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Future growth in the countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) will increasingly depend on innovation. And innovation requires skills. This makes it important, as countries plan for recovery, to undertake reforms to reduce the skills shortages that the previous growth episode exposed. Education systems have a very important role to play in creating the right skills. But education systems in the region fall short of the demands of their economies in two major ways. The first is that despite high levels of enrollment they do not produce enough graduates with the right skills. Students graduate with diplomas, not with skills, because the quality of the education for many students is poor. In large part this is because education systems remain focused on providing an excellent education to a few at the expense of improving the quality of learning for the majority. Moreover, the systems are still making the transition from teaching the basics to inculcating higher order skills such as critical-thinking and problem solving. The second way in which education systems fall short is that outside of a few countries in the [European Union] EU there are few opportunities for adults to retrain, or acquire new skills. This book argues that generating more of the right skills requires a fundamental change of approach in the education systems in the region so that they aim for, and deliver, higher quality education for the vast majority of students ('not just diplomas but skills'). To start with, education systems need to 'turn the lights on' and take seriously the measurement of what students actually learn as opposed to measurement of the inputs into the education process on the implicit assumption that learning follows. Policy makers also need to move away from the focus on inputs and processes and increase the emphasis on incentives.

Published summary on World Bank website.

The chapters are as follows: Overview; The demand for skills in ECA; Education and the supply of skills to the ECA market; Resolving the skills shortage in the ECA region: a policy framework; Managing for results at the pre-university level of education; Managing for results in the tertiary education sector; Advanced adult learning in ECA; Extended summary: the path for education reforms in the ECA region. Show less

Yunnan is a medium-sized Chinese province that has experienced rapid economic growth rates over the last decade and is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of 10 per cent or higher. This report investigates the readiness of the province and its education and training system to meet the skills challenges of rapid economic growth, and the nature of the skills required to achieve economic and social transformation.

The report begins with a demand-side analysis, examining historical trends in demand for skills, revealing the types of skills in demand, and projecting future demand for skills driven by economic growth and policy development. It also highlights the emerging skills shortages and mismatches in Yunnan. The rest of the report focuses on the access, quality, and relevance of Yunnan's education and training system and how effective it is in supplying the skills in demand. An overview of Yunnan's formal and non-formal education and training system is presented, followed by a focus on the formal technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system, examining its governance, industry participation, curriculum reforms, quality assurance, and finances. Analysis of the formal education and training system focuses mainly on secondary and tertiary TVET. The next section of the report addresses two major training programs outside the formal education system: non-formal training for rural workers and work-based training for urban workers, both of strategic importance. Finally, drawing on lessons from the Shanghai Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, the role of schools in developing the cognitive skills of 15-year-olds is demonstrated. The report concludes with a summary of findings and a set of policy recommendations for meeting the skills challenges and improving the education and training system.

Edited abstract from publisher's website. Show less

After years of achieving high growth and impressive poverty reduction, Ghana is now facing major challenges in diversifying its economy, sustaining growth, and improving inclusivity. Most of the new jobs created in the past decade have been in low-earning, low-productivity trade services. Furthermore, macroeconomic instability, limited diversification, and growing inequities in Ghana's labor markets make it harder for the economy to create more and, particularly, better jobs.

The current fiscal and economic crisis is heightening the need for urgent reforms while limiting maneuverability and increasing the need to carefully prioritize policy actions. Going forward, Ghana will need to consider an integrated jobs strategy that addresses barriers to the business climate, deficiencies in skills, lack of competitiveness within job-creating sectors, problems with labor mobility, and the need for comprehensive labor market regulation. Ghana needs to diversify its economy through productivity gains in sectors such as agribusiness, transport, construction, energy, and information and communications technology services. Productivity gains are also needed in agriculture in order to increase the earnings potential of the many poor people who still work in that sector. Ghana's youth and women, in particular, need help connecting to jobs through skills development and by gaining access to information about job opportunities. More productive and inclusive jobs will help Ghana move to a second phase of structural transformation and develop into a modern middle-income economy.

