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Terence Hogarth (as part of the FGB/EY team investigating skill needs in the automotive sector for the European Commission) moderated the 'Skills and Transformation of the EU Automotive Sector'  held on 27th May 2020.

The webinar was convened on behalf of the European Commission to report on its sector blueprint studies looking at the automotive sector’s skill needs and how they might be met. The webinar will be followed by a high level conference, planned for 23 September 2020, to explore the sector’s skill needs in greater depth.

Unemployment and scarcity of jobs have long been important concerns for policymakers in developing countries (World Bank, 2012). These issues are crucial for India as the country is home to the world’s largest population of young people ready to participate in the labour force (). The current situation caused by the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent countrywide lockdown is certain to affect employment levels in the country, especially as India has a large informal economy, which is currently bearing the major brunt of the lockdown. In this context, targeted Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs), which have been historically used to cushion the economic shock of such global crises in developing countries, can play an important role (; ; ).

A new report examining skill utilisation has been co-authored by Chris Warhurst with the OECD. It includes inputs from Peter Dickinson, also of IER. Focusing on the Leeds City Region in the UK, it reviews the different definitions and measures of skills use in workplaces. It shows why skill use matters for local development policies and outlines a set of measures for Leeds and other regions wanting to support better skill use.

The report can be found.

A new report written by Erika Kispeter about the current and future demand for digital skills at the work has just been published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The argues that digital skills should not be looked at in isolation from other skills, pointing to a need for ‘21st century skills’, especially interpersonal skills, cognitive competencies and learning strategies with creative use of digital skills becoming increasingly important.

A meeting of Directors of Skills took place on 14 May 2019; it was organised by the IER, and hosted by West Midlands Combined Authority.

It brought together Directors of Skills from seven of the nine current Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) to share and discuss their experiences of skills devolution and the development of their Local Industrial Strategies.

The workshop, chaired by Olly Newton of the Edge Foundation, also heard presentations on skills ecosystems and apprenticeships by Ewart Keep (Director of SKOPE, Oxford University) and Peter Dickinson (Senior Research Fellow, IER).

A follow-up Director of Skills workshop is planned for Autumn 2019.