne Marston via email to register for the event before 2 December: L.Marston@warwick.ac.uk

Memorandum of Understanding between IER and the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 11:00:00 GMT

In early September, the UK and Saudi Government held a joint Great Futures Leadership Summit in London. It was the largest gathering of UK and Saudi Ministers and included the signing of a number of commercial deals between the UK and Saudi Arabia.

One of these deals was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that involves IER providing research, evaluation, training and advice to the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development to support the Saudi Government’s Vision 2030.

IER contributions to the 2025 International Forum on Skills Intelligence

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 09:30:00 GMT

Professor Terence Hogarth and Gianni Anelli participated in the 2025 International Forum on Skills Intelligence (IFSI), an online event hosted by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) on 3–4 July. The conference brought together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss recent developments in skills intelligence, labour market monitoring, and data-driven approaches to inform education and training systems.