Skills development

Regional webinar: Making South-East Asia skills and TVET systems future-ready: The role of skills anticipation systems in matching future skills needs in the labour market

The online webinar aims to introduce representatives of government, employers’ and workers’ organizations and educational and training institutions to successful approaches towards skills anticipation and matching.

Background

The negative impact of COVID-19 on employment and incomes combined with the emerging skills needs as a result of the fourth industrial revolution have increased interest among policy makers, educational and training institutions, employers and workers in South-East Asia in the design of effective approaches and strategies to anticipate and match future skills needs.

As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, ASEAN faces an unprecedented crisis that requires demand-oriented skills development policy responses to support a human-centred recovery, with emphasis on ensuring that hard-hit socio-economic groups such as women, young people and low-skilled and low-paid workers access the skills and TVET system and find decent work opportunities. Thus, to mitigate the negative consequences of the pandemic and contribute to build back better it is essential to implement effective skills development and employment policies that facilitate labour market transitions.

In this context, anticipation of future skills needs becomes a priority area to reduce skills mismatches in the labour market and develop effective and demand-oriented skills and TVET systems. The concept of skills needs assessment and anticipation includes a number of key elements, including: (a) governance of labour market information and skills anticipation processes; (b) methods and tools for data collection, compilation and analysis; and (c) institutional frameworks, arrangements and social dialogue mechanisms.

To address these and other skills anticipation and development challenges, the approach promoted by the ILO and implemented through the Skills for Prosperity in South-East Asia programme prioritizes identifying relevant data sources and tools for data collection and analysis; translating data into indicators, trends and scenarios; analysing results and preparing strategies in close collaboration with key national stakeholders; and strengthening institutional arrangements that are conducive to matching demand and supply of skills through systematic social dialogue.

The regional webinar will present relevant approaches and insights from both developed and developing countries identifying emerging skills needs, and developing effective skills and employment strategies and policies to eliminate skills mismatches. 

Objective

The regional webinar aims to introduce representatives of government, employers’ and workers’ organizations and educational and training institutions to successful approaches towards skills anticipation and matching. Best practices from the United Kingdom and South Africa as well as the ILO experience across four continents will be presented, including key insights and lessons learned regarding relevant skills anticipation processes, methods and tools.

Key topics for discussion

  • How can skills anticipation activities support review and development of national skills and TVET system policies and strategies?
  • How can labour market information and intelligence be effectively coordinated in a systematic manner?
  • What are the benefits and lessons learned of using sectoral skills needs anticipation approaches?
  • What are the institutional responsibilities, structures and coordination arrangements for effective skills anticipation?
  • What is the relevance of social dialogue mechanisms in building consensus in relation to skills anticipation and matching?
  • What changes, if any, and challenges are faced by current skills anticipation and matching systems as we experience and transition away from the COVID-19 crisis?

Panellists

  • Panelist 1 – Ms Olga Strietska-Ilina, Senior Skills & Employability Specialist, International Labour Organization (ILO)
  • Panelist 2 – Professor Terence Hogarth, Warwick Institute for Employment Research, the United Kingdom
  • Panelist 3 – Professor Hoosen Rasool, FR Research, South Africa
Moderators: Ms Akiko Sakamoto, Regional Skills and Employability Specialist, International Labour Organization (ILO) and Mr Jordi Prat Tuca, ILO Regional Technical and Programme Coordinator, Skills for Prosperity in South-East Asia Programme.

Programme

3.00 p.m.   Opening and introduction by the moderators
3.05 p.m.   Welcome remarks by Mr Kebur Azbaha, Counsellor, Head of Prosperity and Economics Team, British High Commission Malaysia
3.10 p.m.   Panelist 1: Opening statement and presentation by Ms Olga Strietska-Ilina
3.30 p.m.   Panelist 2: Opening statement and presentation by Professor Terence Hogarth
3.50 p.m.   Panelist 3: Opening statement and presentation by Professor Hoosen Rasool
4.10 p.m.   Questions to the panellists from the moderators
4.25 p.m.   Open Q&A session (audience drops questions to the chat forum, to be read by moderator and monitored by the organizer).
4.40 p.m.   Closing remarks by Ms Olga Strietska-Ilina
4.45 p.m.   Closing remarks by Professor Terence Hogarth
4.50 p.m.   Closing remarks by Professor Hoosen Rasool
4.55 p.m.   Conclusion by the moderator

About the panelists

Ms Olga Strietska-Ilina
Olga Strietska-Ilina
is a Senior Skills and Employability Specialist at the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. She is an Area Lead of the work area Skills Strategies for Future Labour Markets, focusing on anticipating skills needs for the future of work, skills for trade and economic diversification, skills for environmental sustainability and climate action, and skills for technological change and digitalization. Prior to 2008, Olga worked on skills forecasting for the European Centre for Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop). She earlier served as Head of the Czech National Observatory of Employment and Training and taught international relations at the Central European University (CEU). Olga has published extensively on future skills, education, training, and broader social and cultural issues. She authored numerous policy papers discussed at the G20 and BRICS ministerial meetings.

Mr Terence Hogarth
Terence Hogarth
is a professor at the University of Warwick Institute for Employment Research (IER). Over the past 35 years, he has been involved in a series of studies addressing the demand for and supply of skills, the extent of skills mismatch and how vocational education and training (VET) systems respond to emerging skill needs. He has undertaken a large number of studies in the UK, Europe, Africa and South America that have addressed these issues. He is currently involved in a range of studies which use foresight and data science techniques to identify emerging skill needs. He has recently edited a series of essays entitled “Economy, employment and skills: European, regional and global perspectives in an age of uncertainty” (Rome: Quaderni Series No.61).

Professor Hoosen Rasool
Professor Hoosen Rasool
is the Director of FR Research Services, a bespoke consultancy based in South Africa that specializes in labour market research, customized labour market research training and advisory services to strengthen national education and training systems. He has served as technical advisor to the Department of Higher Education & Training (South Africa) on strengthening the national skills system; the Namibia Training Authority (Namibia) on TVET; and the Human Resource Development Council (Botswana) on sectoral skills planning. He consults to several international agencies such as the ILO, European Union, GIZ and UNESCO. Prof. Rasool and his research team have conducted more than 70 research studies in the last ten years. He is actively involved with research on labour markets, migration, industrial policy, skills anticipation and matching, and TVET in several countries.

About the organizer

The Skills for Prosperity in South-East Asia Programme (SfP-SEA), funded by the United Kingdom government, aims to contribute to increasing national capacity to achieve sustained and inclusive growth through the enhancement of skills development and TVET systems in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The programme works with government, employers’ organizations, trade unions, educational institutions and other partners in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines to facilitate review and reform of the countries’ skills development and TVET system strategies and policies. In the region, the SfP-SEA programme provides opportunities for mutual learning among the three countries, the other ASEAN nations and beyond, not only showcasing the results and lessons learned from the programme, but also facilitating the sharing of best practices in the region and other parts of the world, including relevant international approaches to skills anticipation and matching.