The Labour Party's manifesto aims to reform further and higher education by integrating business, training providers and unions within a governmental effort to ensure a highly trained workforce. Skills England will align training with labour market needs, empower local leaders and enhance support for job seekers. However, the focus on young people…

This publication is the fourth in a series of practical Cedefop skills anticipation guides for policymakers, analysts, and expert professionals. The three previous guides presented a rich mosaic of conventional and emerging methods for identifying technological change and its impact on skills. They assessed the merits and challenges of using…

The aim of this article is to show the increased relevance of soft skills in a continuously changing environment. A research was carried out to examine and compare students' and employers' perceptions regarding the importance of soft skills in different European countries. Results show that 86% of respondents indicate an increased emphasis on soft…

The COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted and accelerated two trends that were already occurring in the American workplace: First, the demand for new skills and competencies, including digital skills, from workers at every level. Second, the growing importance of investing in upskilling strategies that can help two groups of workers: Those who are…

In South Africa, a national peak structure, the Human Resource Development Council, led by the Deputy President and consisting of key Cabinet Ministers, senior leaders from organised labour and business, community representatives, professional bodies and experts from research and higher education, was established to enable high-level coordination…

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a stark spotlight on need for digital skills among a wide swath of the American workforce. But even before the pandemic, the US labor market reflected a growing demand for workers across industries to have strong digital skills. This report uses data from a rigorously designed international assessment to analyze…

Employers in every sector have emphasized the need for a well-rounded, highly skilled workforce. Recent survey data indicates that over 90% of business leaders think American workers are not as skilled as they need to be. 1 According to the Business Roundtable, CEOs around the country have noticed a particular gap in "employability…

The main goal of the secondary vocational education system is to fulfill the staffing needs of the Russian economy. The only way that we can effectively deliver on this objective is by ensuring there is a well-coordinated and stable system in place that allows vocational schools to cooperate with businesses. This article reviews how this…

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that approximately 9% of current jobs within OECD member states are threatened with automation and digitalization--all significant successes and advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and computer science. With such global changes and forecasts, in the labor…

This report examines how governments use financial incentives to promote a better alignment between labour market needs, on the one hand, and the supply of skills, on the other. In doing so, it identifies: (1) innovative models that countries may be interested in learning from; (2) best practice in the design and use of financial incentives; (3)…

Luxembourg exhibits strong transnational traits within its skills regime, defying any neat fit with existing educational typologies. It is characterised by its high-skill economy, cross-cultural characteristics, and central location within the European Union. As such, Luxembourg has developed a hybrid strategy of responding to labour market…

In a context of rapid economic growth, skills development systems have become increasingly important to countries in Southeast Asia in response to skills gaps generated by changing labour-market conditions. Countries in the region have no alternative but to invest in the development and maintenance of these systems. This paper asserts that in…

This article explores the efficacy and cost effectiveness of New Labour's skills-based policies to help low paid workers adjust to the pressures generated by globalisation, of which the leading example was Train to Gain (T2G). It also analyses the more general issue of how, why and under what circumstances education, training and skills can help…

This chapter discusses the relationship between the labour market and vocational education and training in England. For decades British governments have emphasised the need for more people to stay longer in the formal education system and at the same time have attempted to improve work-based training. They have also emphasised the centrality of…

The article explores the major features of the Swedish Government's new initiative--a school based Upper Secondary Apprenticeship model. The analyses are guided by activity theory. The analysed texts are part of the parliamentary reform-making process of the 2011 Upper Secondary School reform. The analyses unfold how the Government, the Swedish…