NN38, February 2007
Technical and Vocational Skills Development
SKILLS AND THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY ACROSS SOUTH ASIA
By Hong Tan, World Bank, Washington
KeywordsEducation, Training, Knowledge economy, South Asia
Summary
Globalization and the knowledge economy pose numerous challenges as well as opportunities for developing countries, including those in the South Asia Region (SAR). This article argues that lifelong learning is essential as new and more complex skills are needed to respond to accelerating technological change and global flows of goods, services and know-how. It describes a recent regional conference on Education, Training and the Knowledge Economy in South Asia (New Delhi, September, 2006) organized by the World Bank to help SAR governments address these challenges.
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Globalization and the knowledge economy pose numerous challenges as well as opportunities for developing countries, including those in the South Asia Region (SAR). Expanding trade and globalization of production and foreign capital make continuous learning over the work-life an imperative, as skills acquired in schools and in the workplace become obsolete more quickly and new and more complex skills are needed to respond to accelerating technological change. Global flows of goods, services and know-how also create pressures for economies to restructure, as some industries decline and new opportunities arise in others; these forces, in turn, create demand for re-skilling of those made redundant and for skills-upgrading and training in new skills for others employed in new industries.
How educational and training systems respond to these challenges will have far reaching implications for economic growth and competitiveness of countries in the SAR, and for income growth, employment, job creation, and poverty reduction. Policymakers in many SAR countries are currently grappling with the challenges of reforming their education and training systems. There is a broader debate going on whether to vocationalise secondary education to better prepare school graduates for the new skill challenges of the workplace and, given the magnitude of demands on the public education and training systems, on what the role of the private sector should be in education and training provision.
To help SAR governments address these challenges, the World Bank organized a regional conference on Education, Training and the Knowledge Economy in South Asia in New Delhi, India on September 14-15, 2006. Funded in part by a dissemination grant from DFID, the conference sought to (a) better understand the skill implications of globalization and the knowledge economy; (b) share findings of the World Bank?s economic sector work in the region and good practice international experiences; (c) address the debates about how best to reform education and training systems; and (d) catalyze SAR countries to come up with integrated cross-cutting strategies for addressing the challenges of the knowledge economy.
The two-day conference brought together about 100 policy makers and stakeholders from five SAR countries and World Bank and international experts. Participants shared their country experiences in reforming secondary education, improving the linkages between education and training, making post-school technical education and vocational training more demand-driven, and introducing innovative policy interventions to address shortcomings in these areas. Some highlights:
* In a taped video, Dr. Sam Pitroda from the India Knowledge Commission set the stage for the conference by speaking about the importance of vocational training and use of technology for equipping the workforce for the knowledge economy.
* Michelle Riboud presented key findings from a World Bank background paper on the skill implications of globalization in SAR, including evidence on rising returns over time to education, and on low levels of post-school training in all SAR countries as compared to other regions.
* World Bank and SAR participants presented and discussed the key challenges and future directions of reforms in education and training systems in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as well as lessons learned from ongoing reform efforts.
* Experts from Mexico and Malaysia provided insights into how their governments designed and implemented small and medium enterprise training programmes and training levy schemes to promote training among firms.
Further details, papers and conference presentations can be found here.
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