This note provides guidance on reducing the adverse impact of the pandemic on TVET provision and enhancing the contribution TVET can make to mitigating the health, social, and economic impact of COVID-19.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33759
The report addresses the key themes of creating productive jobs and addressing the needs of those left behind.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/32124
As the world faces the transformative economic, social and environmental challenges of Globalization 4.0, it has never been more important to invest in people. But as the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution create new pressures on labour markets, education reform, lifelong learning and reskilling initiatives will be key to ensuring both that individuals have access to economic opportunity by remaining competitive in the new world of work, and that businesses have access to the talent they need for the jobs of the future.
http://blogs.worldbank.org/jobs/we-need-reskilling-revolution-heres-how-make-it-happen
The reports studies how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Fears that robots will take away jobs from people have dominated the discussion over the future of work, but the report finds that on balance this appears to be unfounded.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2019
En français. Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2019 – Le travail en mutation
http://www.banquemondiale.org/fr/publication/wdr2019
Report focusing on the challenge of economic engagement among the Brazilian youth. In the context of a fast aging population, Brazil’s greatest economic opportunity is to increase its labor productivity, especially that of youth.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29958
Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future.
The 2019 World Development Report (draft report) will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2019
Concerns abound that advanced technologies developed in high-income countries would inexorably lead to job losses of lower-skilled, less well-off workers and exacerbate inequality. Conversely, there are countervailing concerns that policies intended to protect jobs from technology advancement would themselves stultify progress and depress productivity. This book squarely addresses both sets of concerns with new research showing that adoption of digital technologies offers a pathway to more inclusive growth by increasing adopting firms’ outputs, with the jobs-enhancing impact of technology adoption assisted by growth-enhancing policies that foster sizable output expansion.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/29617
In the past, manufacturing created jobs and increased productivity in developing countries. But technology is improving, trade is slowing, and industrial automation may mean fewer jobs in the future. To continue advancing, developing countries must adapt. But how?
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/competitiveness/publication/trouble-in-the-making-the-future-of-manufacturing-led-development
Africa will have more people joining the labor force over the next 20 years than the rest of the world combined.
https://blogs.worldbank.org/jobs/investing-africa-s-talent
The study bridges the knowledge gap about the skills mismatch in Cameroon, and addresses the question of how education and training can make valuable contributions to developing skills, spurring growth, increasing competitiveness, and helping Cameroon evolve into higher-value products and services.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/661421468193737072/Fostering-skills-in-Cameroon-inclusive-workforce-development-competitiveness-and-growth
Higher education (HE) has expanded dramatically in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) since 2000. While access became more equitable, quality concerns remain. This volume studies the expansion, as well as HE quality, variety and equity in LAC. It investigates the expansion’s demand and supply drivers, and outlines policy implications.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/26489
The accumulation of human capital through the acquisition of knowledge and skills is recognized as central for economic development. More-educated workers not only have better employment opportunities, they earn more and have more stable and rewarding jobs. They are also more adaptable and mobile. Workers who acquire more skills make other workers and capital more productive and, within the firm, they facilitate the adaptation, adoption, and ultimately invention of new technologies. This is crucial for economic diversification, productivity growth, and ultimately raising the living standards of living of the population.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/926401467993178388/Skills-and-jobs-lessons-learned-and-options-for-collaboration
The primary aim of this study is to understand whether VET at the high school level contributes to human capital development in one of those countries—China.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/943091468178758979/The-impact-of-vocational-schooling-on-human-capital-development-in-developing-countries-evidence-from-China
This paper discusses a randomized control trial to measure the short-term impacts of a skills intervention among urban youth in Sierra Leone at the onset of the Ebola crisis. The intervention provided (i) technical skills training, plus on-the-job training; (ii) business skills training; and (iii) a mix of (i) and (ii). All groups received stipends and literacy and numeracy training. The findings support evidence that combining cash injections and skills training can stimulate employment and entrepreneurship.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/700321493126707105/They-got-mad-skills-the-effects-of-training-on-youth-employability-and-resilience-to-the-Ebola-shock
The youth employment challenge is a stubborn reality in all regions and nearly every country. Over 35 per cent of the estimated 201 million unemployed people today are youth (between the ages of 15 and 24). Worldwide, the challenge is not only to create jobs but to ensure quality jobs for young people who are often underemployed, work in the informal economy, or engage in vulnerable employment. Today, two out of every five young people in the labor force are either working but poor or unemployed.
