News

With nominally five people chasing every job it is not surprising that skill shortages across the economy are at record lows. However, at sectoral level there are still major concerns that a lack of the right sort of skills in critical areas could hold back economic recovery and damage future UK competitiveness. As consumer demand evolves and technological change creates new markets and ways of working, the skills required to deliver effective performance also change. Employers will increasingly have to find new ways of ensuring that prospective and existing employees possess the required skills.

The world financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing recession has led the EU to rethink its approach and priorities in relation to employment and labour market policies. We review the main activities and communications from the EU institutions over the past year, as policymakers try to mitigate the employment impact of the recession and try to support EU member states in their efforts to pursue active labour market policies.

How to ensure that Europe’s economy is in a fit state to face up to the future challenges of alternative energy sourcing and the demands of climate change is an issue that has been steadily gaining importance on the political and social policy agenda in recent years. The future green economy is something that touches on many social and employment policy areas, including labour market planning, skills and competence building, and the protection of vulnerable social groups. In this article, we review the main findings of recent IES research looking at EU policy in this area.

Creative graduates value their creative education. Creativity is central to their identity and their outlook, and a creative education helps them to develop their potential, providing time and space to devote to their practice. They learn by doing, through project-based enquiry, and from those with sector experience, benefiting from the critical feedback, support and encouragement from their peers. A creative education provides them with the confidence to move out into the world of work, and provides them with a range of technical, professional and personal skills that can be applied in a variety of settings – not just creative roles.

Graduates of creative courses are well placed to ride out the recession, a new study has revealed. Led by University of the Arts London and conducted by IES, Creative Graduates Creative Futures is the largest ever survey of creative graduates’ career paths.

For many years the focus of education policy was very firmly on the so-called three ‘R’s: reading, writing and arithmetic. Looking ahead, the emerging policy focus of the coalition government in the area of education and skills seems to be on the three ‘A’s: academies, apprenticeships, and austerity.