Background
In many countries, there are no consistent systems for skills recognition which affects the capacity of the workforce to employ appropriate staff and to provide full recognition to their employees. A lack of transparency and coherence in the system is also regarded as a major obstacle to lifelong learning. The problems are compounded for migrant workers when there is no framework or standards to facilitate recognition across countries. The absence of modern competency standards is a major constraint to the mutual recognition of workers’ skills.
Furthermore, migration for employment is often prone to failure in matching workers to jobs for which they are qualified. The employers who are not familiar with skills standards in the origin country may protect their interest by undervaluing the migrant workers’ competence and offering a lower wage than the workers’ productivity and qualification. At the same time, migrant workers seeking jobs tend to accept any job which offers higher wages than they could have obtained in their home country. In the absence of a sound method or system for establishing equivalences between jobs and qualifications, migration thus often leads to mismatches and inefficiencies.
Under the ILO/Korea Partnership Programme in 2006 - 2007, the ILO provided assistance to member states on skills standards issue by facilitating the recognition of migrant workers skills through the further development of Regional Model Competency Standards (RMCS) for the manufacturing sector. This was presented as a tool for translating national skills standards from sending countries and the competencies required by employers in receiving countries, particularly in Korea. The RMCS could also provide useful guidance to the development of national manufacturing competency standards, in cases where these standards do not exist or require updating.
The target countries on this project are those which have signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Workforce Sending under Employment Permit System with the Korean Government, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam. Nepal, one of the countries under the MOU on the System, will also be invited to participate in the Meeting to learn and share their experience on their skills recognition issues.
Objectives
The meeting aims to compare and discuss RMCS validation among the sending countries and Korea and reach a common understanding on the RMCS for manufacturing.
Workshop structure and methodology
The meeting will be organized within a number of technical sessions, comprising the following sessions:
- Introduction of each countries finding and their skills standards system on Manufacturing sector
- Panel discussion
- Technical Working Group sessions to ensure a participatory approach
Chairing responsibilities for technical sessions will be shared among participants.
Participation
Participants from eight sending countries will be invited: Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Government participants should be senior level staff of the national vocational education and training organizations involved in the national skills recognition and standards system. Workers and employers organizations dealing with this subject will also be invited to participate and share their experience. The participation of women in the meeting is strongly encouraged.
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