http://blogs.worldbank.org/jobs/four-ways-maximize-effectiveness-youth-employment-programs
One in five youth aged 15 to 24 in Latin America is out of school and not working (ninis). Nearly 60 percent of ninis in the region are from poor or vulnerable households in the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution, and 66 percent are women. At the same time, it is men who account for the growth in 2 million ninis during the last 20 years. The study undertakes a comprehensive diagnosis quantifying the problem, develops a conceptual framework identifying the determinants of youths’ choices, uses all the available data to test the theoretical implications, and reviews the evidence regarding interventions that have proven effective in keeping youth in school and helping them become employed. The findings of the study offer policy makers in the region with options to provide opportunities to the region’s 20 million ninis.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22349/K8318.pdf?sequence=8&isAllowed=y
In Spanish. Ninis en América Latina: 20 millones de jóvenes en busca de oportunidades
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22349/K8423.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y
Technical education and training has been dramatically expanding in Brazil recently. However, there remains no evidence on the cost effectiveness of this alternative track to a more general education. This paper quantifies the wage returns of completing technical and vocational education and training compared with the returns of completing the general education track, for individuals with similar observable characteristics.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/465981468181787054/pdf/WPS7246.pdf
This report addresses a fundamental question facing policymakers in Uzbekistan: are worker skills hindering employment outcomes? The main finding of the report is that, indeed, worker skills gaps are hindering employment outcomes in Uzbekistan. In fact, employers—particularly formal sector employers—seek workers who possess both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The higher employability and higher wage rates among higher skilled workers is mostly explained by the use of those skills in workplaces. But, skills gaps persist, leading a large share of employers to report shortages of high-skilled workers.
The report outlines weaknesses in the way skills are formed in Uzbekistan. While skills are developed during different stages in the life cycle and a host of actors are involved—families, for example, play a central role—the education and training system has a mixed record in skill formation.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/20389/910100WP0P14350d000Uzbekistan0Final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
The book’s findings, based on cross-sectional data for nearly 30 countries and time-series data for five countries, identify successes and common issues across countries in the sample. In lagging countries, the biggest difficulties relate to: forming and sustaining strategic partnerships with employers; ensuring equitable and efficient funding for vocational education; and putting in place mechanisms to enhance training providers’ accountability for results defined by their trainees’ job market performance. By framing workforce development in the broader skills-for-growth context and drawing on lessons from countries where well-designed workforce development strategies.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/24541/9781464808500.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
While employers value all skill sets, there is a greater demand for socio-emotional skills and higher-order cognitive skills than for basic cognitive or technical skills. These results are robust across region, industry, occupation, and education level. Employers perceive that the greatest skills gaps are in socio-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills. These findings suggest the need to re-conceptualize the public sector’s role in preparing children for a future labor market. Namely, technical training is not equivalent to job training; instead, a broad range of skills, many of which are best taught long before labor market entry, should be included in school curricula from the earliest ages. The skills most demanded by employers—higher-order cognitive skills and socio-emotional skills—are largely learned or refined in adolescence, arguing for a general education well into secondary school until these skills are formed. Finally, the public sector can provide programming and incentives to non-school actors, namely parents and employers, to encourage them to invest in the skills development process. Skills, labor demand, cognitive, non-cognitive, behavioral skills, competences, employer surveys, skills policy, education policy, training policy.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2016/02/29/090224b0841bf95f/1_0/Rendered/PDF/Employer0voice0nd0education0sectors.pdf
A World Bank-developed conceptual framework—Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP)— helps policymakers, analysts, and researchers think through the design of systems to develop skills that will enhance productivity and growth. The framework guides the preparation of diagnostic work on skills, and design of policies across sectors to create productive employment and promote economic growth.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/socialprotectionlabor/brief/skills-for-jobs
