Learning Café POL55
The Upskilling Challenge: What Skills and Capabilities Do People Inside Government Need to Develop Digital Skills Initiatives that Work?
Date Thursday, Dec 6 Time – RoomCharlottenburg II
Digital transformation - and its profound effects on labour markets, economies and societies - will require people across society to develop new digital skills. Upskilling society is a huge task - and only possible if people within government themselves have the right attitudes, capabilities and networks. They need to become innovators who can design policies and digital skills provision that are more user-centred, more evidence-driven, and focused on the future. The innovation foundation Nesta works extensively with senior policymakers and companies, unions, training providers and civil society across Europe to understand which skills are needed across society and which capabilities people within government need to to build effective digital skills provision. This practical Learning Café will draw on the examples, frameworks and ideas embedded in Nesta research and practice from around the world, in particular the digital skills-focused Digital Frontrunners policy programme. Led by senior Nesta staff involved in digital policy, digital skills and policymaking internationally, the session offers:
- Insight into digital transformation approaches Nesta has been researching with partners
- A hands-on chance to work with the tools and frameworks Nesta has been using to form and deliver partnerships, and identify the capabilities their institutions and individuals need to deliver effective skills provision
- A sneak peak into digital skill initiatives from across Europe and Nesta digital skills programmes
Moderators
Valerie Mocker
Nesta, UK
Valerie Mocker is Director of Development & European Digital Policy at Nesta, the innovation foundation. Nesta ensures that innovation benefits everyone by investing in, testing and scaling (digital) solutions that improve people's lives and tackle the big challenges of our time.
She advocates the opportunities of digtalisation, social innovation and entrepreneurship as a speaker at events including re:publica, CeBIT, the OECD Forum and the Global Entrepreneurship Congress and through her commentaries for international newspapers such as BBC, The Economist or Die Zeit.
Valerie joined the "40 under 40" list by Capital magazine in 2017.
Before joining Nesta in 2013, Valerie worked for E.ON's strategy unit for renewable energy and as a researcher in behavioural economics. She holds two degrees, both with a distinction, from the University of Oxford.
Links
Benjamin Reid
Nesta, UK
Benjamin Reid is head of the International Innovation team within Nesta's Research, Analysis and Policy division, examining and promoting new global trends and practices in international collaboration for innovation. He leads Nesta's sixteen-'emerging powers'-country innovation policy collaboration programme, the Global Innovation Policy Accelerator, and its northern European digital skills policy programme, Digital Frontrunners. At Nesta he has also led projects to support the Malaysian government on business innovation investment, and on UK-China collaborations for innovation between small and medium enterprises.
Prior to Nesta, Benjamin was Head of Open Innovation at the Big Innovation Centre, and a Senior Researcher at UK think tank The Work Foundation. He worked on projects ranging from corporate and government open innovation, to youth employment, social media at work, the creative industries, the changing employment deal, and design innovation policy.
He also worked for nine years as a researcher and lecturer at Henley Business School, teaching people management, innovation and research methods on their global MBA and DBA programmes. He holds a PhD from Henley Business School at the University of Reading, which focused on the evaluation of management and leadership development programmes.
Links
Jack Orlik
Nesta, UK
Jack Orlik is a Senior Researcher at Nesta, the international innovation foundation. Based in the Research, Analysis and Policy team, Jack's area of focus is digital skills and the future of work. By working with policymakers and other senior stakeholders from six ‘Digital Frontrunner’ countries in Europe (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden), Jack and his team have been exploring new methods to make inclusive skills policy for the digital age.