Who We Work With
We are committed to working with partners across the UK to develop an authoritative evidence base, to pool expertise and to maximise the influence of research and labour market intelligence over policy and practice. We have strong links with researchers, policy makers and practitioners in key government departments and agencies and amongst the wider research community.
We are members of and/or developing links with, a number of important national committees and research groups, not least:
The Migration Advisory Committee
The Northern Ireland Skills Expert Group
The Ashridge Education and Skills Advisory Group
The ESRC's Learning and Life chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies Research Centre (LLAKES)
The ESRC/BERR/DCLG and Welsh Assembly Government Research Centre for Spatial Economics (SERC)
The ESRC's Skills Knowledge Organisational Performance Research Centre (SKOPE)
The ESRC's Centre for Economic Performance based at the London School of Economics
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
We are Corporate Members of the Work Foundation
Additionally, we are a key partner on, and users of, a number of specific research and LMI projects, for example:
Working Futures 2007-2017 – forecasts of employment qualifications and labour supply by industry, geography and occupation. Whilst the UK Commission leads this project, we are working with the Learning and Skills Council and other partners too. Dr Richard Garrett leads on this for the UK Commission.
Skills Utilisation – Although the UK Commission is leading on this project as a whole, aspects of the project are being delivered by Scottish Government. See What We Do for more details.
Employer Skills Surveys conducted in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. For the 2009 survey in England, Mark Spilsbury is the UK Commission's lead representative.
International benchmarking, undertaking comparative analysis and learning lessons from abroad about what works, and sharing what we know with international partners, is a vital part of our work. Whilst a developing area of our work, we already have a number of activities underway:
We are very pleased to be the UK's partner on an OECD/Local Economic and Employment Development project exploring SME engagement in training a project which will identify ways to overcome the barriers to workforce development in SMEs.
This involves working in collaboration with the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development within the OECD. The research comprises industry surveys, case studies and study visits and is due to complete in 2010. Mike Campbell and Lesley Giles lead on this project for us.
We are also participating in an OECD review of VET in 7 countries. The UK element of which is focussing on employer engagement in VET. We are developing links with key international partners such as the OECD, UNESCO, ILO and the EU to develop the international benchmarking dimension to our annual assessment of skills and employment. In this capacity we are participating in key projects too such as the Programme for the International Assessment for Adult Competencies (PIAAC) which aims to develop research and survey tools to measure adults skills and competencies across the OECD countries.
We have been working within the European Union including the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training which promotes the development of vocational education and training. We have participated in pan-European activities and projects, key conferences, and expert workshops. For instance, we recently attended an expert workshop seeking to develop a common pan-European employers' survey tool for identifying skill needs across European countries. We are also offering support to the future European Commission European Skills Assessment, New Skills for New Jobs. This will seek to investigate and report on future skills requirements in Europe up to 2020.
We are members of ReferNet, which is a network established by CEDEFOP. It aims to enhance the sharing of knowledge, expertise and consistent and comparable information across Europe in Vocational Education and Training (VET). The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) is the UK coordinator. To date ReferNet has produced thematic overviews on different aspects of VET including reviewing institutional frameworks, Continuing VET and Financing issues.
We also take part in Skillsnet which is network which brings together highly qualified researchers and other stakeholders from across the world to discuss research and analysis on skill needs. We have taken part in conferences and seminars and producing working papers and provided development funding for the Future Skills Needs in Europe 2008. In 2005, Skillsnet started to develop an approach to forecasting skill needs across Europe which might provide a means to obtain information on future skill needs in Europe and track developments in employment and skills.
We are also developing our profile more widely overseas, taking part in key international events. In July 2008, Mike Campbell delivered a keynote speech to the Industry Training Federation conference in New Zealand. Also last year, Lesley Giles represented the UK Commission on the British/Canada Colloquium which considered the issue of Knowledge, Innovation and Skills for a Global Economy. For over thirty years the Canada-UK Colloquia have brought together leading politicians, officials, academics, business people, and practitioners to discuss matters of current public policy interest between the two countries. The 2008 Colloqium tackled skills issues - and not least what the two countries need to do to have the knowledge and skills required to develop and market their innovations and enterprises globally, raise productivity and to remain competitive.