The role of employment service providers in skills anticipation and matching. Experience from Latvia, Ireland and Eastern Partnership countries , 2017
The European Training Foundation (ETF) jointly with the European Commission and the Ministry of Welfare and Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Economics of Latvia, organise the sixth thematic training workshop on skills anticipation and matching (methods and institutions), which will take place on 27-28 June 2017 in Riga (Latvia).
This thematic workshop is part of the Eastern Partnership Platform 2 Work Programme for 2014 – 2017 (component Labour Market – Skills Matching) and its participants are members of the “Make it Match” experts network. This workshop contributes to sharing of good practise and networking on a multilateral Eastern Partnership[1] level. Overall the activities of this component aim at mutual learning and building capacity on approaches and institutional arrangements for anticipation of skills demand and imbalances and how the created evidence can be used to shape relevant policies.
The agenda of this sixth thematic workshop builds on the discussion of previous workshops, but focuses on the role of employment service providers in skills matching. The six country teams of the Make it Match network expressed high interest to know more on recent developments of approaches, methods and tools used by employment service providers to enhance their outreach and performance. Key themes of this component of the workshop include: job vacancy management and analysis; online / Internet based job matching services; potentialities and advantages of use of Internet data for analysis of labour market dynamics; main analytical and information products for the wider public and policy makers; inputs for career guidance and development; addressing the challenges for skills anticipation and matching related with new phenomena, e.g. migration, digitisation and robotisation.
The workshop will count on guest experts from other countries, notably from Ireland, to discuss the evolution of their skills anticipation system – institutional setting and collaborations, methods and tools, analysis and information products, and inputs for skills policies.
As in all previous workshops, the Eastern Partner countries will share information on their most recent developments and plans to improve the effectiveness and organisation of their skills anticipation systems.
Five previous thematic workshops took place in June 2014 (Turin), in June 2015 (Helsinki), in November 2015 (Paris), in June 2016 (Maastricht) and in November 2016 (Prague). As a result, the regional Network of experts and policy makers was established, formed by motivated country teams; the online Platform “Make it Match” was launched and is regularly updated with relevant information and documents; the network members have enhanced their horizon of good practise on skills anticipation practise and institutions in the EU. With ETF support, country specific activities were carried out in 2016 and 2017, in synergy with the thematic workshops at regional Eastern Partnership level, supporting in-depth analysis and piloting practical approaches in the involved countries.
