banner

Working Paper

Working Paper 8: English approaches to digital skills policy – some reflections on current directions and developments

This paper provides a critical overview of the UK government’s strategy for addressing digital skill needs. It locates this issue against a backdrop of multiple policy challenges, including relative economic decline, flatlining productivity growth, the effects of Brexit and the issues thrown up by transition to Net Zero. One of

Read More

Working Paper 7: Finland: AI, policy innovation and the future of work and learning

Finland is perceived as one of the most innovative countries in the world, resting on high trust, well-being and global engagement. In a small open economy, the ability to navigate and build strategic relations in a growing economic and geo-political complexity, strategic foresight has over time become deeply embedded in

Read More

Working Paper 6: The rise of the digital labour market: characteristics and implications for the study of education, opportunity and work

The study of education and work has typically focused on the role of the credential in shaping individual opportunities in the competition of jobs. Despite its pivotal role in understanding the link between education and work how the labour market operates in an increasingly digital context has remained under-researched. This

Read More

Working Paper 5: Rethinking lifelong learning in the ‘fourth industrial revolution’

Two key discourses of our time, lifelong learning (LLL) and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), have been inextricably linked to offer a compelling narrative of the coupling of education models and technological change to enable individual empowerment, social inclusion and a shared prosperity. This article takes an analytical view, examining

Read More

Working Paper 4: Technological change and labour substitution: can firm characteristics shield workers against automation?

A burgeoning literature that has emerged examining the potential of technology to automate labour. Much of this work, however, has relied on expert opinions and is ‘de-contextualised’, with little use of data on firms’ actual behaviour. We employ a rich dataset of over 3,800 companies to explore whether certain firm

Read More

Working Paper 3: Initial thoughts on policy issues for the future of work

In light of the different types and orders of effects that digitalisation has on skill needs and education and training (E&T), it is paramount to note the impact of technology on pre-existing debates within education policy. Because skill demands triggered by AI and technological change more broadly, it re-ignites and

Read More

Working Paper 2: Education, technology and the future of work in the fourth industrial revolution

It is widely believed that digital technologies are transforming all aspects of economy and society, driven by advances across a number of interdisciplinary fields and new technologies such as, artificial intelligence, robotics, additive manufacturing, synthetic biology, and smart materials. Public debate has largely focused on the threat of large-scale technological unemployment,

Read More

Working Paper 1: Digital futures of work: reimagining jobs, skills and education for the digital age

Digital innovation is widely recognised as a game changer. Despite attention-grabbing headlines of robots outsmarting humans leading to widespread technological unemployment and counter claims that technology will create more good jobs than it destroys just like in previous epochs, there has been little systematic analysis or evaluation of exactly how

Read More