The authors analyze an unusual experiment with very high take-up of business grants and vocational skills training, randomly assigned among nearly all households in selected poor rural communities in Nicaragua. On average, the interventions resulted in increased participation in non-agricultural employment and higher income from related activities. The paper investigates whether targeting could have resulted in higher returns by analyzing heterogeneity in impacts by stated baseline demand, prior participation in non-agricultural activities, and a wide range of complementary asset endowments. The results reveal little heterogeneity along observed baseline characteristics. However, the poorest households are more likely to enter and have higher profits in non-agricultural self-employment, while less poor households assigned to the training have higher non-agricultural wages.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/03/25/000158349_20130325142803/Rendered/PDF/wps6389.pdf
This report examines obstacles faced by households and firms in meeting the youth employment challenge. Its main focus is on productivity in agriculture, nonfarm household enterprises (HEs) and in the modern wage sector. Productivity is linked to higher earnings as well as to more stable, less vulnerable, livelihoods. Specific areas are identified where government intervention could reduce those obstacles to productivity for households and firms, leading to brighter employment prospects for youth, their parents, and their own children.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/04/04/000442464_20140404115619/Rendered/PDF/840830v20REVIS0ll0Report0ER0English.pdf
Results from the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and new evidence from an adult skills survey show that literacy and numeracy among Vietnam’s youth and young urban adult workforce are strong and exceed those of even some wealthier countries. Despite its clear progress, Vietnam is facing new challenges. The pace of economic growth and the reallocation of jobs away from agriculture have slowed in recent years. Rather than productivity improvements, capital investments have become the main source of economic growth, but this model is not sustainable for ensuring continued rapid economic growth. The size of its workforce is still expanding, but its youth population is shrinking, which means that Vietnam cannot continue to rely on the size of its workforce for continued success. Instead, it needs to focus on making its workforce more productive and on alleviating skills barriers to labor mobility.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/18778/888950PUB0Box30lso0829400June172014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
This policy report aims to address two priority issues that have emerged for African policy makers: (a) the growing pressure to provide universal secondary education and the resultant trade-off between expansion, quality, and relevance; and (b) the shorter-term imperative of out-of-school youth. In both cases, it is fundamental to better understand the drivers and constraints to transitions between each level of education, as well as the demand for secondary education and skills in the current and developing labor market. This report and its underpinning diagnostic work aim to deepen the analytical base and inform operational programs, policy dialogue, and development projects designed to tackle the out-of-school youth challenge.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/21554/947410PUB0978100Box385416B00PUBLIC0.pdf?sequence=1
This report argues that the appropriate policy responses are to ensure macroeconomic stability, and in particular, a regulatory framework that encourages small- and medium-sized enterprises where most people in the region work. Mainly agrarian countries should focus on raising agricultural productivity. In urbanizing countries, good urban planning becomes critical. Pacific island countries will need to provide youth with human capital needed to succeed abroad as migrant workers. And, across the region, it is critical to ‘formalize’ more work, to increase the coverage of essential social protection, and to sustain productivity. To this end, policies should encourage mobility of labor and human capital, and not favor some forms of employment – for instance, full-time wage employment in manufacturing – over others, either implicitly or explicitly. Policies to increase growth and well-being from employment should instead reflect and support the dynamism and diversity of work forms across the region.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18198
This report focuses on one segment of Ghanas skills development system: formal and informal technical and vocational education and training (TVET) at the pre-tertiary level. Although TVET alone does not guarantee productivity gains or job creation, it is generally agreed that a blend of cognitive, non-cognitive, intermediate, and higher technical skills is crucial to enhance the countrys competitiveness and contribute to social inclusion, acceptable employment, and the alleviation of poverty. The public financing approach and general lack of incentives to improve TVET in Ghana help to perpetuate a supply-driven, low-quality skills system that responds very poorly to the needs of the economy, and especially its growth sectors. The national skills strategy should aim to complement, and be complemented by, reforms that are underway in related sectors (for example, private sector development and employment, the informal economy, information and communication technologies, and agriculture). One of the more innovative elements of the ongoing reform has been the establishment of sustainable financing for the skills development fund (SDF). Channeling the majority of TVET resources through a SDF will make it easier for funds to be allocated in line with general national socioeconomic priorities and specific priorities identified by Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET).
