This draft report is part of the 'Technological change and the future of work' inquiry. This inquiry deals with the questions of how technology affects the economy and employment, and how New Zealand (NZ) can best position itself for future technological progress. This report addresses the following aspects of the inquiry's terms of reference: How well does the NZ education system prepare people for future uncertainty? Does the national curriculum help or hinder? How well does the system promote flexibility and adaptability in students? Are there attributes of the system that close off student options too early? The report identifies opportunities to: better promote innovation and good practice across the education system; support better curriculum implementation; remove barriers (such as University Entrance) that constrain the ability of schools to provide relevant learning and career pathways for students; improve students' ability to change what, how and where they study in tertiary education; and address digital inclusion for young people.

This report provides a summary and analysis of a range of models of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) where an objective evidence base, qualitative data and/or expert opinion from within the skills sector make a strong case for their inclusion., It also outlines principles for effective provision, largely drawn from codes of practice setting out the legislative and policy framework in the UK. These principles include: High quality provision to meet the needs of young disabled people, including those with special educational needs; A focus on innovative inclusive teaching practice and removing barriers to learning; Personalised support; Supporting successful preparation for adulthood; Effective early engagement of employers and an emphasis on work-based learning; High expectations and aspirations for young disabled people. The report outlines a number of areas for continued focus and improvement. These include: Creating fair and effective funding for students with the highest needs; Investing in independence for 19 to 25 year olds; Personalised careers education, advice and guidance; Increased employment opportunities.

Digital transformation is a key component for business success. For a business to succeed, it needs to constantly evolve, adding new products or services to respond to changes in the market. The adoption of technology allows businesses to do this and to perform core processes with a higher quality and a lower cost. The study assesses the impact that the adoption of digital technologies will have on sectors, occupations and regions in Ireland over the years 2018 to 2023. These impacts present new challenges to both public and private enterprises and the workforce.

This report explores three issues related to the growing phenomenon of Digital Labour Platforms: firstly, how to measure platform work as a form of employment incorporating elements such as regularity of provision, time allocated and income generated; on this basis, and drawing on a new dedicated survey (COLLEEM), the article quantifies and categorises platform work into sporadic, secondary and main. Secondly, it provides an empirical investigation of the association between individual characteristics, such as gender, age, family composition, education and motivation, and the probability of carrying out particular types of platform work, such as microtasking, creative services, software development, transportation and so on. The analysis highlights substantial heterogeneity in the attributes and motivations of the workers performing different tasks. Finally, it discusses the employment status of platform workers and provides some descriptive statistics suggesting that a large share of platform workers perceive themselves as employees, even though they are in most cases legally considered self-employed.

The emergence of online digital labour platforms has been one of the major transformations in the world of work over the past decade. This report focuses on web-based platforms, wherein tasks can be outsourced by businesses and other clients through an open call to a large, flexible workforce ('crowd'), which is geographically dispersed around the world. The report provides one of the first comparative studies of working conditions on five major microtask platforms that operate globally. It is based on an ILO survey covering 3,500 workers living in 75 countries around the world and other qualitative surveys. It documents the characteristics of crowdworkers, the type of work they perform and their motivations and perceptions towards this work, and finds both commonalities and differences between workers from the global North and global South. The report analyses the working conditions on these micro-task platforms, which includes pay rates, work availability, work intensity, rejections and non-payment, worker communication with clients and platform operators, social protection coverage, work-life balance and workers' prospects for future career development., The report shows that while digital labour platforms provide a number of opportunities, there are also some drawbacks. In this context, the report reviews the different initiatives that have been put forth, including the Crowdsourcing code of conduct initiated by IG Metall and the German crowdsourcing platforms to improve working conditions. The report recommends 18 principles towards ensuring decent work on digital labour platforms.

[This report is primarily intended to provide operational recommendations for the design and implementation of gender-inclusive digital jobs interventions for youth. Using a newly developed digital jobs typology, the report will identify drivers of demand across various categories of digital work. The report will then extract lessons learned in overcoming supply and demand-side barriers to youth digital employment, based on past and ongoing programs implemented by S4YE coalition members. In doing so, the report will identify design elements and strategies that would be especially helpful in connecting young women to the digital economy. Finally, this report will provide recommendations for the design and implementation of gender-inclusive digital jobs programs for youth. Findings from this report are meant to provide inputs to the design and implementation of gender-focused digital job pilots to be launched by S4YE.

Between November 2017 and May 2018, 12 universities – ten in Australia and two in New Zealand – ran our digital experience survey and collected 21,095 responses from their students. When combined with the over 37,000 participants drawn from 83 higher and further education organisations in the UK, this is the largest sample of data looking at students’ digital experience of its kind. Digital experience insights survey 2018 cover Students studying in Australian and New Zealand universities, described in this report as ANZ, have very similar expectations and experiences of technology to those of our UK students. This emphasises the robustness of the survey instrument and a joint focus on the importance of the ‘student digital experience’ as well as highlighting structural and cultural similarities between the two higher education sectors.

Digital Frontrunners is an experimental programme from Nesta that aims to find solutions to the challenges of digital transformation. It does this by facilitating collaboration between senior policymakers and other stakeholders from six digitally advanced countries in northern Europe. These are Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden. This report: (1) explains how the Digital Frontrunners programme equips participants with new competencies for designing effective policy in the digital age; (2) highlights innovative methods that governments are using to solve four key challenges for the creation of skills policy to foster workforces that are fit for the future; and (3) presents a 'policy blueprint' that policymakers and other stakeholders can follow to make more inclusive and responsive skills policy. The key message is that to foster an inclusive and adaptable labour market for the digital age, governments should prioritise four key challenges: anticipate the skills that will be in demand; serve the diverse needs of workers across contexts; discover and promote services that drive people's intrinsic motivation to learn; and build a resilient labour market system that can adapt to changes in demand.

There is increasing evidence that the use of digital technologies in education and training is supporting the development of learning materials and close monitoring of teaching and learning processes, changing pedagogies and forms of assessment and certification. Digital learning records and open data sources are complementing traditional qualifications repositories, while challenging the conventional models of credential evaluation, as both for-profit and non-profit verification agencies come to the fore as important players. These changes trigger many questions about the trustworthiness of data, interoperability of systems, and most critically the ubiquity of the standards - both learning standards and technology standards - that govern the new and dynamic landscape., In this report, we consider these changes and offer a critical assessment of digital credentialing based on a review of the recent literature and a series of interviews with key actors. We argue for increased synergies between these developments and the quality assurance systems that have become closely associated with the implementation of a new generation of qualifications frameworks internationally. We offer an outline of the ecosystem of these digital credentials and show the convergence and divergence with traditional qualifications frameworks. We propose that world reference levels - now in development - are key to expediting recognition of skills and qualifications across borders.