Importance of a national employment policy
by Dinesh Weerakkody
Most countries that adopt a strong framework for sustainable growth,
acknowledge the role of skills development and through its national
policies strengthen the ability of workers to adapt to changing market
demands and to benefit from innovation and investments in new
technology, clean energy, environment, health and infrastructure.
The first goal of any such policy should be to ensure education for
all, the broad availability of quality education for children in school.
This is an essential foundation for future training.
The second goal of the policy should be to build solid bridges
between the world of work and training providers to match skills to meet
the needs of enterprises.This is often done best at the sectorial level
where the direct participation of employers and workers with government
and training providers can ensure the relevance of training.
The third goal is to ensure continuous workplace training and
lifelong learning enabling workers and enterprises to adjust to change.
Next is to ensure broad access to training opportunities, for men and
women, particularly for those groups facing difficulties, in particular
youth, low-skilled workers, workers with disabilities and rural
communities.
Finally, the fifth goal would be the active participation of
employers and workers' organisations and education providers with the
State to identify and build competencies for current and future needs of
the economy.
Dialogue
To achieve these five goals there is a need for continuous dialogue
between the political leadership, economic planners, employers and
trainers and coordination across government institutions.
Second, labour market information, employment services and
performance reviews are needed for the identification of skill needs. A
national policy would enable reforms to be achieved with a clear
statement of responsibility shared among Government and other partners.
The policy that grows out of this, increases interest in skills
development as an important means to address economic, social and
developmental concerns.
A national policy (or strategy or plan) for skills development, TVET
(technical and vocational education and training), HRD (human resources
development) or Lifelong Learning should be linked with general
education and labour policies.
It should focus not only on schoolchildren and young people who have
completed their formal schooling, but also on adult workers, school
dropouts and workers in the informal economy and disadvantaged groups.
Often skills obtained through training and those needed by the job
often do not match, resulting in skills shortages in some areas,
simultaneously, a surplus of workers with skills that are not in demand,
contribute to unemployment.
Weak quality assurance, too few Quality trainers, poor working
conditions for trainers and outdated qualifications, curricula, training
material and poor methods all inhibit the quality of training.
Weakness
Limited labour market information and inability to translate such
information into improved training interventions undermines relevance.
Today, a large number of providers (ministries, agencies, central and
regional governments, NGOs, employers and workers) are involved in
skills development. Their efforts often overlap and are not well
coordinated. Weakness in linking skills supply and demand also limits
the positive impact on employment and productivity.
These challenges have forced many policy-makers to focus on producing
high value-added, quality goods and services that can yield high wages
and profits.
To do this they need a skilled workforce and an education and
training system that adequately prepares young people to enter the
labour market.
This imperative runs alongside the current thinking i.e. the need to
bring education and training and the world of work together.
Therefore, formulating a national skills development policy would
help bring all key stakeholders together to adequately prepare current
and future workers to enter and remain productive in the labour market.
The writer is the Chairman of the National HRD Council. |