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/07/07/000442464_20140707132930/Rendered/PDF/890640PUB0Dema00Box385269B00PUBLIC0.pdf
The objective of this paper is to inform the design of policies to better manage health labor market forces by documenting what is known about the influence of market forces on the health professional formation process. It aims to address issues from a global perspective, seeking out patterns of difference between low, middle, and high income countries and across regions of the world. It also aims to understand the evolution of the health professions and of health labor markets over the last 30 years, and to cover all types of health professional, although the constraints of the literature engendered a focus on physicians and nurses.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2015/09/18/090224b0830e9369/1_0/Rendered/PDF/The0economics000a0literature0review.pdf
This paper provides experimental evidence on the effects of vocational and entrepreneurial training for Malawian youth, in an environment where access to schooling and formal sector employment is extremely low. It tracks a large fraction of program drop-outs—a common phenomenon in the training evaluation literature—and examines the determinants and consequences of dropping out and how it mediates the effects of such programs.
The analysis finds that women make decisions in a more constrained environment, and their participation is affected by family obligations. Participation is more expensive for them, resulting in worse training experience. The training results in skills development, continued investment in human capital, and improved well-being, with more positive effects for men, but no improvements in labor market outcomes in the short run.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/07/24/000158349_20130724162242/Rendered/PDF/WPS6545.pdf
The average impact of training on employment is positive, but close to zero and statistically insignificant, which is much lower than either program officials or applicants expected. Over the first year after training, the paper finds that training had statistically significant effects on the quality of employment and that the positive impacts are stronger when training is offered by private providers. However, longer-term administrative data show that after three years these effects have also dissipated.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/03/18/000158349_20140318091141/Rendered/PDF/WPS6807.pdf
Jobs stresses the role of strong private sector led growth in creating jobs and outlines how jobs that do the most for development can spur a virtuous cycle. The report finds that poverty falls as people work their way out of hardship and as jobs empower women to invest more in their children. Efficiency increases as workers get better at what they do, as more productive jobs appear, and as less productive ones disappear. Societies flourish as jobs foster diversity and provide alternatives to conflict.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/11843
60% of young people in developing regions are either unemployed, not studying, or engaged in irregular employment. Is migration the solution?
http://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/more-work-needed-make-labor-migration-safer-option-youth
The book sets out the three priority lines of reform needed to produce great teachers in LAC: policies to recruit better teachers; programs to groom teachers and improve their skills once they are in service; and stronger incentives to motivate teachers to perform their best throughout their career. In every area, the book distills the latest evidence from inside and outside the region to provide practical guidance to policymakers in the design of effective programs and sustainable reforms.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/20488/9781464801518.pdf?sequence=1
This report summarizes the key themes and findings from three in-depth case studies of EET programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique. Each case study produced rich information on the programs context, the landscape of programs in each country, and the qualitative insights from local EET stakeholders.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/18776/886570PUB0978100Box385230B00PUBLIC0.pdf?sequence=1
This report synthesizes information from across the case studies to analyze the extent to which these countries programs are meeting the needs of local entrepreneurs. It also introduces findings from global EET research to show how programs in the case-study countries relate to what is known about global practice in EET. From this synthesis, the report presents a set of key findings intended to illuminate how EET programs can be better aligned with local needs and promising EET practices globally.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/18776/886570PUB0978100Box385230B00PUBLIC0.pdf?sequence=1
Skills development in Ghana encompasses foundational skills, transferable/soft-skills, and technical and vocational skills. This report focuses on one segment of this skills development system: formal and informal technical and vocational education and training (TVET) at the pre-tertiary level.
