This Evidence Report focuses on how training activity in the UK has fared in the 2008-09 recession and its aftermath. Using a combination of statistical analysis of large-scale surveys and in-depth telephone interviews with employers, some answers are provided. The Report’s substantive results are presented in four parts, which draw on data collected using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods: analysis of employer surveys and, in particular, data collected as part of the National Employer Skills Survey (NESS) 2009, a survey involving over 79,000 employers who were asked directly about the impact of the recession on training; analysis of individual-level data as collected by the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) over the period 1995-2012, with the contemporary situation compared with the recession of the early 1990s, where data allow; in-depth telephone interviews with 60 private sector employers who participated in the 2009 NESS, most of whom we interviewed on two separate occasions (in mid-2010 and then late 2011), as a means of tracking the changing impact of the economic downturn; in-depth telephone interviews with 45 public sector employers, many of whom were interviewed twice in order to reveal what impact the deficit reduction programme was having on training as budgets were being squeezed.

This paper presents a multidisciplinary task approach for assessing the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of work. We provide definitions of a task from two main perspectives: socio-economic and computational. We propose to explore ways in which we can integrate or map these perspectives and link them with the skills or capabilities required by them, for humans and AI systems. Finally, we argue that in order to understand the dynamics of tasks, we have to explore the relevance of autonomy and generality of AI systems for the automation or alteration of the workplace.

To enable the Advanced Manufacturing sector to realise its potential, it is vital to understand how technological advances impact upon skills needs. This research aims to go beyond high-level skills data that is currently available and focuses on skills requirements of three technological areas within the aerospace and automotive sectors: Additive Manufacturing, Composites and Plastic Electronics. Addressing these skills challenges will help the sector better respond to performance challenges and opportunities. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a term used to describe the manufacture of products using digitally controlled machine tools and is often termed 3D printing. The approach differs from traditional manufacturing in that all Additive Manufacturing processes use a layer-by-layer approach to build up components rather than through machining from solid, moulding or casting (Materials Knowledge Transfer Network, 2012). Composites have been defined as consisting of a bulk material (the ‘matrix’) and a reinforcement of some kind such as fibres, particles or flakes, usually added to increase strength and stiffness. This report focuses on what are termed advanced composites (Structural Fibre-reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites) used in automotive and aerospace applications and characterised as light weight higher performance materials. Plastic Electronics has been defined as devices on flexible surfaces that make it possible to produce flexible, bendable or stretchable electronic products, which may use printing techniques, but can also be deposited onto flexible surfaces in other ways. Plastic Electronics can also refer to the use of printing techniques in relation to devices on rigid surfaces.

With the arrival of new and powerful technologies and the declining costs of these technologies, some new possibilities are emerging for cities and their transport systems. For example, the Internet of Everything (IoE)1 can benefit cities by connecting people, processes, data and things as everything comes online. This is creating unprecedented opportunities for organizations, individuals, communities and countries to realize dramatically greater value from networked connections—including economic growth and improvements to environmental sustainability, public safety, the delivery of public services and productivity. The potential here is for cities to become truly transformed.

This White Paper on what we have called “Work¥4.0” is the culmination of a consultation process launched in April 2015 with the publication of a Green Paper by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. “Work¥4.0” is a necessary extension of the debate about the digitalisation of the economy, generally referred to as “Industry¥4.0”. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs invited associations, trade unions and businesses to submit responses, held numerous specialised workshops and events, commissioned academic studies, and formed an impression of public opinion based on a direct dialogue with the public at local level – for example during the “Futurale” film festival. The overarching question was: how can we preserve or even strengthen our vision of quality jobs and decent work (Gute Arbeit) in an era of digital transformation and societal change?

Accelerated courses continue to be part of the changing academic landscape at Canadian universities. However, there is limited evidence to support their efficacy in relation to knowledge retention. A greater understanding of knowledge retention associated with accelerated courses (i.e., intensive full-day course for a one- or two-week duration) as compared to traditional courses (i.e., one three-hour lecture once a week for 12 weeks) will provide university stakeholders and administrators with evidence to determine whether quicker courses should be pursued in the postsecondary education environment. A longitudinal cohort design was developed with the objective of addressing the following research question: Does a difference in knowledge retention over time exist between students enrolled in traditional versus accelerated undergraduate courses?

Wales is at the centre of a number of significant disruptions likely to bring long-term changes for its people and economy. Some of these are global in nature, such as automation and technological change. Some affect the whole UK – most obviously, the uncertainty around Brexit. Others come from within Wales, such as the rapid increases in its older population, which we will see expand over the coming years. For the people and economy of Wales to be ready for these very 21st century changes, we will need to see a 21st century skills system ready to equip Wales for the future. This report marks the first of two for this project on Wales, and follows our previous reports on the skills systems in Scotland and Northern Ireland. As a whole, the project aims to look at how to build a 21st century skills system in Wales, starting through this first report with a focus on the challenges and opportunities facing the skills system in Wales, before moving on to look at what needs to change and what needs to stay the same to prepare the skills system in Wales for the future.

The growth of the Online Platform Economy (OPE) has been contributing to the changing nature of work. Is this marketplace building momentum towards systemic change in the labor force, or will it remain a small market for supplementary income? In previous work we highlighted that growth in participation on labor and capital platforms has peaked. As of June 2016, participation on labor platforms has doubled year-over-year, but participation on capital platforms has leveled off. In this report, we explore the dynamics of participation and earnings in order to better understand how growth has slowed. We draw from one of the largest samples of platform participants to date: over 240,000 anonymized individuals who have received platform income between October 2012 and June 2016 from one or more of 42 different platforms. Our findings point to several dimensions of how the growth in online platform participation has slowed.

Americans experience tremendous income volatility, and that volatility is on the rise. Income volatility matters because it is hard to manage. The typical household faces a shortfall in the financial buffer necessary to weather this volatility. Moreover, the decline in real wages since 2009 for all income groups except the top 5th percentile means that life is harder to afford in general, but even more so when earnings dip below average. Rapidly growing online platforms, such as Uber and Airbnb, have created a new marketplace for work by unbundling a job into discrete tasks and directly connecting individual sellers with consumers. These flexible, highly accessible opportunities to work have the potential to help people buffer against income and expense shocks. The “Online Platform Economy” offers fewer worker protections than traditional work arrangements, however, which has led some to claim that the Online Platform Economy represents a fundamental shift in the nature of work. This report from the JPMorgan Chase Institute digs deeper into the demographics and sources of income volatility and provides an unprecedented look at the impact of the Online Platform Economy. This analysis relies on high-frequency data from a randomized, anonymized sample of 1 million Chase customers between October 2012 and September 2015. To examine the Online Platform Economy, we assembled the largest sample of platform workers to date—a dataset of over 260,000 individuals who have offered goods or services on one of 30 distinct platforms.