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Possessing a range of cognitive, socioemotional, and technical skills is important for individuals to maximize their chances of success in many aspects of life. In particular, a growing body of research highlights the effects that socioemotional skills have on a variety of outcomes, from wages and academic performance to health. Programs to help participants develop such skills continue to expand in both developed and developing countries, targeting individuals of almost all ages and life stages. However, the characteristics that make some programs more successful than others, or even what types of outcomes programs use to measure 'success', are less clear. This publication aims to fill this knowledge gap through a systematic review of programs that seek to develop socioemotional skills.

This analysis rigorously examines a diverse range of more than 80 programs, including programs for toddlers and young children before primary school, programs for students enrolled in formal education, and programs targeted at the out-of-school population. The publication develops a conceptual framework that helps to identify the program characteristics and participants' profiles associated with a range of program outcomes. The review subsumes various terminologies under the term socioemotional skills, including soft skills, noncognitive skills, character skills, personality skills, 21st century skills, and life skills. Reported outcomes are classified into four broad categories: (a) health related; (b) risk factor related; (c) academic/cognitive related; and (d) economic related. The findings highlight characteristics and impacts of successful (and less successful) programs.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

There is growing interest, worldwide, in the link between education systems and the production of skills that are valued in the labour market. With growth stagnating and unemployment soaring in much of the world, educators are being asked to focus more on producing skills that feed into labor productivity and support the sustainable growth of employment and incomes. This volume contributes new findings on the dynamics of education systems and labor market outcomes in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It analyzes an important recent shift in labor market trends in LAC: the first decade of the 21st century has witnessed a marked decline in the earnings premia for university and secondary education. This, in turn, is contributing to reduced income inequality across the region. The recent trend contrasts with the sharp rise in tertiary earnings premia that was observed in the 1990s and that helped to reinforce high levels of income inequality in the region at that time. The authors recommend that, having achieved very large increases in secondary and tertiary enrolment, the region should now focus on improving the quality of its education systems and the pertinence of education curricula for the needs of the labour market. At age 15, the learning achievement of the average Latin American student still lags two years behind his or her OECD contemporary. The study opens up an agenda for future research. While the evidence presented on the trends in education earnings premia is clear, the conclusions about the causes and significance of those trends are largely based on suggestive evidence for a limited number of countries, and are not definitive because of data limitations. The findings call for further indepth analysis of the nature of skill mismatches, to inform policies that can strengthen the region's future economic growth by enhancing the productivity and earnings potential of the workforce.

Published abstract. Show less

Although the Philippines has achieved remarkable progress in raising the education level of its labor force, the standard proxy for educational attainment - years of formal schooling - is increasingly inadequate as a measure of workforce skills. About one-third of employers report being unable to fill vacancies because applicants lack requisite skills. Most of these missing skills are socioemotional skills, which are increasingly crucial to the types of jobs being created by the global economy. This book presents new evidence from employer and household surveys on the role of socioemotional skills in the Philippine labor market and reveals the following: (1) two-thirds of employers report difficulty in finding workers with adequate work ethics or appropriate interpersonal and communications skills; and firm-based training increasingly focuses on socioemotional skills; (2) the more educated and employed workers tend to score higher on measures of grit, decision making, agreeableness, and extraversion; and (3) socioemotional skills are associated with an increase in average daily earnings, in particular for women, young workers, less-educated workers, and those employed in the service sector.

Studies suggest that primary school is the optimal age for shaping socioemotional skills, but the Philippines' elementary education curriculum devotes limited resources to their development. Schools are judged solely by students' performance in cognitive achievement tests, but not on soft-skills competencies, and teachers are not appropriately trained to foster the development of them. Interventions that target workers entering the labor force can also effectively bolster their socioemotional skills, complementing efforts to improve labor-market information and vocational counseling.

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The aim of this publication is to examine how labor and health economics can be used to analyse and better understand the role and functions of health worker labor markets. Health workforce shortages stem not only from inadequate overall supply, but also from suboptimal allocation of health human resources by location and role. Low performance and productivity are also issues. These three problems are often compounded by a resource problem - the gap between the finances required for an adequate workforce and those likely available. The application of labor economics to health care labor markets needs to account for the specific institutional features and market failures in health care.

