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 ethical concerns, and the impact of digital tools on preparing the workforce for the jobs of the future.
16 September: Predicting skill needs: the OSKA system in Estonia
The event was hosted by Kutsekoda, the Estonian Qualifications Authority. The session introduced you to OSKA, the sophisticated Estonian mechanism that forecasts the need for workers and skills in Estonia. OSKA sectoral studies help people make informed career choices and formulate forward-looking employment and education policies.
26 September: Regional online event “European Year of Skills: What comes next?”
The event presented the result of the European Year of Skills in Ukraine and in other Eastern Partnership. The webinar also considered the prospects and challenges in the context of the European integration processes of Ukraine, opened up by the results of the European Year of Skills.
09-11 October: WOW- Unveiling the colours of economy - World of work dialogues
The ETF - European Training Foundation's Skills Lab Network Experts and the ITCILO International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization joined forces to organise the three-day event “WOW - Unveiling the Colours of the Economy”. The event took place within the wider ETF activities on skills anticipation and matching, as a key action under the Skills Lab network of experts, which brought together more than 350 researchers from around the world, focusing on employment and skills-related matters.
29 October: Regional online event “Identifying Gaps in Green Skills”
This webinar aimed to address these challenges by bringing together experts and stakeholders to discuss best practices, share experiences, and explore innovative approaches to skill and qualification needs assessment. Speakers reviewed existing initiatives and practices related to skill needs assessment and qualification needs assessment in the region and discussed the main obstacles preventing effective skill needs assessment and the use of research in policy-making. Finally, the webinar presented successful case studies and methodologies that effectively bridged the gap between industry needs and educational offerings.
12 November: Lessons from Gigmetar™ in measuring the platform work in Southeastern Europe
This online peer-learning session explored the strengths and weaknesses of Gigmetar™ through a discussion with five expert speakers. It offered a unique opportunity to examine the Public Policy Research Centre’s approach to measuring the platform economy in Southeastern Europe. By engaging directly with the Gigmetar™ research team, participants gained insights into the internal and external challenges they encountered, including the rapidly evolving platform work landscape and various methodological issues. The session aimed to learn from the Centre's experience and inspire new ideas and collaborations in this field.
18 November: Regional online event “Vocational Education Pathways in Higher Education in the SEMED Region”
The webinar, based on key orientations and priority areas identified in the UfM report “Towards a Union for the Mediterranean Strategy on Developing New Vocational Pathways in Higher Education” discussed opportunities and challenges of building pathways to higher education. Experts from the SEMED Region, UfM, and ETF shed light on the major questions and provided their insights on how to bridge the gap between vocational education and higher education. The webinar also included two Q&A sessions during which participants contributed with their insights and exchange with the speakers.
3 December: Regional Webinar "The Role of Centres of Vocational Excellence in Strengthening Industry Connections"
The webinar aimed to explore the significance of CoVEs in identifying relevant skills for industry and to share successful practices from the region. The webinar aimed to examine the role of Centers of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) in aligning vocational education and training (VET) with labour market needs in the South-East Europe, Türkiye and Israel region. It addressed the challenges CoVEs face in identifying and implementing industry-relevant skills while showcasing successful case studies that bridge the gap between education and industry requirements.
There is a continuous and strong need for the ETF Skills Lab Network of Experts to explore what a transition to a greener economy will mean, what types of transformative and systemic change is needed and what implications it will have for the labour market, education and vocational educational and training systems and skills development. Skills are key to making the transition to a green economy and inclusive and green development are on the agenda of the Central Asian countries.
10 December: Needs of Female NEETs: Outreach and Career & Life Skills Learning
The webinar, organised by the European Training Foundation (ETF), will look at the gender specificities of NEETS and at examples of prevention and career and life skills learning to tackle NEETs both from the EU and the Partner Countries. The objective is to exchange practices and reflect on lessons learnt both from failures and successes among practitioners and policy makers, also in view of the deployment of Youth Guarantee scheme in the EU Neighbourhood.
2025 events:
26 March: From skills anticipation to skill action: findings from research papers
In this first webinar of 2025, the ETF Skills Lab Network of Experts introduced a forthcoming publication that emerged from the joint research projects on skills anticipation and demand. The research projects originated from a call for proposals launched by the Network in 2022, encouraging collaborative, cross-country studies on skills demand and anticipation.
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.
Looking forward to meeting live in Turin soon ! And connect with network members both online and in presence ! #skills4change #skillslab
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