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The transition economies of Eastern Europe, Central and East Asia face major challenges as they seek to compete within an increasingly globalised economy. For many of them, tourism is seen as providing one of the key areas of economic opportunity. This is certainly true of the three Asian countries considered in this paper, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Uzbekistan. Within any economy seeking to operate competitively in the international tourism marketplace, the appropriate human resources, especially the skills, to deliver products and services of appropriate quality, are essential.

This paper reports a labour market and skills study of the three Asian countries, based on two surveys of the accommodation and wider tourism sub-sectors. It identifies the key structural features of these tourism labour markets and addresses current and predicted skills shortages with respect to each of them. The paper draws conclusions with respect to the key issues facing tourism in the three countries, specifically in terms of their labour markets and skills requirements.

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As the literature review outlines, there is a critical shortage of nurses within Australia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of a collaborative approach between schools, [technical and further education] TAFE, university and industry to develop strategies to better manage some of the issues facing the nursing profession today. The study surveyed the perceived needs of nurses, nurse educators and teachers for a model of education, articulation and recruitment within Australia. Both the public and private sector of nursing and education were investigated. The analysis of this survey data concluded that a collaborative approach in nursing, within the educational and clinical settings is essential to address the educational, articulation and recruitment needs of the nursing profession within the Hunter Region. Further research is recommended to ascertain expectations and ideas from various sectors within nursing and from differing educational levels of staff. Interviews for follow up and more detailed responses were beyond the scope of this project, however would provide excellent insight into contingencies and variables to present a holistic view of this profession.

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The policy for the employment of third country nationals [TCNs] has been firstly introduced by the Cyprus government in the early 90's aiming to satisfy pressing and short-term needs of the labour market. Due to high rates of economic growth the rapid increases in job creation led to the emergence of serious shortages of labour and a reduction in the unemployment rate at the levels of two-three per cent. Despite the efforts of the Government to tap labour from endogenous resources the labour shortages were so large at the time that they were constituting one of the major constraints to growth leading to pressures on labour costs and the competitiveness of Cyprus product and services in international markets at risk. In fact, these shortages were mostly identified for properly trained workers in technical and tourism occupations.

The employment of third country nationals in Cyprus is demand driven and foreign workers supplement rather compete with the local workforce. In this respect, a vacancy can be filled by a third country national, only in the case that there is no suitably qualified and available local labour, including Europeans. For this reason, the employment of TCNs is permitted on a temporary basis, and priority is allocated to the adjustment of the qualifications of local workers to the needed skills, where is applicable, either by taking advantage of the presence of qualified foreigners or by following specific training programmes applied by the Government or the employers.

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Nurse leaders in Fiji are currently involved in meeting the challenges of being at the forefront of an [Australian Agency for International Development] AusAID supported Health Sector Improvement process. Fiji is experiencing the same shortages of health professionals (including nurses) as is occurring internationally, while simultaneously striving to improve the quality of its health services. This paper provides information about the current situation in relation to health services in Fiji, and describes strategies being undertaken by the nurse leaders of Fiji to meet the challenge of leading an exciting reform process. James Cook University, School of Nursing Sciences, has been privileged to support the provision of contemporary leadership and management education for current and future nurse leaders in the Fiji Health Sector as a component of a current education program to educate registered nurses to bachelor level. This paper will provide an overview of the current Fiji Health Sector Improvement Program, with a particular focus on the preparation of nurse leaders. There is an ongoing need to understand beliefs and values, and styles of interaction and communication, and indeed, ideas about time. With collaboration between Australian academics and Fiji tutors from the Fiji School of Nursing, the program appears to be remarkably successful.

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The Commission on the Future of Employment Support has been set up to develop evidence-led proposals for how we help people to find decent, secure and rewarding work, to help employers to fill their jobs and to make work better. In recent years the UK has benefited from high employment and very low unemployment, but this has come alongside a range of challenges - including persistent employment 'gaps' for those further from work, rising poverty among working households, declining investment in skills and significant inequalities between different parts of the UK. Many of these issues have lasted over decades, through recessions and recoveries and, if anything, have been magnified over the two years since the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic - with the UK lagging behind nearly every other developed economy in its labour market recovery.

However, we believe that there is an opportunity now and over the next eighteen months to take a fresh look at our approach to how we support people, communities and employers to create good work, support economic growth and reduce inequalities. So this commission has been established, with funding from abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, to gather evidence on what is working and has worked in the UK and overseas, to hear what reforms are needed and to develop evidence-based proposals that can secure consensus on changes that we can make to our future approach to employment support.