http://issuu.com/world.bank.publications/docs/9781464802805
Entrepreneurship has attracted global interest for its potential to catalyze economic and social development. Research suggesting that certain entrepreneurial mindsets and skills can be learned has given rise to the field of entrepreneurship education and training (EET). Despite the growth of EET, global knowledge about these programs and their impact remains thin. The study finds that EET today consists of a heterogeneous mix of programs that can be broken into two groups: entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship training.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/18031/9781464802027.pdf?sequence=1
This book analyzes skills demand and supply in the country and scrutinizes how skills are formed, what factors shape skills demand, and how responsive the system is. Also, this book offers suggestions for improving skills development so that Sri Lanka can meet its economic growth and poverty-reduction goals.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/18409/882690PUB0978100Box385205B00PUBLIC0.pdf?sequence=1
The report provides a menu of policy options for consideration among policy makers in the Government of Afghanistan, including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Higher Education, as well as stakeholders and beneficiaries of the higher education sector such as public and private higher education institutions, members of the academic community, development partners, and employers and business leaders. The information and analysis presented in the report can contribute to the preparation and implementation the next phase of the higher education development strategy for Afghanistan.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/09/05/000333037_20130905112816/Rendered/PDF/809150WP0Afgha0Box0379822B00PUBLIC0.pdf
Cognitive, behavioral and technical skills are required for the Vietnamese workers to meet changing demands of employers.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/11/29/vietnams-workforce-needs-new-skills-for-a-continued-economic-modernization-says-vietnam-development-report2014
Related report. Vietnam development report 2014 : preparing the work force for a modern market economy
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/11/26/000461832_20131126115640/Rendered/PDF/829400AR0P13040Box0379879B00PUBLIC0.pdf
China has achieved unprecedented growth over the past three decades. The study focuses on ways to improve an education system to spur lifelong learning and ongoing economic growth.
http://issuu.com/world.bank.publications/docs/9781464800795
The study finds that high-growth entrepreneurialism and innovative activity among firm are low in Azerbaijan. The book outlines broad policy directions for improving the business environment, providing access to finance, developing skills, increasing access to markets, incentivizing firm-level research and development, and raising awareness, and it identifies priority areas for government action.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/09/16/000356161_20130916163007/Rendered/PDF/810480PUB0Fost0Box379819B000PUBLIC0.pdf
Burkina Faso’s Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering is turning out graduates who are in high demand in the private sector. These young people, who have come to study in Ouagadougou from 27 African countries, are keen to transform Africa through science and technology. They need no longer leave the continent to earn a top-notch engineering degree.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwxEK0hpadE
Highlights – 1,000 young girls receive training in non-traditional vocational areas. – Vocational training is a pillar of Haiti’s reconstruction. This program targets gender-related vulnerability in Haiti.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/01/11/young-haitian-girls-take-their-future-in-their-own-hands-thanks-to-training
This paper derives the skill content of 30 countries, ranging from low-income to high-income ones, from the occupational structure of their economies. Five different skills are defined. Cross-country measures of skill content show that the intensity of national production of manual skills declines with per capita income in a monotonic way, while it increases for non-routine cognitive and interpersonal skills. For some countries, the analysis is able to trace the development of skill intensities of aggregate production over time. The paper finds that although the increasing intensity of non-routine skills is uniform across countries, patterns of skill intensities with respect to different forms of routine skills differ markedly.
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2013/08/08/000158349_20130808094423/Rendered/PDF/WPS6560.pdf
This paper provides experimental evidence on the effects of vocational and entrepreneurial training for Malawian youth, in an environment where access to schooling and formal sector employment is extremely low. It tracks a large fraction of program drop-outs — a common phenomenon in the training evaluation literature — and examines the determinants and consequences of dropping out and how it mediates the effects of such programs. The analysis finds that women make decisions in a more constrained environment, and their participation is affected by family obligations. Participation is more expensive for them, resulting in worse training experience. The training results in skills development, continued investment in human capital, and improved well-being, with more positive effects for men, but no improvements in labor market outcomes in the short run.0
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/08/18305068/malawi-differences-effects-vocational-training-constraints-women-drop-out-behavior
Two new projects will support entrepreneurship and access to microfinance for disadvantaged youth in Morocco. The grants totaling US$11.01 million are sponsored by the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Transition Fund.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/07/25/supporting-entrepreneurship-and-access-to-microfinance-for-morocco-youth
