|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
Events in the international community |
|
|||||||||
|
|
ILO Global Employment Agenda Round Table: Montreal, 23-24 April 2002 |
||||||||||
1. Background During the ILO’s Global Employment Forum (Geneva, November 2001), it was agreed to hold a series of high-level round tables in ten technical fields, including knowledge and skills development. The ILO, through its InFocus Programme on Skills, Knowledge and Employability, therefore proposes to organize the first of these Round Tables around the theme of Knowledge and skills for productivity and decent work. The Global Employment Agenda, presented at the Forum, noted that at the opening of the 21st century, the world community set itself ambitious targets to reduce the number of people in poverty. Specifically, the rate of poverty of 1990 was to be halved by the year 2015. The central challenge in doing this is to secure decent work for people everywhere in conditions of equity, security, and human dignity. This will draw out of poverty the 1.2 billion people, a full fifth of the world’s population, who are living on less than one dollar a day. Employment is fundamental to this challenge, and yet the present reality glaringly reveals that being at work alone is not enough to provide satisfactory employment. There were 160 million unemployed people at the outset of the present decade. This is indeed a loss of human potential. But most of the 1.2 billion poor people are supported by 530 million family members who do have work. They are the working poor who are engaged in low-productivity, low-paying work that is inadequate to raise themselves and their families out of poverty. An additional almost 300 million people in the world do not have enough work: they are underemployed, and would work more if they had the opportunity. Taken together, a full third of the world’s labour force of 3 billion people cannot obtain the material rewards from work which they need and to which they aspire. These facts, combined with the expectation that in the next ten years there will be an additional 500 million more people in the world’s labour force, create a daunting challenge for employment creation and development. Education and training are major instruments to overcome the syndromes of poverty and discrimination and enhance the employability, productivity and income earning capacity of many disadvantaged people. In many developing countries, in particular, the development and recognition of the skills of workers in the informal economy can greatly improve their access to decent jobs and contribute to better living conditions among large sections of the population who earn a living there. This ILO Round Table will examine the contribution that education and training can make to meeting the employment challenge by improving employability through the development of knowledge and skills. The Round Table will consist of three closely linked sessions:
This event is planned to coincide with the G8 Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting in April 2002 and will involve officials from the G8 Meeting together with policy makers from developing countries and representatives of workers’ and employers’ organizations. Other international agencies, including UNESCO, OECD, the EU and the World Bank, will also be invited to participate. The theme of this Round Table is closely linked to the theme of the G8 Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting - The Knowledge Imperative, Skills and Learning Challenges for the 21st Century. The ILO will build on existing partnerships in the belief that this topic is an excellent basis to establish new strategic alliances with other international agencies. 2. Introduction Knowledge and skills are the engine of economic growth and social development. By making individuals employable, education and training help them gain access to decent work and escape poverty and marginalization. Education and training are powerful tools for the economic and social emancipation of disadvantaged population groups. It is by means of education and training that women and other victims of discrimination can access more and better jobs in the labour market. Education and training improve individuals' productivity and income earning opportunities at work, their mobility in the labour market, and widens their choice of career opportunities. By investing in their human resources, enterprises are able to improve productivity and compete successfully in increasingly integrated world markets. It is only by increasing investment in knowledge and skills that governments, enterprises and individuals can improve an economy’s competitiveness and ensure decent employment outcomes for all. In order to be effective, education and training must form an integral part of a comprehensive set of economic, labour market, community development and other policies for employment and growth. The issue of recognizing workers’ skills has generated strong interest among the ILO’s constituents, which is reflected in the Conclusions concerning human resources training and development adopted by the International Labour Conference in 2000. The Conclusions stated that “The development of a national qualifications framework is in the interest of enterprises and workers as it facilitates lifelong learning, helps enterprises and employment agencies match skill demand with supply, and guides individuals in their choice of training and career.” The Conclusions also stressed that “Every person should have the opportunity to have his or her experiences and skills gained through work, through society or through formal and non-formal training assessed, recognized and certified.” This is particularly important for men and women who have gained their skills through work in the informal economy. These skills are rarely recognized. The growing interest on the part of governments in reforming national systems of qualifications, and in using qualifications as an independent instrument of education and training reform, has come about largely as a result of economic changes and the new skill and knowledge demands which are emerging across the world. Many countries have either attempted to introduce or shown an interest in the idea of a single national qualification framework designed to include all types of qualification, school and work-based, general, vocational and professional, and all levels of qualifications from basic skills to post graduate degrees. As a result of the importance of skills recognition and qualification frameworks, the Round Table will address issues related to this topic and, in the process, contribute to strengthening and expanding the strategic alliances between the ILO and other international agencies. This is one of the major objectives of the follow-up to the Global Employment Forum. This Round Table offers an opportunity to bring together expertise from governments and the social partners, both from industrialised and developing countries, along with researchers and practitioners, to exchange national and international experiences in promoting the development of knowledge and skills to increase productivity and to provide women and men with greater opportunities to secure decent work, in the context of the Global Employment Agenda. 3. Objectives of the Round Table The main objectives of the Round Table are –
The Round Table will focus on –
The discussion under point (ii) will provide the basis for a strategic alliance between international agencies on skills recognition, mobility and qualifications frameworks. The meeting may also consider the ways and means of increasing investment in learning and training to facilitate access and opportunities for decent employment for all. 4. The Round Table structure The Round Table will be organized in three discussion sessions with a panel discussion at the start of each session. During the first two panel discussions, the ILO team and the resource persons will make an introductory presentation. The social partners on the panels will act as discussants and provide their comments. A question and answer session will follow. During the third discussion session the representatives of the international agencies will outline their work on skills recognition, mobility and qualifications. This session will explore the possibilities of a strategic alliance between the agencies on this subject. Again, a question and answer session will follow the panel discussion. 5. Participants The Round Table is designed specifically to allow senior officers in government and in employers’ and workers’ organizations dealing with human resources development and training to participate in analytical discussions on training policies and programmes. Nine countries have been invited.
|
|
||||||||||
