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 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; and
• 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.

Our initiatives

The Skills Innovation Facility implements three interlinked initiatives:

	Skills Innovation Challenge Calls Inviting partners 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 Network Building a network of innovators to share ideas, experiences and collaborate to develop and scale innovations for identified skills challenges.