References
This database has been compiled to provide a searchable repository on published research addressing “future skills” that will be a useful tool for researchers and individuals interested in the future of work and the future of skills.
The database integrates existing bibliographies focused on future skills and the future of work as well as the results of new ProQuest and Google Scholar searches. The process of building the database also involved consultations with experts and the identification of key research organizations publishing in this area, as well as searches of those organizations’ websites. For a more detailed explanation of how the database was assembled, please read the Future Skills Reference Database Technical Note.
The current database, assembled by future skills researchers at the Diversity Institute, is not exhaustive but represents a first step in building a more comprehensive database. It will be regularly updated and expanded as new material is published and identified. In that vein, we encourage those with suggestions for improvements to this database to connect with us directly at di.fsc@ryerson.ca.
From this database, we also selected 39 key publications and created an Annotated Bibliography. It is designed to serve as a useful tool for researchers, especially Canadian researchers, who may need some initial guidance in terms of the key references in this area.
Search the database
Reference
Towards a reskilling revolution: A future of jobs for all
As the types of skills needed in the labour market change rapidly, individual workers will have to engage in life-long learning if they are to achieve fulfilling and rewarding careers. For companies, reskilling and upskilling strategies will be critical if they are to find the talent they need and to contribute to socially responsible approaches to the future of work. For policy-makers, reskilling and retraining the existing workforce are essential levers to fuel future economic growth, enhance societal resilience in the face of technological change and pave the way for future-ready education systems for the next generation of workers. Yet while there has been much forecasting on transformations in labour markets, few practical approaches exist to identifying reskilling and job transition opportunities. Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All provides a valuable new tool that will help individual workers, companies, and governments to prioritize their actions and investments. Using big data analytics of online job postings, the methodology in this report demonstrates the power of a data-driven approach to discover reskilling pathways and job transition opportunities. The methodology can be applied to a variety of taxonomies of job requirements and sources of data.
Reference
Unique individuals, broad skills: Inquiry into school to work transition
The inquiry will look at ways to ensure students are supported from school to work by measuring gain in schools and how this contributes to supporting students for post-school education and training. The inquiry will also look at opportunities to better inform students of appropriate post-school education and training using employment outcomes as a measure of course suitability.
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Effective employer engagement practices: Observations from select technology apprenticeship programs
The goal of this report is to highlight effective employer engagement practices and identify key lessons learned from implementing technology-focused apprenticeship programs. To identify effective practices, JFF interviewed eight individuals who are implementing these types of programs through the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) to answer four questions: 1. How are tech apprenticeship programs engaging employers? 2. How do these programs identify employer hiring and training needs? 3. What are the primary barriers faced when working with employers to develop apprenticeship programs? 4. How are apprenticeship programs addressing barriers to employer engagement? This report summarizes the findings from those interviews
Reference
Spotlight on ... Women accessing careers in engineering
Occupational segregation - that is the tendency of men and women to be disproportionately employed in different occupations - is a major contributor to determining the wages of men and women. Occupations can be distinguished by gender for many different reasons, from social norms to personal preferences (which can also be grounded in social norms) to discrimination by employers. In the UK, women tend to cluster in the ‘5 Cs’ – cleaning, catering, caring, cashiering and clerical work – men tend occupy a wider range of occupations. The Skills Commission inquiry draws on oral and written evidence as well as a literary review to look at how this issue can be tackled, and was co-chaired by Members of Parliament from across the House Lucy Allan, Preet Kaur Gill, as well as academic sector expert Professor Sandra McNally Professor of Economics, University of Surrey; and Director of the Centre for Vocational Education Research Performance.
Reference
Degree apprenticeships: Impacts, challenges and future opportunities
The introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in April 2017 has provided a stimulus that has disrupted the ways in which universities and businesses approach the development of graduate talent. Drawing on interviews with members of the National Centre, this report considers the emerging effects that the introduction of the Levy is having on employer and provider practices including addressing and promoting social mobility.
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Addressing the skills needs arising from the potential trade implications of Brexit
This study identifies the skills needs required for enterprise to mitigate the impacts of Brexit on Irish goods trade, and outlines a suite of recommendations that can be drawn upon to meet this objective.
Reference
Skills mismatches: An impediment to the competitiveness of EU businesses
This report was prepared by the Institute for Market Economics (IME) and is dedicated to the study of skills mismatches in the EU and their effect on the competitiveness of EU businesses. It includes a comprehensive review of existing literature on the issue and outlines some of the main conclusions regarding the relation of skill mismatches to education, personal and aggregate productivity, labour market dynamics and outcomes, innovation capacity and competitiveness. The study also includes the results of a dedicated survey designed to shed further light on the causes and effects of skills mismatches from the point of view of companies. We provide further evidence of the importance of Mismatch Priority Occupations (as identified by Cedefop), as well as additional insight into potential labour market bottleneck is five reference countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany and Spain).
Reference
Reversing decline: Vocational training and education for a highly skilled workforce
For Western Europe’s three largest developed economies, Germany, France and the UK, much of their success in the future will depend on how effectively they develop and sustain a highly skilled, knowledge-based economy poised to compete globally. Not only will economic and employment policy matter, but so too will each country’s education and vocational training system, how successfully each educates pupils to realize their potential to the highest international standards, and how well each provides for a vocational training system to equip entrants to a high value labour market for the years to come. Each of the individual systems of Germany, France and the UK will be considered in this report in terms of their overall structure and arrangement, curriculum, general academic aims, vocational education goals and basis. The analysis will conclude by suggesting there may be lessons from France and Germany for the UK as it restructures the system both of general education and vocational and technological education and training. Now that Britain is leaving the EU and preparing for its new global role as a trading economy, with its own seat on the WTO, it needs, as it develops its financial and industrial base, to equip its labour market.
Reference
Assessing the early impact of the apprenticeship levy: Employers' perspective
The UK Government’s apprenticeships reform and the introduction of the apprenticeship levy has meant fundamental shifts to the funding model with new implications for how employers interact with the apprenticeship system. But how have employers responded to these changes since the levy’s rollout in April 2017? Our report, Assessing the early impact of the apprenticeship levy – employers’ perspective, explores employer views and attitudes, their likely reaction to the levy in terms of their investment in apprenticeships, as well as the likely effect on their wider learning and development strategies. For employers considering their own apprenticeship programmes and their engagement with the levy, there is also available as a separate download case studies of three organisations that have taken an innovative approach to addressing their workforce challenges and their top tips for implementation.