An International Perspective: The Importance of Skills and Vocational Education

An international perspective: the importance of skills and vocational education

Deborah RoseveareHead, Skills beyond School DivisionOECD16 November 2012

skills.oecdBetter Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives

What OECD is International organisation 34 member countries (and EU) Established over 50 years ago Mission: to promote better policies

for better lives

What is the OECD and how does it work?

How we work Engage governments and also a wide

range of stakeholders Produce comparative data and

evidence Compare policy experiences across

countries to draw together lessons and policy options for countries

link together policies across different sectors to achieve better outcomes

educationstatistics

economicsenvironment

health

competition

taxation

migration

corruptiongovernance

social policy

investmenttrade

agriculture

development

pensions insuranceinnovation

entrepreneurship

labour markets

gender


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Why do skills matter to countries?


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Why do skills matter to people?


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How can we improve skills and their use?

6skills.oecdBetter Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives

OECD Skills Strategy


How does a country maximise its skills?

Developing relevant skills

Encouraging and enabling people to learn throughout life

Fostering international mobility of skilled people to fill skills gaps

Promoting cross-border skills policies

Activating skills supply

Putting skills to effective use

Encouraging people to offer their skills to the labour market

Retaining skilled people in the labour market

Creating a better match between people’s skills and the requirements of their job

Increasing the demand for high-level skills


Taking the OECD Skills Strategy forward

Developing national and local skills

strategies

Enhancing the

evidence base

Anticipating and responding flexibly to changing skill needs

Enhancing

vocational education

and training


What we know about successful skills strategies and employer engagement?

Greater economic competitiveness – for countries, for sectors and for individual firms

Higher quality jobs, more productive workforce More sustainable economic and social outcomes

Skills are a long-term investment for growth and productivity

Skills need to be relevant for growth and productivity

Employers need to be engaged in skills development

Relevant through time – immediate, evolving and longer term skill needs

Relevant mix of foundation skills, technical skills and generic/life skills (teamwork, communication, initiative, problem solving etc)

Employers know about what skills they need Employers can transform their workplaces to

make the most of skills Employers benefit from supporting investments up

and down the supply chain


What we know about how to enhance VET* through employer engagement?

VET works best when responsive to labour market needs

Employers know labour market needs best Employers need to be involved in:

Designing curricula and qualifications Monitoring emerging requirements Developing workplace training

arrangements Other stakeholders also need to be involved

* Vocational Education and Training

VET works best when combining workplace and classroom learning

Workplaces offer real on-the-job experience for learning hard and soft skills

Workplace learning lets potential employers and employees learn about each other

Employer willingness to offer workplace training signals that a VET programme is relevant

Workplace learning helps to keep student places aligned with likely future employment demand


To learn more…..

On skills, check out our online skills portal skills.oecd up-to-date information on skills work at OECD country-specific skills data and analysis OECD Skills Strategy

On vocational education and training

www.oecd.org/edu/vet

For all OECD data, analysis and policy advice

www.oecd.org

http://www.oecd.org/edu/vet

http://www.oecd.org/