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This report aims to look at migration from a human capital perspective by bringing together emigration, human capital and labour deployment in Kosovo over the past decade. The report is organised as follows: Chapter 2 sets out the basic emigration trends, such as the size and structure of emigrants from Kosovo, based on Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) available data and ad-hoc surveys commissioned by international and national institutions and Eurostat. Some attention is paid to the exceptional role of Germany in this regard. Chapter 3 links migration trends to the developments and structural features of Kosovo's labour market. Chapter 4 links migration trends to the set-up and outcomes of the educational system. In this chapter, we make use of the findings of a cohort analysis using the Kosovo Labour Force Survey (LFS). Chapter 5 discusses the key features within the nexus of migration, human capital and the labour market, and Chapter 6 lays out the policy implications and conclusions. Emigration to Western Europe remains an important demographic characteristic of Kosovo's population, with stocks estimated as high as nearly half of the domestic population. The official figure, which is based on 2011 census data, put stocks at around 550,000 Kosovars living abroad, over 35 per cent of which resided in Germany, followed by Switzerland (around 23 per cent), Italy, Austria and Sweden.

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There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change has increased the demand for skills. Since training is a mechanism to upgrade workers’ skills, it would be expected that technical progress strengthens the importance of training on account of the requirement for skills to complement new technology. However, the relationship between technical progress and firms’ (employer-funded) continuous training has been little investigated. In our research we address the theoretical gap by building upon existing models from the skill-biased technological change and training literatures. This theoretical platform supports a maintained hypothesis of a positive relationship between training and technological change, which we investigate empirically for Germany using data from the [Institute for Employment Research] IAB establishment panel. Our empirical findings indicate that in Germany a greater share of workers undergo further/continuing training in establishments subject to technological change. An important issue we raise in our empirical analysis is the possibility of endogeneity/simultaneity between training and technological change.

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Students' well-being is crucial for learning motivation and effective learning, for their quality of life and their psychological health later in life. In this regard, this article investigates the factors that affect the well-being of students in secondary vocational schools in Kosovo and Macedonia. It empirically examines determinants of students' well-being categorised into socio-demographic factors, environment and socialisation, and satisfaction factors. It is based on an [ordinary least squares] OLS regression analysis, using data from six secondary vocational schools in the two countries. Findings reveal that well-being is determined to a great extent by students' experience in school, particularly their perception of the usefulness of what they are learning for a future job, whether teachers are welcoming, and the friendliness of co-students. Students who experience bullying are much less happy in school. These findings are important from a policy perspective, as they reveal that students' well-being is mainly determined by factors that can be controlled and influenced by schools and less so by factors that are not determined by schools. The evidence from this study can be used to strengthen the social inclusion role of vocational schools.

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There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change has increased the demand for skills. Since training is a mechanism to upgrade workers' skills, it would be expected that technical progress strengthens the importance of training on account of the requirement for skills to complement new technology. However, the relationship between technical progress and firms' (employer-funded) continuous training has been little investigated. In our research we address the theoretical gap by building upon existing models from the skill-biased technological change and training literatures. This theoretical platform supports a maintained hypothesis of a positive relationship between training and technological change, which we investigate empirically for Germany using data from the Institute of Employment Research (IAB) establishment panel. Our empirical findings indicate that in Germany a greater share of workers undergo further/continuing training in establishments subject to technological change. An important issue we raise in our empirical analysis is the possibility of endogeneity/simultaneity between training and technological change.

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