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At the end of January, Professor Peter Elias, CBE and Prof Chris Warhurst of IER attended the 3rd Global Labour Markets Conference (GLMC) in Riyadh. There were over 5000 delegates at the conference. Now an annual event, the GLMC is a bit like Davos for labour markets, attended by lots of government ministers, company CEOs and senior trade union officials.

Drawing on his recent experience of co-developing the UK Standard Skills Classification, Peter was asked to talk about how skills could be measured. Chris was asked to talk about policy development to help support the business case for good jobs.

The project has formally concluded, marking the end of a three-year Horizon Europe collaboration that explored how skills systems can better support labour-market transitions across Europe. The project, coordinated by 3s (Austria), brought together seven interlinked work packages to tackle some of the most pressing questions facing Europe鈥檚 labour markets: how to support workers to update their skills, navigate career transitions and stay resilient throughout life – and how to give employers access to a workforce ready for the demands of green and digital transitions.

For the past two years research staff at IER and the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with Omnifolio, have been working to create the first Standard Classification of Skills (SSC) for the UK on behalf of Skills England.

The prototype version of this classification was released on November 27, 2025, accompanied by a , allowing users to browse the classification and explore links to occupations and qualifications, plus an , detailing the methodology, information sources and examples of use cases. An overview of the tool and its beneficiaries is provided in the . Initial responses to the release of the prototype have been favourable.

It鈥檚 been a good year for good jobs policy

IER was established 45 years ago with funding from the UK Government and what is now the European Commission. Its task then was to provide labour market forecasts to support policymaking. Although government emphasis on skills has remained constant, government interest in employment policy more broadly has waxed and waned over the years.

滨贰搁鈥檚 Peter Dickinson participated in the Evidence Lab at the CIPD's Annual Conference in Manchester. He gave a presentation on the main findings emerging from the work IER has been doing on the implications of the green transition for jobs and skills. Following this there was a Q&A session with the audience.