The National Commission for Higher Education (NCHE) hosted a technical workshop of the Skillsnet network to discuss the theme ‘Forecasting skills supply and demand in Europe’. The workshop brought together 47 delegates from Europe. Skillsnet is a Cedefop international network on early identification of skills needs.

Cedefop is now working on a new project entitled ‘Forecasting skill supply and demand in Europe’ which in turn needs a system for projecting both skills demand and supply at a pan-European level and to explore implications of potential skills imbalances that may emerge from the findings.

The workshop was an opportunity to present an overview of the current research being undertaken in this regard, providing technical experts with the opportunity to discuss the implications of data being used in the models, to assess the initial demand and supply projections and emerging skills imbalances identified and to share views on improved methodologies for the coming years.