Transcript ILO/Korea First Technicial Meeting of the Regional Skills

ILO/MOLSS International
Forum on Chinese High
Skilled Workers
Innovative skills policy reforms:
Sector-based approaches to skills
development
A SKILLS-AP Discussion Paper by
Dr J. Sung and Prof D. Ashton
presented by Trevor Riordan
Manager, ILO/SKILLS-AP
Introduction and
background to the
discussion
Introduction
• Increasing demand globally for higher levels of
workforce knowledge and skills, which is
driven by many factors:
– Need for countries to improve productivity to
compete in the global economy
– Move to more higher value-added products with
higher knowledge component
– Changing patterns of work organization
– Increasing skills intensification of economies/ jobs
– Need to develop higher skilled workers for
particular sectors (China)
Why knowledge and skills
are important
One example: Contributions of different factors to economic
growth
1.2
Educational attainment
1
Trade exposure
0.8
Variability of inflation
0.6
Investment share
0.4
0.2
Population growth
0
-0.2
Average annual per capita GDP
Size of government
growth rate (1980-1990)
Source: OECD
Skill Intensity of the Economy
Accelerating in All Sectors
35
1971
1996
Knowledge and Management Occupations
as a Share of Total Employment, 1971-96 - Canada
30
(%)
25
20
15
10
5
0
Mining
Construction
Transportation
Trade
Finance
HRD and competitiveness
POST-COMPULSORY SCHOOL AND EQUIVALENT QUALIFICATIONS
Qualification profile index
120
100
USA
Germany
United Kingdom
80
Canada
Czech Republic
60
France
Norway
Switzerland
Austria
Sweden
Finland
40
Australia
Greece Ireland
20
Italy
Spain
Turkey
Portugal
New Zealand
Belgium
Regression
R2=.50
0
0
20
40
Denmark
Netherlands
60
80
Competitiveness index
100
120
Introduction
• Many countries are finding it difficult to
reform their national skills development
system to deal with the challenges of the
global economy
• Different innovations developed relate closely
to social, political and historical context in
which they were developed:
– English speaking countries focus on outcomes
– French speaking countries focus on process
– German speaking countries focus on
occupations
Introduction
• Most international approaches to skills development
focus on integrated national skills strategies which
develop the skills across the total workforce, rather
than segments, such as high-skilled workers. This
will be a feature of the presentations of the
international resource persons
• ILO/SKILLS-AP has brought international
approaches to skills development from Partner
Organizations in Australia, Germany, Republic of
Korea and Singapore to this Forum
• This presentation will focus on a new trend in skills
development being implemented across many
advanced countries
Sector-based
approaches to skills
development
Sector-based approaches to
skills development
Background
• Many countries exploring new approaches to skills
• A demand-led approach to training is currently a top
priority in skills policies in many countries
• This approach enables the coordinating agency to
determine the skill needs within a sector, the kinds
and level of training required and how such training
should be financed and delivered
• This paper examines the lessons learnt from
countries which have adopted this approach.
What is a sector approach to
training?
• No precise definition nor single model in the six
countries which have declared sector approach as
a major workforce development structure:
• Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
South Africa and the UK (Singapore now included)
• All systems differ in terms of: scope; objectives;
funding, working relations with educ/training and
qualification authorities; and number of sectors
• But all system have two main common features:
– Existence of sector-based coordinating bodies
– Involvement of industry/employers in these bodies
Why use sector-based
approaches?
• Governments wanting to focus on the development
of particular economic sectors which provide the
best prospects for increasing international market
share, and developing skills for that sector e.g.
Singapore in biomedical science
• Strengthen emerging sectors that have potential for
contributing to future economic growth
• Linking skills development to the real economic
divisions in the country
• As a mechanism to steer employers towards higher
value-added forms of productions
• Ensuring more effective training delivery
Six main features of an
effective sector skills approach
An effective sector approach:
• allows employers to have key role in identifying
demand for skills and designing the competencies
required:
– In the Netherlands, employers determine skills needs and
qualifications through “Knowledge Centres” which ensure
consistency between work- and centre-based training
– In Singapore, government uses major employers as a
model to identify skills needs of specific industries
– In Hong Kong SAR employers set up and finance bodies
to define and deliver the skills (textile & construction)
– In UK, some problems emerged with employers
involvement as they were only consulted after skills and
qualifications were determined by consultants
Six main features of an
effective sector skills approach
An effective sector approach:
• secures the involvement of workers
– assists in transferability of skills across labour
market; in the Netherlands, unions are involved
in identifying sector skills needs
• maximizes the use of financial incentives
– Levy schemes: in South Africa levy used to
establish training infrastructure; in Netherlands
only small levy (0.5%) used for specific skills
projects: in Hong Kong SAR levy confined to 2
sectors; in Singapore only for low skilled
workers
Six main features of an
effective sector skills approach
An effective sector approach:
• Maximizes the use of financial incentives (cont)
– direct government subsidies: UK subsidies trainees
wages and shares cost of training with companies; the
Netherlands provides tax refund (15%) of trainees wages
• Uses government funding of sector skills bodies to
ensure that they consider longer term government
objectives
– Danger that if sector councils are responsive only to
employers, longer term objectives may not be considered
– In Canada, uses funding to ensure that its views on more
general long-term policy are considered; In Singapore,
government determines which parts of economy will grow
Six main features of an
effective sector skills approach
An effective sector approach:
• Ensures that some of the funds for public training
goes through employer-led skills councils
– In New Zealand funding is provided to Industry Training
Councils on per capita basis; in the Netherlands funds are
tied to volume of training provided; in USA, Workforce
Investment Act success due to employer involvement; In
UK and Australia some difficulties with councils limited
control of funding, and less responsive to employers needs
• Manages different interests between central
government and provinces/states/ regions
– Difficult problem for federal systems with differences
between federal and state/provincial needs e.g. Canada
and Australia
Implications for creating a
responsive sector system
• Ensure that the component parts of the system are
aligned to the same objectives
• Governments may choose the sectors which relate
most closely to national objectives
• Ensure that sector councils represent the real
divisions in the economy
• Ensure clarity in functions of sector councils
• Ensure complementarity of research and labour
market information between coordinating body and
individual sector council
• Ensure effective performance monitoring
Concluding thoughts
• While no national systems can be directly
transferred to others, many useful lessons
can be learnt from observing other systems
• This study has revealed key principles that
drive the most effective sector systems
• Sector based approaches are proving to be
very effective in matching skills needs to
national economic development
• Many advanced countries using sector based
approaches to develop their skills workforce
and respond to challenges of globalization