This post is a summary of a report with the title of, "Skills for employability, economic growth and innovation: Monitoring the relevance of education and training systems." In February 2010, at file:///C:/Users/cliente/Downloads/EENEE_AR6.pdf.
And one article published with the title above in December 2014 at http://www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/better-education-and-skills-are-key-shift-economy
Knowledge and education are first priorities in the Commission's 'European Union 2020' Strategy. Europe's unemployment problem is almost exclusively concentrated among the low skilled and its relative standing in educational standards and attainment rates has decreased. Ways are sought to not supply more educational opportunities, but to create demand for those skills as well. The goal of this report is the contribution to the development of indicators on employability in the updated strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training until 2020. Moreover, the following analysis could serve as useful unput to the "New Skill for New Jobs" initiative which tries to assess the crucial skill needs unitl 2020. We study different concepts of measuring human capital is a key determinant of all emploability sub-dimensions discussed later on. The analysis explicitly concentrates on the two sub-concepts of educational quantity and quality. Successful employability, depends to a great extent on the human capital an individual has developed. There are also several other external dimensions like health or institutions, but as we focus on factors coming out of the education and training system. Some decades ago it was recognized that human capital is a crucial factor to explain differences in economic development between countries. In the aftermath, several attempts have been made to find the adequate measures for this broad concept. In a very recent study, were combine the country-specific results from several international sudent achievement tests like PISA until 2003 to get one measure of cognitive skills for each country. The relationship between this measure and the on-average annual growth rate between 1960 and 2000 of these countries reveals the high relevance of this type of skills throughout several decades and the leading role of quality measures compared to quantitative ones:Key competences in math, science and literacy seem to be timeless predictors of economic growth. Literature shows that the influence of human capital on economic growth is largely channelled by its continuing to R&D (Research and Development) and innovation. The goal of this report was to identify the pivotal determinants and factors of employability related to education and training systems. After an economic assessment of the concept of employability, general measures of educational quantity and quality were the starting point of our analysis of employability factors: Here, we could identify performance differences between European countries in the amount of years of schooling and the cognitive skill stock.
Latin America's GDP growth rate has slowed down in 2014, dropping below 1.5%. This is the first time in a decade that the region grows less than the OECD average, according to the OECD Development centre, the ECLAC, and the Development Bank fro Latin America. Given the projections, any recovery in 2015 is likely to be challenging. In their jointly produced Latin America Economic Outlook 2015, the three organisations call for action to address this slowdown, focusing on the role of education and skills, and noting that despite some recent progress. more needs to be done to raise educational standards and address persistent socioeconomics inequalities. "If we want to avoid a decade of low growth in Latin America, we must improve education, enhance skills in the workforce and boost innovation. Policymakers need to undertake ambitious efforts to unleash higher and more equitable growth", OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said. Structural changes, such as the diversification of the economy towards knowledge-intensive sectors, is needed to supply the increasing demand for skilled workers. As noted by Alicia Barcena Executive of ECLAC, "without the transformation of the production structure there will be a link missing in the chain that connects education, productivity and innovation." Such a link has important implications for income distribution. Diversification implies the creation of quality, better-paid jobs, which in turn entails less informality and underemployment, and hence less inequality. Policies for learning and diversification should be at the top of the agenda in the coming years in Latin America. "in the absence of an exceptionally favourable external environment, the regio needs to deepen regional integration and address the structural challenges of development, to support its growth potential, primarily in the ares of innovation and production patterns, and education and technical capacities that these require", said Enrique Garcia, President of L.A. Development Bank. The outlook notes that, on average, the gap in L.A. relative to an OECD student is still quite high, the equivalent of 2.4 additional years of schooling. Furthermore, only 56% of students in the poorest quarter of the population attend secondary school, versus 87% of students in the wealthiest quarter. Limitations in the quality of education are also reflected in the skill shortages and mismatches in the labour market, severely impacting the competitiveness of L.A. companies. The region' business face greater challenges in findings appropriately skilled employees than any other region in the world. To tackle these acute skills shortages, targeted policies are need in secondary and technical education. Policymakers need to provide more and smarter investment in primary education, where important skills development takes place such as learning perseverance, which is of critical importance in the labour market. Classroom practices need adaption to ensure better performance, including tutoring and student motivation. Increasing the quality of teaching also relies on monitoring and better incentives. Finally. government and the private sector should work together to better connect technical and vocational training with the demand skills in a changing world economy.