This report provides further context on the UK labour market, our employment services and the key areas on which the commission will be focused. Chapter two provides an overview of the UK labour market before and since the COVID-19 pandemic, summarising key findings from an evidence paper being published by IES alongside this launch report. Chapter three then discusses the role of employment support and services, drawing on new public and employer polling as well as UK and international literature. Finally in Chapter four we set out the key areas that are covered in the Call for Evidence, more detail on how the commission will be taking its work forward, and information on how to get involved.

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The Jobs Summit in early September 2022 is the chance to chart a course towards full and secure employment for all. The Jobs Summit Series - a series of papers released by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in the lead up to the Summit - aims to provoke debate and build common ground on what that course could be.

If you are a woman working today, chances are that you will earn less than a man, have less job security and retire with less income. There may be no greater measure to boost national productivity and economic growth than delivering respect for women at work. This report maps out the many challenges to realise this, from the gender pay gap, barriers to women at work, improving safety and respect for women, the crisis in the care economy and the insecure work and low pay facing women.

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This report provides a comprehensive picture of the current state of the tourism labour force and associated skills demand and shortages forward to 2020. The report is based on two related exercises: (1) a survey of tourism businesses to provide a snapshot of current conditions in the tourism labour market. The focus of the survey was on the extent of recruitment, retention and skills deficiencies experienced by businesses; and (2) modelling that projects the shortages of labour out to 2020 based on forecast visitor numbers and training completions. These two exercises build on the 2011 Australian tourism labour force report [indexed in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 108.1482] which contained a survey of the sector at that point and projected shortages out to 2015. The approach and methodology employed in this update are consistent with the 2011 analysis and the findings are therefore comparable. Findings from this research provide policymakers and the industry with detailed, localised information on where deficiencies currently exist, where they are likely to materialise in the future and their origins and impacts.

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When [Committee for Economic Development of Australia] CEDA last looked at the aged care workforce, we forecast there would be a need for an additional 17,000 direct care workers each year over the coming decade. Less than a year later, this annual shortfall has doubled due to a combination of challenging circumstances and a lack of action. Now we are expecting an annual shortfall of 30,000 to 35,000 direct care workers. If workforce shortages at this level continue, we will not have enough workers to meet the basic standards of care recommended by the Royal Commission. Miniscule levels of migration and increased levels of attrition in the sector, estimated to be around 65,000 workers a year, have exacerbated existing shortages. This is no longer a problem for the future, it is a critical issue that needs to be tackled immediately.

This paper updates the workforce projections of CEDA's Duty of Care report, released in August 2021 [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 145.104], based on the latest information and industry consultation. It finds that filling the growing shortfall in the aged care workforce is a task that is escalating each day. Filling this shortfall will not be achieved without determined and consistent effort. Urgent implementation of the recommendations made in CEDA's Duty of Care report is necessary.

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The purpose of the study is to investigate and assess the existing pathways for identification of labour and skill shortages, as well as linking labour market needs and labour immigration policy development based on the experience within and outside the European Union (EU). The study aims at placing migration within a broader strategic economic and employment policy discourse and overall aims of boosting growth and competitiveness. The publication addresses three main research questions: how can policymakers assess current and anticipate future skills and labour shortages?; when are these shortages to be addressed through labour immigration?; and whether and how can labour market analysis be linked to the development of labour immigration policy to ensure timely, accurate and relevant reflection of labour market needs in admission regulations for the economic migrants?

In order to investigate these issues, [the authors] conducted seven country case studies intended to capture the various strategies and lessons learnt in Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. This publication presents the findings of these country reports, as well as the summary of the comparative analysis for policy development purposes.

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In Saudi Arabia, there is a clear, and general, shortage of technical and vocational manpower. The shortage in the country's manpower indicates that there is a gap between workforce needs and trained personnel. This gap [was] created through a prolonged history of bad image for manual jobs. Lately, however, many Saudi students are interested in vocational higher education. The recent interest in vocational-technical education suggests a promising shift in students' attitudes toward vocational-technical education. The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudes of freshmen, in Saudi Technical Colleges, toward vocational-technical education.

The dependant variable for this study is: the attitudes of Saudi freshmen in technical colleges toward vocational-technical education. The independent variables are in the following categories: freshmen's religious beliefs; freshmen's traditions and customs; freshmen's perceptions of vocations; parent's occupations and education; freshmen's perceptions of people around them (friends, teachers and parents) attitudes toward vocational-technical education; type of high school attended (academic or technical high school), birthplace size, socioeconomic status, and age.

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