The Skills Lab Network of Experts

Welcome! 

The aim of the Skills Lab Network is to bring experts and researchers together from different institutions and countries to co-create, exchange, and disseminate labour market research to foster the culture of skills anticipation and matching.

The primary target population are the experts and researchers working on skills demand. They can be from a variety of public, private or non-profit research institutions and universities and/or international organisations and networks.

The official launch event took place on 21 October 2021. 

What you can get:  

• Access to new ideas and research fields, access to data sources for research purposes (facilitated by ETF), the latest state-of-art knowledge / methodology in the field, and funding;
• Sharing, exchanging and disseminating knowledge and results of research, getting feedback from other colleagues, going beyond national borders, particularly for small countries;
• Meeting new contacts, interacting and networking with other experts/ researchers, learning from new country examples, with spin-off activities of joint/multi-country research and joint publications; 
• Policy advocacy of your research results towards national governments and international organisations (e.g. The EU), connecting research findings (theory) into policy-making (practice);
• Learning about opportunities (funding, new research areas, joint research possibilities), learning about new research topics, learning about other countries and international trends, and getting training (with or without a certificate) on new research methodologies and approaches.

2022 events: 

22 February: Webinar - The role of education and employment policies for the green transition
This event was an occasion to share knowledge and evidence on the links between education, work and the green transition in this region, and to discuss future projects among the network members. 

7 November: Webinar - New forms of work and platform economy in developing and transition countries
This webinar presented new research and innovative methodology used to quantify and analyse the scope of platform work, particularly how it affects skills development and demand.

8 December: Forum - Human capital: Security. Renovation. European integration
The international forum "HUMAN CAPITAL: SECURITY, RECOVERY, EUROPEAN INTEGRATION" (Ukraine) is designed to promote the coordinated activities of the legislative and executive authorities, employers, professional communities, as well as the use of all opportunities for international cooperation for the development of the National Qualifications System of Ukraine and its integration into the European and world space.

15 December: Webinar - How to Construct Knowledge?
The main objective of the webinar is to deliver information about 21st Century Learning Design conducted by Microsoft and Stanford Research Institute. 

2023 events: 

19 January: Online Peer Learning Session - Using text mining to analyse the supply and demand of skills
This Online Peer Learning session aimed to build towards addressing the issue of skills mismatches through the presentation of a quantitative research study focusing on digital skills and competencies in marketing courses in Italy. 

23 February: Webinar - How to create and use evidence for youth and gender inclusive labour markets?
This webinar took place was dedicated to exploring how to create and use evidence for youth and gender inclusive labour markets, featuring presentations from the ETF and partner countries.

5 April: Webinar - The use of big data to support anticipation for the green and digital transition
The ETF Skills Lab Network of Expert's second webinar of 2023 was dedicated to the use of big data to support anticipation for the green and digital transitions.

27 June: Webinar - Digitalisation and the digital transition
This webinar showcased some recent initiatives and research projects dedicated to understanding how digitalisation and the digital transition are affecting skills needs in the EU and ETF partner countries.

9-10 October: ETF Skills Lab Network of Experts 2023 Live Event: "Skills (R)evolution: Understanding and developing skills for a digital era"
The Skills Lab Network of Experts 2023 Live Event centred on the theme of: "Skills (R)evolution: understanding and developing skills for a digital era". This event brought together Skills Lab experts from ETF partner countries, researchers engaged in innovative digital skills projects and policymakers to learn, exchange and explore topics related to the future of digital skills.

8-9 November: Peer visit to the OSKA forecasting system
Six experts from the Skill Lab Network of Experts had the opportunity to attend a peer visit, addressing how skills anticipation data in Estonia has been developed to ensure that the scale of any skill mismatches which might occur as a consequence of the green and digital transitions are minimised. 

14 December: Webinar - Talent Without Borders: Skills & Migration Strategies in Europe
On 14 December, our last webinar of the year took place. This event focused on the recent developments in skills mobility and talent management within the EU, in the framework of the European Year of Skills.

2024 events: 

27 February: Webinar - Skills intelligence: a tool to shape tomorrow's workforce
This webinar presented skills intelligence tools applied at different levels: international, national and local.

26 March: Online Peer Learning Session - AE4RIA: A collaborative approach to sustainable education and skills development
This online peer learning session providesa uniqd e opportunity to delve deeper into AE4RIA's approach and key areas of focus. By engaging with the key representatives from the Athens University of Economics and Business leading AE4RIA, we gained valuable insights into sustainability reporting, skills that support the twin transition, transformative and participatory approaches and accelerating innovation.

8 May: Webinar - Green Transition for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
The webinar focused on initiatives to develop and strengthen green skills and increase sustainability of the economy, and particularly how this can entail benefits for some groups facing difficulties with labour market inclusion.

18 June: SkillLab X Skills Lab: Connecting people, education and jobs to map the future of work
The event was hosted by SkillLab, a Dutch company working to connect people, education and jobs. The session introduced you to SkillLab and explored how the company was using skill taxonomies and artificial intelligence (AI) to connect people, education and jobs. We examined how AI-powered skill profiling and surveying can be leveraged to provide a comprehensive picture of skill supply and demand within the workforce. This data-driven approach held immense potential to design targeted workforce development programs, identify emerging skill trends and recognize and build upon people's existing skills.

26 June: Webinar - How digital tools and solutions can contribute to bridging the skills gap
The webinar featured four speakers, providing different angles to the debate. The ETF presented their work to promote digitalisation in partner countries, and the European Commission's JRC presented their work on analysing results from existing tools to better understand skill supply and demand. Two speakers from the Network then focused on the pressing topic of AI and ethical concerns, and

What you can do:  

• Become a member to stay updated on and participate in next activities 
• Share your research work with the community
• Browse the community blog on existing projects and studies on skills anticipation
• Register for one or more of our upcoming events

Contact:

Should you have queries, or for further information, please write to network@etfskillslab.eu.