Contact us

Skills and Employability Branch (SKILLS)

Staff
Employment Policy Department

International Labour Office 4 Route des Morillons

Geneva 22
Switzerland
CH-1211

Tel : +41 22 799 7512
Fax : +41 22 799 6310
Email : skills@ilo.org
Website : www.ilo.org/skills

Recent publications and reports

  1. Career Guidance

    Career guidance policy and practice in the pandemic: Results of a joint international survey

    This joint global report reflects how career guidance services responded to the challenges posed by Covid-19. It highlights the range of solutions found, especially digital, and the challenges felt by services, practitioners and clients.

  2. Apprenticeships

    ILO Toolkit for Quality Apprenticeships - Volume 2: Guide for Practitioners

    A comprehensive resource for helping improve apprenticeships programmes offering over 125 tools and guides from more than 40 countries and institutions worldwide.

  3. The Digitization of TVET and Skills Systems

    This joint ILO-UNESCO report provides a global, high-level overview of how digitalization is affecting TVET and skills systems.

  4. Lifelong Learning in the Informal Economy: A Literature Review

    This literature review aims to provide an update to current debates on how to bridge the gap for informal economy workers to access and participate in relevant and quality skills development.

  5. Rapid STED: A practical guide

    This new guide provides advice on implementing an updated approach to STED. It aims to speed the process and to build capacity among national and sector partners.

  6. Skills for a greener future: a global view

    The first global report on the implications of the transition to low-carbon and resource-efficient economies for skills, gender and occupations.

Find out more from

  1. Employment Policy Department (EMPLOYMENT)

Skills and Employability Branch (SKILLS)

Governments, employers' associations and trade unions around the world are working to improve the employability of workers, move young people into productive and decent work, and increase the productivity of enterprises through better quality and relevant training. The Skills and Employability Branch conducts comparative research and provides policy guidelines and technical assistance to help constituents integrate skills development into national and sector development strategies.

The ILO's work with constituents focuses primarily on three areas: linking training to current labour market needs as well as anticipating and building competencies for the jobs of the future; building quality apprenticeship systems and incorporating core skills into training for young people; and expanding access to employment-related training in rural communities in order to improve livelihoods, reduce poverty, and equip women and men to work in the formal economy.

What's new

  1. Career guidance policy and practice in the pandemic: Results of a joint international survey

    This report reflects the results of a flash international survey on how career guidance services responded to the challenges posed by Covid-19. It highlights the range of solutions found, especially digital, and the challenges felt by services, practitioners and clients. The survey was jointly implemented by the ILO, Cedefop, UNESCO, OECD, the European Commission, ETF and ICCDPP, over the period from 8 June to 3 August 2020.

  2. Skills development in the time of COVID-19: Taking stock of the initial responses in technical and vocational education and training

    This report is based on the findings of an interagency survey on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and skills development in the time of COVID-19. The online survey, which was targeted at TVET providers, policymakers and social partners, was implemented by the ILO in collaboration with the UNESCO and the World Bank over the period from 5 April to 15 May 2020.

  3. ILO and the Government of Norway sign a new partnership agreement on skills development and lifelong learning for the Future of Work

  4. Skills to combat forced labour

    The ILO has launched two Global Guidelines on the prevention and reintegration of victims of forced labour through skills and lifelong learning.

  5. Skills development partnerships in the Global South

    The South-South and Triangular Cooperation Skills Forum is a global event led by Africa.

  6. Skills Development and Lifelong Learning: Resource Guide for Workers’ Organizations

    The guide provides examples of how workers organisations are engaged in key areas of skills systems to highlight the importance of a rights-based approach to lifelong learning.

  7. ILO hosts bootcamp to support the Domestic Worker Center, winner of the 1st Skills Challenge Innovation Call

    A five-day online bootcamp was organized from 16 to 20 November 2020 in collaboration with ILOITC.

  8. The feasibility of using big data in anticipating and matching skills needs

    This publication collects together the contributions presented during the ILO workshop “Can we use big data for skills anticipation and matching?”

  9. Guide and digital interactive assessment tool on Making TVET and skills development inclusive for all

    The guide aims to help skills decision-makers and practitioners assess to what extent their TVET system is currently excluding certain individuals or groups, identifies underlying reasons, and provides practical ideas on what could be done to redress inequalities.

  10. ILO and UNICEF MOU to strengthen skills and lifelong learning

    The MOU is intended to strengthen collaboration between the two agencies, in support of a lifelong approach to learning that will improve the employability of young people and promote a smoother school-to-work transition.

  11. Effective governance and coordination in skills systems: towards a lifelong learning ecosystem

    This policy brief revises the key issues that affect governance and coordination in skill systems and proposes a number of measures and principles through which reforms can take place.

  12. Policy brief: The gender divide in skills development: Progress, challenges and policy options for empowering women

    In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, women and girls are bearing the brunt of care responsibilities during school closures. Overcoming the gender digital divide is essential to allow women to participate equally in digital learning.

  13. Guidelines on Rapid Assessment of reskilling and upskilling needs in response to the COVID-19 crisis

    The guidelines focus on three broad types of impact on the labour market, and hence on demand for skills and opportunities for workers, with implications for reskilling and upskilling needs.

  14. The Role of Employers in Skills Development Systems

    This policy brief discusses how employers and Employer and Business Membership Organizations (EMBOs) can strengthen their involvement in skills systems, and highlights some of the benefits in doing so. It analyses interventions at the national, sectoral and enterprise levels.

  15. A review of Entitlement Systems for Lifelong Learning

    This joint ILO-UNESCO paper presents the results of an international literature review of how countries have introduced systems and initiatives to provide individuals with an entitlement to lifelong learning.

  16. Winner announcement

    Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe wins the ILO Skills Innovators Challenge

    The winner of the first ILO Skills Challenge Innovation Call has been announced, and the USD 50,000 prize has gone to a domestic workers association in Zimbabwe