To continue promoting the greater involvement of industries in skills development, particularly in tourism and information, communication and technology (ICT) sectors, the ILO shared different international examples of sector-based industry engagement mechanism.

Before 50 participants from Indonesian tourism and ICT industrial sectors in the mid of October, the ILO’s global and regional specialists on skills and employability shared their lessons learnt and experiences in dealing with sector skills bodies in various countries.

Akiko Sakamoto, specialist from the ILO Regional Office in Bangkok, underlined that despite considerable variations among terms, functions, responsibilities and structures of sector skills bodies around the world, the commonality of these bodies is that it is an industry-led body aiming to fulfill skills needed in the particular sector.

“To establish and sustain the sector skills bodies, it is important to have industrial leadership and senior-level industrial representation. It also needs the support from the government to entrust certain roles and responsibilities related to skills development to these bodies,” she said.

Meanwhile, Paul Comyn, Senior Skills and Employability Specialist from ILO Geneva shared his experiences working in more 12 countries to support the establishment of sector skills bodies. ”International experiences have shown that sectoral bodies can provide a range of services related to labour market analysis, qualification standards, policy advices assessment services and funding management,” Paul said.

To ensure the establishment of effective sectoral bodies, both Akiko and Paul emphasized the importance of dialogues not only among specific industrial sectors, but also among other key labour actors. “Dialogues are required not only among industrial sectors, employers and trade unions, but also among government and other relevant stakeholders to determine priorities, roles and responsibilities as well as the mechanisms for competency standard, curriculum development and training management.”

Sharing the experiences of Indonesia, Sumarni Mahapertiwi, Head of Training Division of the Indonesian Retail Association (Aprindo) explained about the sectoral body initiated by the Aprindo. With support from the government, this retail sectoral body has been assigned to develop competency standards for retail industry in the country.

“The sector-led approach helps members of the association to improve their competencies since the association has actively engaged in the development of competency standards, training programmes as well as the apprenticeship and certification,” stated Sumarni.

Around 88 percent of participants, based on the result of the polling conducted in the workshop, agreed that the country was in need of sector skills bodies that could support greater involvement of industries in skills development.

Taking into accounts inputs from the participants, the workshop concluded with the needs for the establishment of sector skills body in tourism and ICT sectors with tripartite memberships, mainly focusing on the involvement of sectors in the development of vocational training programme and the curriculum. The workshop also concluded with an agreement that this sector skills body should not be overlapped with existing institutions such as the National Committee for Vocational.

Tauvik Muhamad, the ILO’s skills development manager for Indonesia, said that the ILO would continue supporting efforts taken by Indonesia to establish sector skills bodies for specific sectors. “The next step is to support the engagement of industrial sectors, particularly tourism and ICT sectors, through a pilot phase with focus on competency standard, vocational training and certification,” Tauvik said.

This workshop was a follow-up to previous meeting and workshop held in January and September. The ILO’s support for this workshop was provided by its Industry Skills for Inclusive Growth Project (In-Sight) Phase II. Funded by the Government of Japan, the second phase of In-Sight Project aims to promote mechanisms and practical approaches that enable industries and workplaces to become drivers of sustainable and inclusive growth in the Asian region.