Purpose: The paper seeks to disclose the features and implications of the neoliberal VET and employment policy agendas for the social and institutional VET ecosystems and the integration of at-risk youth in the labour market in the Baltic countries.Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on the comparative policy analysis approach with reference to the theories of social and skill formation ecosystems and the historical institutionalism perspective.Findings: The research has revealed three interconnected and alternately/simultaneously applied development pathways in the skill formation and vocational education of at-risk youth in the Baltic countries: (1) the market-oriented approach based on fostering immediate employability based on the momentary skills needs in the economy; (2) the state-assistance approach based on ensuring equal access to the VET and employment services by the state and (3) the approach of systemic support to socially disadvantaged or at-risk young people in developing their capabilities.Originality/value: The originality of the paper lies in a new, holistic and comparative perspective in analysing the implications of the “Baltic neoliberalism” for the development of skill formation systems, VET and employment of at-risk youth in this region.

Changes of the work conditions and technologies ask to change approach to the main principles of education system. The education system can’t prepare employees for the whole working life. Relative role of different parts of the qualification are changing. Skills, practical experience, which were main object of investigation and assessment, becomes less valid for whole working life, significance of motivation, emotional intelligence and attitudes increase. Skills and knowledge must be periodically improved, but attitudes remain as more constant basis for the competences. Attitudes are significant part of employers needs for qualified employees, but their role should be investigated more carefully. Investigation demonstrates different assessment of attitudes by employers depending on strategic plans and short term needs. Increasing role of motivation supports the appropriate changes in education system. The relevant recommendations for the improvement of education system have been proposed. The purpose of the study is to investigate the expectations by employers on skills, knowledge and attitudes of employees. To achieve the purpose the following tasks were set: to summarize and analyse the results of the research published in scientific literature; to study the opinions of the employers. Research methods used: scientific literature studies, survey of employers of the Kurzeme region, Jelgava city, Jelgava district, Ozolnieku district, Dobele district (survey was conducted in June 2013 – October 2013). For employers selection company register LURSOFT was used and every tenth company was approached, response rate 21%. In survey for most of questions evaluation scale 1 – 10 is applied where 1 – not significant, 10 – very significant. For data processing used methods: descriptive statistics – indicators of central tendency or location and indicators of variability; multivariate statistical analysis – factor analysis; non-parametric statistical methods – Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Kruskal-Wallis test. The empirical research showed that professional skills, knowledge, caring for the agenda and organization of work, purposefulness, cooperation, ability to plan and control, honesty are significant part of employers needs for qualified employees. The cooperation between education institutions and companies is necessary for the development of the study programs and practical skills in real production environment. The results of recent requirements by employers have been compared with survey results last decade. The important role of motivation of employees has been observed. The discussions about the employers needs could be divided in two main parts – social and specific skills. Transferable skills and attitudes become more significant owing to fast changes of knowledge and skills necessary for the quickly changing technologies. The ways of continuing improvement of qualifications of employees during their career are discussed. Special attention is paid to different possibilities to involve employers and local municipalities in the creation of the conditions favourable for the life-long learning of employees.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.9.12809

The oil and gas sector operates in a high-risk environment defined by capital intensity, regulatory uncertainty, and volatile commodity prices. Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely promoted as a lever for profitability, the mechanisms through which AI adoption translate into financial outcomes remain insufficiently specified in the oil and gas literature. Grounded in the Resource-Based View and Technology Adoption Theory, this study combines bibliometric mapping of 201 Scopus-indexed publications (2010–2025) with a focused comparative case analysis of important players (BP and Shell), based on publicly reported operational and financial indicators (e.g., operating cost, uptime-related evidence, and return on average capital employed—ROACE). Keyword co-occurrence analysis identifies five thematic clusters showing that efficiency-oriented AI use cases (optimization, automation, predictive maintenance, and digital twins) dominate the research landscape. A thematic synthesis of five highly cited studies further indicates that AI-enabled operational improvements are most consistently linked to measurable cost, productivity, or revenue effects. Case evidence suggests that large-scale predictive maintenance and digital twin programs can support capital efficiency by reducing unplanned downtime and structural costs, contributing to more resilient ROACE trajectories amid price swings. Overall, the findings support a conceptual pathway in which operational efficiency is a primary channel through which AI can create financial value, while underscoring the need for future firm-level empirical mediation tests using standardized KPIs.

The world-wide competition of higher education programs makes education institutions to seek for most efficient ways to attract students. The presented academic research is devoted also to the issues on motives and influencing factors for the choice of study programs. The methods applied in the current paper are as follows: analysis of scientific publications, focus group discussions, surveys of possible future students. For the evaluation of different aspects of choice a scale of 1-10 was used. For the data analysis of the survey descriptive statistical analysis, cross tabulations and correlation analysis, as well as analysis of variance (ANOVA) and factor analysis were applied.