It is generally believed that a developed economy needs a highly educated and skilled workforce, and that this, in combination with a range of other factors, can help secure competitive advantage.
Traditionally public policy has tended to focus largely on the supply of skills. SKOPE's work balances this with an analysis of the demand for, and use of, these skills, as well as the many different routes to competitive success that organisations are following. SKOPE's research also examines how best skills and learning can be supplied, what other factors are necessary to maximise the benefit from higher levels of skill (for example, particular forms of work organisation or investment in R & D), and what policy interventions could most effectively bring about the required changes.
SKOPE's third five-year research programme is split into three themes, each of which contains a number of research projects:
- The implications of simultaneous growth in top and bottom end employment
- The spatial dimensions of the generation and distribution of skills and knowledge
- Reform of E&T provision and the emergence of 'smart' education, training and economic development systems in the 21st century.
Within each theme are a range of projects, which seek to achieve a balance between quantitative and qualitative approaches, to deploy a range of appropriate methodologies, and to draw upon and synthesise understanding from a broad field of disciplinary perspectives. They address a spectrum of theoretical, methodological and policy issues that are of major importance and where the prospects for the most significant advances are high. These themes are supported by an underpinning platform of cross-thematic activity. This has 3 strands:
- Data gathering and analysis
- A range of integrative theory building
- Dissemination and user engagement activity
The prime focus of the theory building activity is to achieve better integration between economic and social perspectives on skill acquisition and usage.
Further Information
contact: Mr K Mayhew, University of Oxford
tel: + 44 (0)1865 276434
email: ken.mayhew@pmb.ox.ac.uk
web: http://www.skope.ox.ac.uk/
ESRC contact: jeremy.spandler@esrc.ac.uk tel: 01793 413094
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