Introduction

Robust training policies and systems are ground in the characteristics and institutions of each country.  Nevertheless, a number of common building blocks can be identified.  A good skills development system will be able to: anticipate skills needs; engage employers and workers in training, including the specific sectors; maintenance of quality and relevance of training; making training accessible to all sections of society; ensure viable and equitable financing mechanisms; and continuously evaluate the economic and social outcomes of training. 

A number of methods are used to forecast future skills needs.  These include forecasting occupational and skills profiles at various levels of disaggregation; social dialogue; labour market information system (LMIS); and analysis of the performance of training institutions, including tracer studies.

Experience from various countries continues to provide important lessons on the limits of skills forecasting: crucially, that it is equally important to focus on providing adaptable core, transversal skills and building the capacity to learn than on planning training to meet detailed forecasts of technical skills requirements, because these may change before curricula and institutions can adjust.  Shorter training courses delivered by responsive training institutions, which build on solid general technical and core skills, can minimize time lags between the emergence of skill needs and the provision of appropriate training.  Quantitative analysis based on LMI is important but needs to be complemented by additional qualitative information, especially from employers and workers.

The regional activity of the Japan funded 2010 Programme entitled “Addressing Skills Mismatch through PPP” has clearly indicated that a strong partnership between government, employers and workers is an essential feature of an effective and enduring bond between the world of learning and the world of work.  The findings of the 2010 regional activity also included an expression of a strong interest, by the participating countries, for further technical inputs on Labour Market Information Systems (LMIS).  It has been agreed that the lack of LMI (and skills data) is one of the reasons behind the skills mismatch (existence of both large number of vacancies and high unemployment) and a major constraint for policy making.  The forecasting of skills supply and demand is a complex process which requires understanding of the link between occupations, qualification and skills and requires aggregation of enterprise and training institution data at the national level that accounts for regional variations.

The proposed workshop is a national follow-up workshop under the Japan funded 2010 Programme entitled “Addressing Skills Mismatch through PPP”.

 Objectives of the workshop

This workshop is designed to provide an opportunity for stakeholders in the Indian skills ecosystem to:

1) learn more about the key conceptual and practical challenges of anticipating skills supply and demand;

2) be briefed on international examples of how different countries anticipate skills supply and demand;

3) consider practical ways of identifying future skills demands in India;

4) learn about national, regional, local, sectoral, institutional and enterprise levels linkages and roles in skills needs assessment and anticipation planning;

5) consider how future institutional arrangements in India might best contribute to a strengthened LMIS; and

6) consider how a national strategy to strengthen LMIS in India might be advanced.

 Workshop structure and methodology

The workshop will consist of a number of technical sessions and panel discussions involving both local and international speakers. The final draft agenda is shown overleaf.

 The workshop provides an opportunity to present the findings of an environmental scan of the availability of skills data undertaken by the India Country Office. It also provides an opportunity for the Directorate General of Employment & Training (DGET) to brief key stakeholders on their plans to revitalize labour exchanges throughout the country.