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To stimulate economic advancement, low- and middle-income countries need well-educated and trained workforces to fill the types of skilled jobs that drive economic growth. Improving educational quality and attainment and providing better training are all rightly put forth as policy recommendations to leverage economic growth and job creation. However, new findings based on large scale surveys of adult skills from the World Bank Group's STEP (Skills toward Employment and Productivity) Skills Measurement Program suggest that many workers are overqualified for their current jobs (based on the education those jobs require). The results of this study suggest that countries may not reap as much benefit from their investments in quality education and training if weak job creation leaves workers' skills underutilized. Most of the literature on mismatch focuses on higher-income countries and rates of over-education among college graduates.

This publication uses new STEP Skills Survey data from 12 low- and middle-income countries, representing a range of economic and educational and training climates, to better understand the scope and patterns of education and skills mismatch. STEP collects information not only on workers' level of education and employment status, but also on the types, frequency, and durations of tasks they carry out at their jobs as well as some of the cognitive skills they use. The study also explores additional factors such as gender, health, career stage, and participation in the informal labor sector that may help explain the degree of mismatch rates. The study's findings indicate that over-education is common in low and middle income countries with both lower and higher rates of educational attainment. There is also evidence that over-educated tertiary workers do not use all of their skills, potentially wasting valuable human capital and educational resources. The authors suggest that job growth must go hand-in-hand with investments in education and training.

Edited published abstract. Show less

This report summarises the publicly available data, from three main sources, on enrolments of international students within New Zealand education provider sectors from 2003 to 2009. Summary information is also stated on the numbers of approved student visas and permits during 2003 to 2009. This information is disaggregated by origin, according to the key markets of North Asia, South-East Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America, and the developing markets of Latin America and South Asia. Further information is given on the estimated economic value-added to New Zealand from international education.

From a peak of 121,190 international fee-paying enrolments in 2003 there has been a 23 per cent decline to 93,505 enrolments in 2009. This decline initially mainly affected private training establishments and schools, and from 2005 a reduction in total enrolments within the public tertiary education sector was also recorded. In 2009 a near six per cent increase in international enrolments was recorded, reversing the trend since 2003. The main beneficiaries of this growth were private training establishments, particularly English language schools.

Excerpt from the Education Counts website. Show less

Sri Lanka is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The efficiency of the higher education system is vital for maintaining Sri Lanka's momentum and for its move to the next stage of development. In order to maximize the full development potential of the higher education system, strategic interventions will be needed at both the national, such as creation of appropriate economic and institutional regimes, as well as an efficient national policy for fostering innovation, and university levels. University-level interventions would include capacity building, improvements in the learning environment, exposure of students to the world of work, and promoting international best practices. This publication is part of a series of six country reports on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

The report presents current arrangements and initiatives in Sri Lanka's skills development strategies. These are complemented by critical analyses to determine key issues, challenges, and opportunities for innovative strategies toward global competitiveness, increased productivity, and inclusive growth. It emphasizes making skills training more relevant, efficient, and responsive to emerging domestic and international labor markets.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website. Show less

As there was a huge demand for technically skilled people in both local and international labour markets, the number of technical colleges increased to 38 which are spread island wide. The Department of Technical Education and Training has become the major provider of technical education to the students who are unable to achieve a stable position after schooling. Around 48 courses are conducted in commerce, engineering, and trade streams with the hope of making talented and qualified technicians for the global industry. National Certificate of Engineering Craft Practice (NCECP) courses were introduced in 1987. As an impact of the modernization of the apprentice draftsmanship course which had been conducted in the early 1960s, NCECP courses started to be conducted since the year 2000. At the beginning, the courses were conducted in 28 technical colleges out of 38. It was intended to fulfill the requirements of the industry and business with the introduction of this new course. At the completion of one year or two year full time courses, graduates will be issued the certificate. Even though the demand for these courses is still high it is doubtful whether the competences they obtained from technical colleges would cooperate with current industry needs. Through this study the attempt is to find out the employability of graduates who have followed NCECP courses of electronics, industrial electrician, fitter machinist and gas and arc welder in technical colleges in 2005. The study was confined mainly to find out whether the graduates are employed, the relevancy of the course they followed to find the jobs that they do and the satisfaction of their wages. Moreover, it is expected to forward the findings to the policy makers and the curriculum developers.

Published abstract. Show less

This paper examines the extent to which various factors explain talent misallocation in the form of qualification mismatches across six urban developing Asian economies using the World Bank's Skills towards Employability and Productivity (STEP) Skills Measurement Survey. The paper empirically tests the role of search frictions in driving qualification mismatches in the labor market. Using new data from several low-income economies in urban Asia, the authors find that overeducation in less developed labor markets are more pervasive than in more developed economies.

The STEP Skills Measurement Program collects data on skills in low- and middle-income country contexts. This includes information on educational attainment, job characteristics, and socioeconomic background. The samples per country comprise approximately 3,000 adults between the age of 15 and 64. In this paper, the focus is on a subset of countries for which there is data available: Armenia, the People's Republic of China (PRC) (Yunnan), Georgia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. The years of data collection are 2012 for the PRC (Yunnan), the Lao PDR, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam, and 2013 for Armenia and Georgia.

