Foundation seminar series - Developing workers' skills: actors and actions, 2008
2nd session - Developing workers' skills: actors and actions, 5 - 7 November 2008, London, United Kingdom
Venue: The Work Foundation, 21 Palmer Street, London SW1H 0AD
Speakers
Frank Becker works in Siemens AG Corporate Communications in Munich. Since July 2005, he has been responsible for 'Siemens Generation21', a branch of the Siemens Corporate Responsibility Program. He was previously head of Education Policy, in Corporate Personnel, and a spokesman for such topics as university education, european higher education area, bachelor/master programmes. He represents Siemens in a number of German professional organisations (ZVEI, VDI, ASIIN). Dr Becker holds a PhD in physics from the University of Munich. [abstract, pdf, 10kb] [presentation, pdf, 617kb]
Stephen Evans joined the London Development Agency as director of Skills and Youth in November 2007. He is responsible for developing and implementing the LDA’s strategy for improving employment and skills in London and for the LDA’s investment in improving the prospects of London’s young people. He was previously the chief economist at the Social Market Foundation, an independent public policy think tank, publishing research on welfare reform, skills and housing policy. [presentation, pdf, 110kb]
Francesca Froy is a policy analyst within Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) at the OECD where she focuses on local governance and employment issues, implementing studies on, ‘Designing local skills strategies,’ the ‘Local integration of immigrants into the labour market’ and ‘Integrating employment, skills and economic development’. Prior to joining LEED she helped to manage the DG Employment & Social Affairs initiative IDELE (identification & dissemination of local employment development). An anthropologist by background, she has worked for several years in both the Public Employment Service and a municipal government in the United Kingdom. [presentation, pdf, 149kb]
Francis Green is professor of economics at the University of Kent. His main interests over the years have been in political economy and in labour economics. He maintains an interdisciplinary approach to doing and teaching economics, one which draws on the insights of other social sciences. Moreover, understanding the workplace and how it is changing seems to be crucial for understanding what makes us better - or worse - off. Most of his research in labour economics has addressed three overlapping areas: skill formation, the role of unions, and the analysis of work effort. [presentation, pdf, 125kb]
Margaret Hilton is a senior programme officer at the Center for Education of the National Academies in Washington DC. She currently directs the ‘Workshop on Science Education’ and ‘21st Century Skills’, building on her 2008 report, Research on Future Skill Demands: A Workshop Summary. She is co-editor of the summer, 2008 edition of Issues in Science and Technology focusing on education and training paths other than four-year College. Her study, America’s Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science was published in 2006. She has a B.A. in geography from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Regional Planning degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [abstract, pdf, 11kb] [presentation, pdf, 577kb]
Ann Joss returned to full time education after eighteen years as a full time mother of four sons. After gaining a 2:1 in Law, she found employment in the finance sector and immediately became active in the banking, insurance and finance union, being elected to the National Executive Committee just two years later. With the support of the union, she gained an MA in industrial relations at Keele University by distance learning in 1998, and two years later commenced a full-time PhD in sociology at City University. She has worked in the union movement since completing the PhD in 2004, starting as a learning development worker for Amicus, and then moving to unionlearn, the learning and skills arm of the TUC, in 2006. [presentation, pdf, 64kb]
Patrycja Lipińska has worked in Cedefop - the European Centre for Development of Vocational Training - as a project manager since 2005. Her main tasks include policy analysis and reporting on progress in implementing the priorities for vocational education and training, as set in the ‘Copenhagen process’. Since 2007 Patrycja has coordinated research and reporting on VET financing. She holds master degrees in economics from the University of Gdańsk, Poland and the University of Exeter, UK. [abstract, pdf, 10kb] [presentation, pdf, 153kb]
Stephanie Mouchotte-Friess is a project manager with Veolia in France. She is responsible for the conception of training programmes for all Veolia employees - from managers to operators - to support the transition to the 'Green Business'. She works in close cooperation with Veolia’s head of Sustainable Development. Previously, Stéphanie has worked at the ‘Campus Veolia Environnement’ for 10 years on various training projects, such as engineering and implementing training programmes in the fields of IT and Finance, conceiving and animating the managers induction programmes, supervising the annual training plan for Veolia’s headquarters, creating a professional diploma (degree) in partnership with a university, and managing a promotion of 80 students for 3 years. [presentation FR, pdf, 176kb] [presentation EN, pdf, 175kb]
Mark Spilsbury is the chief economist at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. He currently has responsibility for drafting the UK Commission’s annual ‘State of the Nations Report’ which assesses progress towards the UK becoming a world leader in employment and skills by 2020. It will advise ministers in the 4 UK nations on the strategies and policies needed to increase employment, skills and productivity. Previously to this, Mark was head of research (2007 – 08) at the Sector Skills Development Agency. [presentation, pdf, 169kb]