WORKERS' PARTICIPATION DEVELOPMENT CENTRE (WPDC)
AND
FRIEDRICH EBERT STIFTUNG (FES)

TRIPARTITE SEMINAR
THE FUTURE OF WORK: TRENDS IN EUROPEAN WORK ORGANISATIONS

The Crowne Plaza Hotel, Sliema
Friday 26th November 2004

The seminar will offer a critical analysis of the occupation change, particularly with reference to the expansion of higher education and increasing participation of women in the labour force, and the pursuit of employment flexibility.

Programme:
 

08.45 - 09.00	Welcome Refreshments
09.00 - 09.15	Opening Speech
09.15 - 09.45	Trends and Changes in the Occupational Structure in Malta.  Mr Alfred Camilleri, Director General NSO
09.45 - 10.45	Presentation I ­ Skills, economic growth and the relationship between education and employment in 'the Knowledge Society'.  Speaker: Prof. Kate Purcell
10.45 - 11.15	Break
11.15 - 12.15	Presentation II ­ The growth of the Temporary Work Agency (TWA) industry and labour market efficiency: who gains and who loses?  Speaker: Prof. Kate Purcell
12.15 - 12.45	Floor Discussion  Possibilities of creating Temporary Agencies in Malta
12.45 - 13.00	Conclusion
13.15	Lunch

In an increasingly global economy it is often argued that knowledge has replaced material resources and traditional skills as the primary source of wealth. In this presentation the discussion will be on the relationship between higher education and employment, examining the range of jobs that graduates do in UK, the extent to which they are using (and benefiting from) their higher education experience, and the degree to which new patterns of employment provide support for the growth of a ëknowledge societyí.

Presentation II ­ The growth of the Temporary Work Agency (TWA) industry and labour market efficiency: who gains and who loses? Speaker: Prof. Kate Purcell

This presentation, will focus on the role of employment intermediaries service industry sectors where temporary work agencies have become increasingly significant stakeholders: ICT, Finance and Healthcare. The profiles of temporary agency workers and the organizations that use them will be discussed and the activities of the TWA industry will be explored as an industry in itself rather than simply in relation to job applicants and clients, with a view to revealing the extent to which their growth indicates new forms of work organization and employee resourcing. Does the industry restrict or expand opportunities for job-seekers and provide employers and workers with greater flexibility than more traditional bi-partite contractual relations or does it, in reducing employment relations to labour market transactions, reinforce individualism, instrumentality, irresponsible employment practices and the destruction of 'real jobs'?

Biography of Professor Kate Purcell

Kate Purcell is Professor of Employment Studies and Director of the Employment Studies Research Unit (ESRU) at Bristol Business School, the University of the West of England. She moved to this post in February 1999, having previously been a Principle Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Research (IER) at the University of Warwick.

With a background in Sociology, she has taught and researched at a range of universities, but is primarily an employment researcher, specializing in the interface between labour markets and organizations, with a focus on changing employment boundaries.  She entitled a volume of recent empirical research findings on labour market change entitled Changing Boundaries in Employment (Bristol Academic Press 2000).  Her main current research interests are occupational change in the graduate labour market and graduate transitions from higher education to employment.

Her current research includes two projects on graduate employment, Graduate Careers Seven Years On (ESRC/CSU) - a longitudinal study of 1995 graduates from 33 UK higher education institutions; Moving On 2 ­ a similar national follow-up of 1999 graduates (DfES); and a European Social Funded project entitled Looking through the Glass Ceiling: a detailed investigation of the factors that contribute to gendered career inequalities.  All of these projects are collaborative ventures with the labour economist and statistician Professor Peter Elias at the Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick ­ which reflects her strong commitment to interdisciplinary research and ëmixed modeí investigation.

In addition to research on the graduate labour market, she is working on a similarly- interdisciplinary EC-funded comparative study of contingent employment in Europe with colleagues from universities in Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands and UK.