IWS Documented News DAILY POSTINGS

IWS Documented News Service

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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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Asian Development Bank (ADB)

ADB Briefs, No. 18, November 2013

 

SKILLS FOR COMPETITIVENESS, JOBS, AND EMPLOYABILITY IN DEVELOPING ASIA-PACIFIC [26 November 2013]

http://www.adb.org/publications/skills-competitiveness-jobs-and-employability-developing-asia-pacific

or

http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2013/skills-competitiveness-jobs-employability.pdf

[full-text, 8 pages]

 

Description

 

This policy brief draws on presentations and discussions at the ADB International Skills Development Forum held in ADB headquarters in Manila in December 2012 forum.

 

Government representatives, technical and vocational education and training institutional heads, researchers, international organizations, policy research think tanks, and private sector representatives discussed skills development for employability and sustainable livelihoods. Of special importance to the forum discussions were the presentations of major studies from five organizations on skills and jobs that were released in 2012.

 

Key Points

• Talent and skills are crucial to competitiveness of industries.

• Skills development serving clusters of different but interrelated industries can increase efficiency and sectoral competitiveness.

• Skills credentials developed and endorsed by industry are crucial for successful transition from school to work.

• Educational institutions should engage industries to jointly develop skills assessment tools which help improve jobreadiness of students.

• TVET needs to cover broader transferable skills in addition to technical skills. Formal education also needs to foster transferable skills. A longer stay in formal school can help students to acquire general and transferable skills.

• The rise of technology in manufacturing requires “gray collar” or “knowledge workers”’ for higher value-added products that enable economies to avoid the middle-income trap.

• Advanced skills are indispensable for a high-productivity economy while medium-skills workers are key for growth of labor-intensive sectors.

• Developing skills for the services sector is important for Asia to improve competitiveness in knowledge-intensive services such as financial intermediation, computer and information services, legal and technical support, and business services.

 

 

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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.