Compendium on the future of skills (flagship publication)

ETF’s Compendium on understanding skills demand in a changing world: flagship publication

Skills demand is changing rapidly around the world. This is due to a many different factors, such as technology, digitalisation, globalisation, climate change, demography, migration, etc. The pace and scale of these changes led experts to call them disruptive, pervasive and exponential. These global transformations profoundly impact jobs, employment patterns, occupations and skills demand in all countries. Although the full magnitude and ultimate effects of these changes are not yet fully known, impacts will vary from country to country. Much of the intelligence generated by studies and conferences so far comes from the research in advanced economies and is geographically broad in its relevance and application. We see a gap in research and evidence on the direction of these changes in developing and transition countries, which make up the bulk of ETF’s partner countries.

This publication is planned as one of the first steps to fill in these information gaps. ETF initiated a compilation of around 15 articles for the publication, focusing on the future of skills in developing and transition countries. The articles are selected based on geographical relevance, thematic relevance and paper quality in terms of structure, methodology and language. The publication will bring concrete evidence on the changes occurring in jobs, occupational and skills demand, and employment patterns/relations in the ETF partner countries. Documenting changes and skills demands will guide policy makers to design better skills development systems for the future. The publication includes three thematic strands:

1. Changing jobs, occupations and economic sectors: job creation and destruction, shifts in the employment share of sectors, digitalised labour markets and the platform economy, risks posed by automation, examples of emerging occupations, changing content of occupations, high-demand occupations, declining occupations, etc.

2. Changing demand for different skills sets and qualifications: skills need analyses via traditional labour market data, anticipation tools (e.g. forecast, foresight, sectoral studies, employer surveys), or new methods such as Big Data, growing/declining demand for certain skill-sets, ‘skills-biased’ changes and job polarisation, skill profiles of the platform economy.

3. Changing employment patterns and working conditions: changes in employment patterns (e.g. part-time work, fixed-term work, temp agency work, sub-contracting, remote work, on-call work, home-based work, work-share), working conditions in platform economy, regulation loopholes, erosion of employment benefits.