NORRAG news, no. 48, April 2013

NORRAG (Network for Policy Research, Review and Advice on Education and Training) is a focus and a forum for the analysis of international cooperation in the education and training field. This special issue of ‘NORRAG news’ focuses on the many different meanings of skill in a range of global skills analysis reports: high, medium, low, foundation, transferable, technical and vocational skills, as well as life-skills. It looks also at the state of skills in both urban and rural areas, and considers skills-for-poverty-reduction as well as skills-for-growth. The reports cover skills in the informal economy, as well as work-based skills and on-the-job training. The articles are as follows: Section one, ‘Overview comments on global reports and TVET in general’: The meaning of skills in global reports / Peliwe Lolwana; If data is not wisdom, then non-data certainly is not / Karina Veal; Making TVET more attractive / Christopher Winch; Global insights towards VET reform / Peter Greenwood; Beyond ‘skills-for-poverty-reduction as well as skills-for-growth’: new perspectives in skills development in Latin America / Claudia Jacinto. Section two, ‘EFA GMR 2012’: Don’t get lost: focus on quality / Eric A. Hanushek; The 2012 GMR’s pathway towards a taxonomy for skills / Joe Shamash; Skills, training and the 200 million: let’s make sure we lay the foundations / Pauline Rose; Building strong foundations: the 2012 GMR and beyond / Simon McGrath and Lesley Powell; Private sector and skills development: education for all global monitoring report (GMR) 2012 identifies key issues and challenges / Martin Johnston; The GMR EFA view on vocational education and training; isn’t there more to do for the private sector / Franz Kehl et al.; TVE(T?) and the GMR: counting and comparing apples and oranges / Robert Palmer; What skills are we talking about?: comparing the global monitoring report 2012 and South African skills development / Lesley Powell; An Asian lens on the GMR / Gwang-Chol Chang; Consideration of the enabling environment for TVET in Korea / Kyu Cheol Eo; A gender lens on skills and youth in the global monitoring report 2012 / Anne Sorensen; Oh, education is education, and training is training, and never the twain shall meet / Mike Douse; A world crisis in the relationships among education, skills, work and the economy? / Kenneth King.

Section three, ‘Transforming TVET: the main working document for Shanghai and the World TVET Report (WTR)’: It is time to transform TVET / Borhene Chakroun; The UNESCO World TVET Report / Simon McGrath; Reconceptualising TVET and identifying key points in the policy debate / Tom Leney; The transformation of TVET’s meanings and constituencies / Kenneth King; Quality teaching and learning in VET / Jeanne Gamble; Transforming TVET and building skills for work and life: a view from below / Salim Akoojee. Section four, ‘Better skills, better jobs, better lives’: Transforming education into better jobs and better lives / Andreas Schleicher; Measuring skills for the knowledge economy / Cristina Martinez-Fernandez; The skills discourse of better skills / Kenneth King; Debunking the disability myth with skills: tapping a workforce employers urgently need in Bangladesh / Mikhail Islam; From learning for jobs to skills beyond school / Simon Field. Section five, ‘World Development Report (WDR) 2013: jobs’: Skills or jobs: which comes first? / Richard Curtain; Microsoft citizenship Middle East and Africa / Jeffrey Avina; World Development Report 2013: jobs: the jobs-skills nexus / Shanti Jagannathan; Russian perspective of the World Development Report: jobs, migrants and human capital / Svetlana Sigova and Maria Pitukhina. Section six, ‘The world at work: jobs, pay and skills for 3.5 billion people’: Need for a global education revolution / Anu Madgavkar; Is global migration nation-specific or skills specific? / Sue Parker; Putting skills to work: the challenge to TVET in a developing economy / Chowdhury Mufad Ahmed; Definition matters / Kenneth King; Education and skills in the Asian Century / Halima Begum. Section seven, ‘G20 training strategy and tree’: A skilled workforce for strong, sustainable and balanced growth: a G20 training strategy / Michael Axmann; Training for rural economic empowerment / James Windell. Section eight, ‘Education and training for rural transformation - skills, jobs, food and green future to combat poverty’: Skills and capabilities in relation to the informal economy and poverty / Manzoor Ahmed. Section nine, ‘Innovative secondary education for skills enhancement’: What are the skills for employment? / Shubha Jayaram and Michelle Engmann. Section ten, ‘Skills development for inclusive and sustainable growth in developing Asia-Pacific, Maclean, Rupert et al. (eds.), ADB, 2012’: Response to ‘Skills development for inclusive and sustainable growth in developing Asia-Pacific, Maclean, Rupert et al. (eds.), ADB, 2012’ / Anna Gibert; Skills and skilling in Asia / Jouko Sarvi. Section eleven, ‘African Development Bank: a review and assessment of technical and vocational skills development policies and practices in Africa (March 2013) and World Bank. Skills for the informal sector in Africa (Washington, 2013)’: A review and assessment of technical and vocational skills development policies and practices in Africa / Roland Linzatti; A study of skills for the informal sector using household survey data / Arvil V. Adams, Sara Johansson de Silva, and Setareh Razmara. Section twelve, ‘Education and skills in the post-2015 MDG and EFA agendas’: Future education: global mega-trends and the post-2015 agenda for education / Desmond Bermingham; Post-2015 discourse in Bangladesh: can human capabilities development be a part of the education objectives in the next MDGs? / Manzoor Ahmed; TVET, skills and post 2015 agendas / Steve Packer; Recommendations of the Commonwealth Ministerial Working Group on the post 2015 development framework for education / Jonathan Penson; Recent publications on education and skills development. Show less