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This thesis is a collection of three independent but closely related studies. The overall purpose is to approach the analysis of skill match-mismatch from a balanced perspective, one that takes account of both supply-side and demand-side views of the labour market. This is done by considering skill supply characteristics associated with individual workers and skill demand characteristics associated with job and jobs tasks. The approach is informed by an interdisciplinary perspective that builds on the human capital paradigm arising from neoclassical economics, a skill segmented view of the labour market arising from approaches to the sociology of work and skills, as well as an institutional view of human capital formation and utilization arising from approaches to the political economy of skills. In combining these approaches, the study seeks to reveal key aspects that are often overlooked, for example, when the issues under investigation are approached from a single perspective. The focus is on the potential causes of skill mismatch, the extent of skill mismatch, the socio-demographic make-up of skill mismatch, and the consequences of skill mismatch in terms of earnings as well as employer sponsored adult education/training. A distinction is made between skill mismatch and education mismatch. All three studies use data from the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey (ALLS) to investigate the relationships between select outcomes (i.e., earnings and further investment in human capital) and skill supply-demand characteristics as well as their interactions which materialize into skill match-mismatch situations. ALLS contains direct measures of key information processing skills as well as measures of the use of these skills at work which allow for a direct measure of skill match-mismatch. The analysis points to the complex ways in which mismatch is generated and the need for an accurate and up to date measure of mismatch, one that reflects the possibilities for skill gain and skill loss over the lifespan, and reflects differences in the quality of qualifications. Addressing mismatch thus requires a careful consideration of both the demand and supply sides of the labour market, so as to understand better the variety of factors which may have a negative impact on the effectiveness of skill formation, skill maintenance, and also skill use.

The World Economic Forum has recognized soft skills as a global personal quality of the twenty-first century within the global economy (Soffel, 2016). Gifted and talented students at universities are not necessarily future leaders who can thrive in the challenging global environment. Because most graduates' soft skills are primarily developed at universities, higher education institutes are expected to support students' personal growth, preparing them to fit in the twenty-first century's work context. This study aimed to examine how a subset of 21st-century soft skills are developed in higher education as perceived by gifted students from most health clusters in comparison to other students at academic programs in Saudi Arabia. The researchers investigated students' perceived mastery level of these skills within a public university across various ability groups, genders, and years of schooling. The collected over four years. Five questionnaires were developed to measure 21st-century soft skills: problem-solving, communication, planning, leading self, and leading others. A total of 834 students from various academic clusters were surveyed: health, science, engineering, and humanities. The findings provided supporting evidence that students' perception of owning 21st-century soft skills did not fit with university expectations of their mastery level, although these skills had improved slightly throughout students' university education. Moreover, the findings indicated that there were no significant differences between university students' perceptions of owning soft skills regarding gender and ability, except in the case of gifted and talented group's problem-solving ability.

Received: 30 December 2022 / Accepted: 25 February 2023 / Published: 5 March 2023

Interactive service occupations, requiring face-to-face contact, are rapidly growing in the US as they are typically not susceptible to larger trends of off-shoring and computerization. Yet conventional paradigms of understanding the nature of that work, and in particular the skill demands, are often ill equipped to deal with the 'interactive' aspects of these gendered and racialized occupations. As a result, discussions of lower-end service occupations have typically grouped together a variety of jobs that require little or no higher education, without examining the actual skill content and job requirements of these occupations. In this article we delve more deeply into the rapidly growing non-professional service occupations in the US and the level of skills these jobs require, with the intention of creating a framework that will reorient future sociological research in this area.

Demand-led skills development requires linkages and coordination between firms and education and training organisations, which are major challenges considering that each represents a 'self-interested' entity. The need for a 'collaborative project' involving government, firms, universities and colleges, and other bodies is thus increasingly recognised. However, the crucial role of intermediaries has been largely overlooked. The article addresses this gap by investigating the main roles of public and private intermediaries across three case studies: sugarcane growing and milling, automotive component manufacturing, and the Square Kilometre Array sectoral systems of innovation. The research highlights the need for a move towards systemic thinking, to bridge across public and private objectives. It shows that private intermediaries play a larger role than is recognised in policy; that public–private intermediaries play crucial roles in coordination; and the potential for public intermediaries to contribute more effectively to systemic functioning.

This report complements the recent World Bank publication, Growing United: Upgrading Europe's Convergence Machine (Bodewig, C., Ridao-Cano, C., 2018). The Growing United report highlights that, while the European Union is still the "convergence machine" that fosters an unparalleled depth and scope of regional economic integration, it is no longer working for everyone. The report points to a growing divide, reflected in inequality widening among households across and within EU countries. It reviews the underlying factors of this growing divide from two angles, that of people and that of firms, and for both it examines the reasons why some are left behind and others thrive. This review of labor market trends, the underlying causes that determine which skills are in demand, and how they are rewarded, starts with a framing chapter, briefly summarizing trends in inequity in the EU and ongoing discourse on the impact of technological change and other driver of skill demand and supply on labor outcomes. This is followed by a brief description of trend in employment and earnings in the EU since the late 1990's (chapter two); and a brief description of factors that shape skill demand (technology, globalization, aging, and the level of economic development) followed by an analysis of the evolution of the task content of jobs (chapter three). It then proceeds to discuss the parallel impact of supply-side factors, like education and migration, on the resulting labor market trends; and finally proposes an analytical framework to understand the extent to which the interaction of demand and supply factors is altering the labor market structure in the EU (chapter five).