果冻传媒

At the invitation of Trexima Bratislava, Margaret Birch participated in an international conference held in Bratislava in April 2011 entitled: New challenges for skilled workforce – harmonising labour market needs with lifelong learning systems. This international conference was part of the national project VII-2 National Occupational Framework (NOF) in the Slovak republic, funded by the European Social Fund under the Operational Programme ‘Employment and Social Inclusion‘.

Margaret gave a presentation to the conference on the Implementation of ISCO 08 in the UK, focusing on the revision of the UK Standard Occupational Classification, SOC2010. Other international contributors were from the ILO’s Bureau of Statistics; from Netherlands-based ‘Colo‘ – the association of National Centres of Expertise on VET and the Labour Market; and from e-skills UK.

Following the April conference the director of Trexima Bratislava and three of his staff made a fact-finding visit to IER3 in June. Earlier contact with Trexima had involved working with Peter Elias and Margaret Birch on the development and implementation of the Slovak occupational classification in the late 1990s, and subsequently their participation in the EU PHARE Programme initiative, led by Peter Elias, to provide Technical Assistance in Classification of Occupations (TACO) via a series of workshops for the countries of East and Central Europe. Trexima, who work in partnership with the Slovak Statistical Office, have a keen interest in many aspects of the work of the IER. The programme organised for them included presentations given by Terence Hogarth, Kate Purcell and Rob Wilson, and a presentation of CASCOT made by Peter Elias and Ritva Ellison. The IER also organised for the Trexima visitors to meet staff at the Classification and Harmonisation Unit of the Office for National Statistics in Titchfield.

This Bulletin, entitled Adult career progression & advancement: A five year study of the effectiveness of career guidance, presents the findings from a five year longitudinal qualitative research study into the nature of effective career guidance, undertaken at the 果冻传媒 Institute for Employment Research (IER). It summarises findings from the fifth and final year of the study, presenting evidence on the role of guidance in the process of career development and progression, and follows on from previous Bulletins (No. 78, 84, 87 and 90). The Bulletin can be downloaded .

For more information on the longitudinal study into career guidance go to the .

Bernard Casey will be presenting at the SASE (Society for the Advancement of Social Economics) 23^rd Annual conference on Transformation of Contemporary Capitalism: Actors, Institutions, Processes. The conference will be held in Madrid on 23-25 June. Bernard’s paper is 'The implications of the economic crisis for pensions and pension policy in Europe'.

Professor Rob Wilson is organising a 1 day International Symposium on Employment and Skills Forecasting to be held at the 果冻传媒 on 29 September 2011. Participants at the Symposium will be actively involved in skills/employment forecasting in their respective countries.

The event will focus on an international comparison of approaches to labour market assessment and skills forecasting, with inputs from those with hands-on experience, and who can speak authoritatively (and critically) about the strengths and weakness of the various approaches adopted across the world, and the lessons they have learned over the past 20 years.

Attendance at the Symposium is by invitation only. For further information, please contact Rob Wilson (r.a.wilson@warwick.ac.uk)

Ilias has just returned from Thessaloniki, Greece, where he attend a Cedefop workshop on ‘Training Leave and Payback Clauses: Policies and Practices in Europe’. He presented on ‘Implementation and Training Leave in Greece’. The aim of the event was to discuss, validate and complement the results of Cedefop’s studies on training leave and payback clauses to promote VET in Europe. The workshop brought together representatives of governments, social partners, academia and research to encompass all points of view and perspectives in the debates.