Skills and Employability Branch International Labour Office 4 Route des Morillons Geneva, Switzerland CH-1211
Email : skills@ilo.org
Skills Innovation Facility
Skills systems are confronted by the need to respond to increasingly dynamic and fluid labour market and societal conditions. Climate change, technology, demographic shifts, migration and globalization are causing increasing disruption to the world of work, while making skills development increasingly complex, fluid and unpredictable. Addressing contemporary skills challenges requires more dynamic and integrated skills and lifelong learning ecosystems.
Recognizing the importance of innovation for the renewed calls for lifelong learning, the ILO has initiated the development of a Skills Innovation Facility. The Facility identifies and tests promising and innovative ideas and solutions that address the major skills challenges of today and of tomorrow. Learn more
Our goals
To engage with constituents in all regions on key skills issues;
To provide the technical and financial assistance to partners to facilitate innovation in skills systems;
To support the development, piloting and replication of successful and innovative solutions to major skills challenges;
To create a global collaborative network of innovators that work together to solve the most pressing skills issues.
The process
We support innovation by identifying the most pressing challenges in skills development, sourcing new ideas and potential solutions, providing technical support and guidance to develop and test prototypes, and facilitating knowledge sharing and access to a global network of skills innovators. These five stages are shown in the figure below.
Skills Innovation Facility process
Our Initiatives
Skills Challenge Innovation CallsInviting individuals and organizations to propose new and practical ideas and solutions to key challenges.
Skills Innovation Labs Convening key stakeholders to design and test prototype solutions to difficult skills challenges.
Skills Innovation NetworkBuilding a network of innovators to share ideas, experiences and collaborate to develop and scale innovations for identified skills challenges.
Winning entries of the 2nd and 3rd Skills Challenge Innovation Calls were successfully launched in Ecuador and Comoros, with winning teams, partners and their networks expressing their commitment to support e-formality through skills development in Latin America and the Caribbean and around the prevention of forced labour through skills and lifelong learning in Africa.
The winner of the 3rd ILO Skills Challenge Innovation Call has been announced, and the USD 30,000 prize has gone to a youth entrepreneurship network in Comoros.
Winning proposals offer innovative solutions for labour formalization in Latin America and the Caribbean through new technologies and skills development.
During the event, the finalists of the 2nd Skills Challenge Innovation Call will present their ideas to boost formalization through technology and skills development in the region.
The ILO Skills Innovation Facility, in collaboration with the Alliance 8.7, is calling on entities or legally recognized non-profit organizations to share innovative ideas and solutions that can contribute to the prevention of forced labour in Africa through skills and lifelong learning.
The ILO is looking for entities or organizations that have innovative ideas and solutions that, based on the use of new technologies, promote skills development to facilitate the formalization of labour and economic units in Latin America and the Caribbean. Deadline for participation: 15 June 2021, midnight Geneva time.
The Innovation Call has identified three promising and innovative projects that will contribute to providing young Cambodians, especially those most affected by COVID-19, with opportunities to acquire skills that lead to decent jobs as well as accredited certificates.
The Ceremony will be presided over by the Minister of Labour and Vocational Training and the Resident Coordinator of the UN in Cambodia, along with the participation of the Director of the ILO Country Office for Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), together with national stakeholders, is organizing a three-day workshop on domestic workers curriculum development as part of the Skills Innovation Lab’s activities to support the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe (DWAZ), winner of the 1st Skills Challenge Innovation Call.
The Skills Innovation Network intends to engage all organizations and individuals having submitted proposals in the ILO Skills Challenge Innovation Call and provide them with space to connect with lead organizations working on similar issues across the world, refine their proposals, and initiate new endeavours around joint areas of interest.
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.
The Skills Challenge Innovation Call , launched by the International Labour Organization on 29 January, attracted an impressive number of participants. A total of 473 proposals from 96 countries were received by the end of the submission period on 30 April 2020.
The ILO Skills Challenge Innovation Call will recognise and support the development of solutions that aim to address the different forms and dimensions of skills mismatch.
Skills mismatch is a discrepancy between the skills that are sought by employers and the skills that are possessed by individuals. Simply put, it is a mismatch between skills and jobs.
The first Skills Challenge Innovation Call will recognize and support the development of solutions that aim to address the different forms and dimensions of skills mismatch.
As part of the innovative approach to promoting skills development and ensure lifelong learning opportunities for all, the ILO is developing a text-messaging tool to help skills systems better understand the quality and relevance of training programmes and institutions.