The publication is organised as follows: the first section gives an introduction; the second section sets out a broad framework that needs to be used when examining health care labor markets; the third section summarises the key issues surrounding the demand and supply of health workers and how these interact in the health worker labor market; the fourth section summarises the broad analytical approaches used in economics, focusing on issues of causality and labor market dynamics; and the final section suggests some gaps in research and analysis for health worker labor markets in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

The health workforce must be able to cope with shifts in the pattern of causes of death and disease that are being seen worldwide - particularly with the rise in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This requires health personnel to have a set of skills and competencies that can adapt to meet the population's growing and changing health needs. This report examines the status of the nurse workforce in the Eastern Caribbean, assessing how best to strengthen its capacity to respond to the growing burden of NCDs. The report is based on four Eastern Caribbean case studies conducted in Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The case studies showed that, although overall nurse staffing levels seem to be sufficient across the four countries in terms of numbers, there are nurse shortages at hospitals and health clinics, as well as in the availability of specialists. Better management of the nurse workforce is needed to ensure adequate coverage at the hospitals and clinics is maintained. In terms of specialists, while the quality of education is generally reported to be good, there are barriers to accessing specialized training which include the high-cost of seeking specialized training due to non-existing or very limited local options and the lack of built-in incentives for completing additional education.

To help address the capacity constraints faced by the nurse workforce in the Eastern Caribbean to respond to NCDs, the report generated knowledge in support of two critical areas: (i) provide an understanding of the educational and training opportunities available to nurses to strengthen their capacity to meet the NCD challenges; and (ii) assess whether there is a supportive policy environment in place for nurses to play a role in addressing NCDs. As part of the study, a toolkit was developed, which can be used to strengthen the capacity for HRH planning and management with respect to NCDs.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

Despite internal conflict and the global financial crisis, Sri Lanka has continued to progress over the past decade, experiencing economic growth and substantially reducing poverty. Sri Lankan has a 98 per cent literacy rate, widespread access to education and training, high completion rates in both primary and secondary education, and gender parity in general education. However, the authors note that skills shortages and mismatches are widespread, and firms with undereducated employees and a shortage of skilled labour are less productive. The authors propose a skills development system to help diversify Sri Lanka’s economy, improve its labour productivity and competitiveness, offer the country the flexibility to compete effectively in the global economy, and further reduce poverty in the country. Skills demand and supply are analysed along with how skills are formed, what factors shape skills demand, and how responsive the education and training system is. Suggestions are also offered for improving skills development so that Sri Lanka can meet its economic growth and poverty-reduction goals.

Chapter two describes the general education and training system in Sri Lanka, especially the [technical and vocational education and training] TVET sector. Chapter three examines the main drivers of skills demand and skills mismatches and gaps in Sri Lanka. Chapter four studies the relationship between education, training, and labour market outcomes, including skills already available in the workforce. Chapters five and six analyse factors affecting the skills supply system, such as cost, financing, and governance, and private sector provision. Chapter seven briefly reviews firm-based training in Sri Lanka based on evidence from the employer survey. Chapter eight assesses workforce development policies in Sri Lanka based on the World Bank’s Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) framework. Finally, chapter nine provides the summary of main findings and outlines possibilities for the way forward in skills development in Sri Lanka.

Edited excerpts from publisher’s website and the publication. Show less

This report explores the challenges to education and training systems presented by the knowledge economy and provides an analytical framework for developing a lifelong learning system. Four questions are addressed: (1) What does a national education and training system need to support knowledge-based economic growth? (2) How can developing countries and countries in transition promote lifelong learning, and what challenges do they face in doing so? (3) What type of governance framework promotes lifelong learning for people in general and disadvantaged groups in particular? (4) How can financing of lifelong learning be inclusive, affordable and sustainable? The chapters are: The knowledge economy and the changing needs of the labor market; Transforming learning; Governing the lifelong learning system; Options for financing lifelong learning; Moving forward. Show less