What do we really mean when we talk of innovation skills

Professor Nick Wilton discusses the policy context, the challenge of defining innovation skills, and how an ongoing project in the ‪@OxfordBrookesBusiness‬ School which is addressing this. In social and economic policy, the ongoing development of skill has long been positioned as central to individual and collective social and economic progress. More recently, and in an increasingly turbulent context, innovation, and the development of the skills that underpin it, have been positioned as crucial to productivity, sustainable growth, and competitiveness. Despite these claims, however, the concept of skills in general, and innovation skills in particular, is often taken for granted, undefined, and often mischaracterised. This session discusses this policy context, the challenge of defining innovation skills, and how an ongoing project in OBBS is addressing this challenge to produce a framework to support the development of these skills.