The skills economy is shifting fast. Who is shaping what comes next?

Skills-first hiring, AI-driven job redesign, and changing talent mobility patterns are putting the same pressure on leaders everywhere: align learning, policy, and employer demand at speed. Global Skills Week is where higher education, industry, and policymakers meet to compare what’s working, build partnerships, and leave with approaches you can apply in your own context.

The evidence base, not the noise

It’s easy to get lost in headlines. Labour-market signals give a clearer view of where demand is moving. The QS World Future Skills Index draws on 280M job postings and 5M+ employer skill demands across 190+ countries, helping leaders separate trend from hype and plan with more confidence.

In Washington D.C., we’ll turn those signals into decisions: what to redesign, where to partner, and how to measure progress.

What you’ll take away

• Skills signals you can act on
  Understand what employers are asking for now, and what’s likely to matter next.
• Partnership models that scale
  How universities, employers, and skills organisations structure collaboration beyond pilots.
• Policy and mobility insights
  What’s changing in cross-border flows, recognition, and talent pathways and what that means for institutions and economies.
• Practical implementation examples
  Real approaches to curriculum redesign, AI integration, skills verification, and outcome measurement.

Featured sessions

• Talent mobility and global pipelines
  What’s Next for Global Flows & Talent Mobility
  Leaders from AIEA, NAFSA, and CBIE unpack emerging trends, policy shifts, and new models shaping how institutions attract, support, and retain global talent, with a forward-looking roadmap for the decade ahead.
• AI and employability in business education
  AI in the Business School: Embedding it into the Curriculum
  Business schools are moving from experimentation to meaningful integration. This session shares practical strategies, models, and frameworks for embedding AI across the curriculum, including the analytical, ethical, and innovation skills employers expect.

The four themes

• Future Skills Systems: What does a skills-first system look like in practice, and how do you measure it?
• Skills Partnerships for Growth: How do employers and institutions co-design pathways that actually scale?
• Skills as the Global Currency: How do credentials, skills verification, and recognition travel across borders?
• Skills for Societal Impact: How do we make mobility and opportunity outcomes visible, not assumed?

Who attends Global Skills Week?

Senior leaders across higher education, business schools, government, employers, workforce and skills organisations, innovation and digital leadership teams, and media and thought leaders. If your remit touches on employability, skills policy, curriculum redesign, or talent pipelines, this is your peer group.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Best wishes,

QS Team