Abstract from publisher's website with additional information. Show less

This book, based on original comparative research and extensive fieldwork, highlights the commonalities and diversity of challenges facing women across Asia in gaining access to more and better jobs. Findings show that women have contributed significantly to economic growth across the region yet social norms and economic factors limit their levels of participation. The book calls for a comprehensive approach to improve opportunities for women's participation in the labour market as well as for the freedom to engage in paid employment. The argument is that this will, in turn, contribute to a more inclusive growth process. It addresses important challenges faced by women workers and provides policy options for governments to promote decent work opportunities for women across social strata.

Edited excerpts from publication.

The chapters are as follows: Introduction / Sukti Dasgupta and Sher Singh Verick (pages 1-21); Women labour force participation in Asia: trends and issues / Fernanda Barcia de Mattos and Ruchika Chaudhary (pages 23-48); At the threshold of economic empowerment: women, work and gender regimes in Asia / Govind Kelkar (pages 49-73); Decline of women's labour force participation in India: explaining the puzzling trend / Steven Kapsos, Andrea Silberman and Evangelia Bourmpoula (pages 75-101); Declining female employment in India: insights from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh / Partha Saha, Sher Singh Verick, Santosh Mehrotra and Sharmistha Sinha (pages 103-121); Women's employment in Bangladesh: beyond garments / Rushidan Islam Rahman and Rizwanul Islam (pages 123-153); Factors holding women back from market work in Sri Lanka: to work or not to work? / Ramani Gunatilaka (pages 155-186); The life-cycle of women in the labour market in Cambodia: subsistence versus wage employment / Kang Chandararot and Liv Dannet (pages 187-222); Women's employment in Indonesia: gaining more from structural transformation / Makiko Matsumoto (pages 223-258); Women and men in China's labour market: is inequality on the rise? / Sukti Dasgupta, Makiko Matsumoto and Cuntao Xia (pages 259-293); Mapping out a way forward: can policies make a difference? / Sukti Dasgupta and Sher Singh Verick (pages 295-302). Show less

The 38 technical colleges under the Department of Technical Education and Training (DTET) in Sri Lanka offer a wide range of courses to school leavers and employees. This research focuses on students enrolled in full-time courses to determine what factors students take into consideration when selecting courses. The study found that for most students, choice of a course was based on employment prospects. Only one student out of the 153 surveyed, used a career test to decide the career path. Show less

The majority of enterprises in many developing countries have no paid workers. This paper reports on a field experiment conducted in Sri Lanka that provided wage subsidies to randomly chosen microenterprises to test whether hiring additional labor would benefit such firms. In the presence of labor market frictions, a short-term subsidy could have a lasting impact on firm employment. Using 12 rounds of surveys to track dynamics four years after the end of the subsidy, the study finds that firms increased employment during the subsidy period, but there was no lasting impact on employment, profitability, or sales. Two supplementary interventions and treatment heterogeneity suggest the lack of impact is not due to complementarities with capital or management skills, and detailed survey data help rule out a number of theoretical mechanisms that could result in sub-optimally low employment. The study concludes that the urban labor market facing microenterprises does not have large frictions that would prevent own-account workers from becoming employers.

Published abstract. Show less

Disasters in Bangladesh and protests elsewhere have created an intense debate about the value, particularly to women, of apparel employment in developing countries. This paper focuses on how the forces of globalization, specifically the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), have affected women's wages in the apparel sector in developing countries. The paper uses household and labor force surveys from Cambodia and Sri Lanka to estimate both apparel wage premiums relative to other industries and the male-female wage gap before and after the end of the MFA. The approach builds on new models that apply traditional trade theory (e.g., the Heckscher-Ohlin and Stolper-Samuelson theorems) to analyze the effect of globalization on gender-based earnings.

The authors find large positive wage premiums and a closing of the male-female wage gap during the MFA period, but smaller premiums and a widening wage gap after the end of the MFA. The results suggest that the benefits of apparel exports for women in developing countries remain significant post-MFA. They also model an approach for studying the effects of globalization that differentiates males and females as separate factors. This may be a fruitful alternative to discrimination models or those that analyze the effects of globalization on women in terms of skill. Further research is necessary to identify the potential development effects of post-MFA apparel employment and to thoroughly compare the benefits documented in this paper with the costs that may come with apparel jobs.

Published abstract. Show less

Capacity building of instructing staff in the technical vocational education and training (TVET) sector in Sri Lanka is a prevailing difficulty. Trainer competencies on technology need to be continuously upgraded to match with industry developments. Geographical distribution of the trainers throughout the country adds more complications for fulfilling the need of ongoing, real time training of the trainers. Therefore this research has been focused on analysing whether e-learning is a better alternative to deliver trainer training programs for information and communication technology (ICT) trainers in the TVET sector. Further the feasibility of converting some selected training courses into e-learning based material is evaluated. The existing literature was reviewed to identify the major requirements of conducting trainer training programs and delivering such programs in an e-learning environment. Based on the identified requirements, a survey was conducted for main stakeholders, namely trainees, trainers and TVET administrators. An extensive analysis of the collected data was the basis for final recommendations. From the survey, several favorable indications were revealed in the areas of English language ability, effectiveness of training delivery and trainers with good educational background which are plus points for implementation of e-learning. The need for focused trainer training is identified in the areas of e-learning strategy, technology and the technical support on learning management systems. Several recommendations in the broad areas of infrastructure, training and institutional requirements were made for the development and implementation of e-learning in the TVET sector in Sri Lanka. Infrastructure development was a key recommendation with setting up of a centralized server facility including internet connection to every ICT training center. As well, trainer capacity building and the conversion of traditional training course modules to e-learning based materials were some important recommended activities. Show less