Education, training and lifelong learning should form an integral part of comprehensive policies taking a whole of government approach, ILO says
16 October 2019
Srinivas Reddy, the Chief of the ILO’s Skills and Employability Branch, participated in the conference ‘VET for All – Skills for Life', organized by the Finnish Presidency of the EU during the European Vocational Skills Week.
Transformative forces in the world of work, such as climate change, technological and demographic changes, migration and globalization, will create new jobs, but will also come with negative implications for some workers, such as job displacement in declining sectors. The uptake of opportunities will depend on ensuring that all people are skilled, re-skilled and up-skilled and can move to newly created jobs.
Today, one of the biggest skills challenges is to strengthen the capacity of all people and to support them through transitions at all ages: not only from school-to-work but also from one occupation to the next.
However, in many parts of the world, providing equal access for all to education and lifelong learning remains a challenge. “Countries need new skills and lifelong learning ecosystems with effective governance and financing mechanisms,” said Mr Reddy.
Innovative financing mechanisms, such as learning entitlements linked to comprehensive social protection systems and social impact bonds, need to be developed to ensure investment in skills and lifelong learning, through a joint responsibility of governments and social partners.
“Education, training and lifelong learning are fundamental and should form an integral part of economic, fiscal, social, environmental and labour market policies that create decent jobs and enable individuals to have access to skills development,” he concluded.
Transformative forces in the world of work, such as climate change, technological and demographic changes, migration and globalization, will create new jobs, but will also come with negative implications for some workers, such as job displacement in declining sectors. The uptake of opportunities will depend on ensuring that all people are skilled, re-skilled and up-skilled and can move to newly created jobs.
Today, one of the biggest skills challenges is to strengthen the capacity of all people and to support them through transitions at all ages: not only from school-to-work but also from one occupation to the next.
However, in many parts of the world, providing equal access for all to education and lifelong learning remains a challenge. “Countries need new skills and lifelong learning ecosystems with effective governance and financing mechanisms,” said Mr Reddy.
Innovative financing mechanisms, such as learning entitlements linked to comprehensive social protection systems and social impact bonds, need to be developed to ensure investment in skills and lifelong learning, through a joint responsibility of governments and social partners.
“Education, training and lifelong learning are fundamental and should form an integral part of economic, fiscal, social, environmental and labour market policies that create decent jobs and enable individuals to have access to skills development,” he concluded.