06 Enhancing Skills in the Eastern Caribbean St Lu

Enhancing Skills in the Eastern Caribbean: 

Enhancing Skills in the Eastern Caribbean Andreas Blom, Education Economist, World Bank, St. Lucia May 17, 2006

Overview: 

Overview Why should we care about skills? School is life From school to life Life is school The key points

Why should we care about skills: 

Why should we care about skills Source: Population and Household Census 2001, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, OECS (St. Vincent and the G.): Salary by education level

Skills: Most important obstacle for Grenadian firms: 

Skills: Most important obstacle for Grenadian firms

New jobs: Skilled: 

New jobs: Skilled Workers by education level per economic sector (Caribbean)

Opportunities for everyone: 

Opportunities for everyone Competitive labor market Inequality Crime and youth unemployment

Overview: 

Overview Why should we care about skills? School is life From school to life Life is school The key points

80% ends schooling with secondary: 

80% ends schooling with secondary Universal secondary: Fantastic Focused on preparation for tertiary level studies Few labor market oriented courses, (little counseling and little help in transitioning to the world of work)

Knowledge Economy skills: 

Knowledge Economy skills Quality of education ! Growing focus on “life skills” Reliability, critical thinking, team work, etc. Also demanded by employers in the OECS Incorporated into curriculum, teaching and examinations

Life skills for jobs: 

Life skills for jobs St. Kitts: Employers’ assessment of desirable skills Source: OECS St. Kitts and Nevis: Retraining the Sugar Workers, 2005

Live skills for jobs: 

Live skills for jobs Caribbean: Employers’ assessment of most desired skill set Source: Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network: Labor Market Survey, 2006

Gaps in offered careers: 

Gaps in offered careers St. Lucia Hotel survey (WB 2005): Chefs/sous chefs, Managers/Supervisors, Front Office staff St. Lucia HR Needs Assessment (UWI 2005): Managers, IT-professionals, construction and hospitality Caribbean Labor Market Survey (CKLN 2006): Supervisors/managers, IT professionals, skilled trades workers, and technical workers Conversations with employers: Trained room attendants, food preparation and servicing, maintenance of tourism properties, spas and massages, yachting etc.

How to close the career gaps?: 

How to close the career gaps? Needs assessment, adjust offerings and enrolment admissions Permanent change: External board (society/employers) Track demand and job-performance of graduates at the local level Improve institutional focus: from “academic excellence” to “drivers of the local economy” Small countries / institutions: collaboration (CKLN)

Overview: 

Overview Why should we care about skills? School is life From school to life Life is school The key points

Transition from school to life: 

Transition from school to life Where the chain breaks Lose your human capital Deviant behaviour Source: National Labor surveys different years 1991-2004

How to build skills in the transition: 

How to build skills in the transition Assist those with difficulties finding jobs Training, private sector driven to lead to jobs Traineeship successful in the OECS: 50% stay with employer Traineeship could be expanded much more

Overview: 

Overview Why should we care about skills? School is life From school to life Life is school The key points

On-the-job training: 

On-the-job training Low training of work force Source: Caribbean Investment Climate Assessment, World Bank (2005)

Reasons: 

Reasons Lack of emphasis and systemic approach: Improve firms’ HR policy Increase labor unions’ focus on training Government: many small ad-hoc efforts Poaching and small size of firms (public role) Low recognition and value of training Incipient market for private training

How to enhance skills in the labor force: 

How to enhance skills in the labor force Goal: Market for training with standards, financing and evaluations (but Rome was not built on one day) Standards: Collaborate Adapt CVQ standards (1-2 industry groups) Information campaign on standards to workers and employers Agreement with assessment agencies Work on the portability within CSME Finance: Collaborate 2nd chance education programs: 99% publicly financed Unemployed (but motivated) youth: “75%” publicly financed Employees: training levy? Monitoring and evaluation: Collaborate You will never get it right the first time

Job and productivity from:: 

Job and productivity from: Quality education School is exam, not life (labor market competency oriented) Empower and talk with employers Helping youth gain experience: Scale-up training and traineeship Creating a market for training: adopt a couple of CVQ standards for a key industry