Summary of meeting report - 4th regional skills technical working group the 5th RSTWG Meeting

The 4th RSTWG meeting was co-hosted by the TESDA, the Philippines and ILO. The meeting brought together national skills and SLOM focal points of ASEAN Member States, officials of the ASEAN Secretariat, members of the AQRF Committees, ATUC, ACE, and ILO to discuss a way forward for taking the work on Mutual Recognition of Skills (MRS) to a next stage with pilot implementation. Since 2014, the RSTWG meetings have been a forum for regional dialogue and mutual learning for AMS to progress on MRS, assisting national efforts for strengthening the skills and certification systems to preparing themselves for MRS implementation. The MRS initiative with a focus on low-to-middle skilled workers responds to the AEC’s vision of achieving free flow of skilled workers, and complements with the MRA that has a focus on high skilled profession.

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Roadmap Working Template

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Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) Guidance Note

While solid but slow progress has been made towards the goal of free labour mobility in ASEAN through the establishment of eight Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) that promote cross-border recognition of skills and qualifications, the ASEAN focus has been on highly skilled professions. The Tourism Professionals MRA is, however, an exception. It promotes regional recognition in 32 job areas, from entry to advanced worker levels.

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Benchmarking of qualifications frameworks: A report on potential comparability between the Bangladesh technical and vocational qualifications framework and qualifications frameworks of other countries of origin and destination of migrant workers

ILO Country Office for Bangladesh - 2015. This report benchmarks a number of frameworks against the Bangladesh technical and vocational qualifications framework with an aim to better understand the potential for comparability. In doing so, it also brings out the trend of moving from the technical and vocational qualifications framework to broader-based national qualifications frameworks.

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Consultation/ Validation workshop on the Implementation of Mutual Recognition of Skills in ASEAN countries: meeting agenda, concept note and press release

This meeting - held during 24- 25 September in Jakarta, Indonesia - was organized by the ILO Regional Skills Programme, the ILO project to improve labour migration in ASEAN (ASEAN TRIANGLE), the ILO Country Office for Indonesia, and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration (MoMT) of Indonesia. The meeting discussed the mutual recognition of skills, once the AEC comes into effect in 2015, and develop action plans through discussions between government, workers’ and employers’ organizations. The meeting agenda, concept note and press release can be found here.

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Open Windows, Closed Doors: Mutual Recognition Arrangements on Professional Services in the ASEAN Region

Between 2003 and 2014, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) in the tourism sector and in six regulated occupations: accountancy, architecture, dentistry, engineering, medicine, and nursing. A further arrangement, in the surveying field, is being developed but is still in the frameworkstage. By jointly setting standardized rules for mutual recognition and renouncing, in part or in full, their national discretion to assess foreign qualifications, ASEAN Member States have potentially made it easier for professionals to have their qualifications recognized across the region. If fully implemented, the MRAs would also directly support the ASEAN goal of facilitating skill mobility.

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Education, training and skills: Women migrant workers in ASEAN

ILO - 2016. This Policy Brief considers skills supply and demand in ASEAN in relation to women migrant workers, making recommendations to policy-makers, development partners, social partners and civil society that can improve access for women to skills development opportunities and better jobs.

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Summary of Meeting Report 4th Regional Skills Technical Working Group (RSTWG) Meeting

The 4th RSTWG meeting was co-hosted by the TESDA, the Philippines and ILO. The meeting brought together national skills and SLOM focal points of ASEAN Member States, officials of the ASEAN Secretariat, members of the AQRF Committees, ATUC, ACE, and ILO to discuss a way forward for taking the work on Mutual Recognition of Skills (MRS) to a next stage with pilot implementation. Since 2014, the RSTWG meetings have been a forum for regional dialogue and mutual learning for AMS to progress on MRS, assisting national efforts for strengthening the skills and certification systems to preparing themselves for MRS implementation. The MRS initiative with a focus on low-to-middle skilled workers responds to the AEC’s vision of achieving free flow of skilled workers, and complements with the MRA that has a focus on high skilled profession.

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Meeting Report: ASEAN meeting of Skills Focal Points

ILO - 2015. This is the report of the ASEAN Skills Focal Point meeting which took place on 10-11 August 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand. The meeting was organized by the ILO ASEAN Triangle Project and the ILO Regional Skills Programme, in collaboration with the Department of Skill Development – Ministry of Labour of Thailand.

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Managing labour mobility: Opportunities and challenges for employers in the ASEAN region

ILO - 2016. This publication is part of the series that summarizes the position of employers’ on the priority issues on labour migration in the ASEAN region. The Chapter 2 focuses on skills matching and mobility, discussing mutual recognition arrangements in ASEAN and other issues related to skills development from the employers' perspectives.

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Towards a Mutual Recognition of Skills in CLM (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar) Countries for AEC 2015 and Beyond (Project fact sheet)

ILO - 2015. This project focuses on the expansion of the skills and occupations within the Mutually Recognized Skills Framework (MRS) and assists Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar (CLM countries) in establishing mutually-recognized qualifications mechanisms in additional industrial sectors. The project aims to promote the mobility of skilled labour through the MRS to accelerate the economic integration of the CLM countries for the AEC 2015 and beyond.

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Regional Skills Technical Working Group Meeting - all documents

ILO - 2016. The ILO Regional Skills Programme organized the Regional Skills Technical Working Group (RSTWG) meeting on 3-4 May 2016 in Bangkok. The meeting brought together Regional Skills Technical Working Group members who are the Skills Focal Points designated by the ASEAN Member States (AMS). During the meeting the participants discussed the progress and implementation of Action Plans on the mutual recognition of skills (MRS) and planned strategically on the way forward. Here you can find a collection of all documents related to the meeting.

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Fact sheet: Regional Model Competency Standards

ILO - 2016. This fact sheet explains what Regional Model Competency Standards (RMCS) are, describes how they can be used and provides an overview of the RMCS available to date.

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Skills matching and labour mobility: A policy position paper of the ASEAN Confederation of Employers

ILO - 2015. As part of the ASEAN Triangle project, the ASEAN Confederation of Employers (ACE) developed an Action Plan to engage employers’ organizations in ASEAN processes in five priority areas: skills matching and mobility, occupational safety and health, hiring of migrant workers, elimination of forced labour and human trafficking, and non-discrimination in the workplace were identified. This publication presents the ACE policy position on skills matching and labour mobility.

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Labour migration and skills matching - Labour Migration Highlights No. 6

ILO - 2015. This information note discusses labour migration from a skills perspective and highlights ILO's role in it.

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Achieving Skill Mobility in the ASEAN Economic Community: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Implications

ADB - 2016. This report discusses the challenges that ASEAN member states face in achieving the goal of greater mobility for the highly skilled, including recognizing professional qualifications. The report is divided in four parts: it begins by discussing the movement of professionals within ASEAN today, and gaps in data. Section two identifies the progress and challenges; section three suggests potential areas for policy reforms; and section four discusses the developments in the ASEAN region in a global context.

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Regional Model Competency Standards: Domestic Work

ILO - 2014. These Regional Model Competency Standards for Domestic Work have been developed by the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. They constitute a set of benchmarks that define the skills, knowledge and attributes required for domestic work as an employment. The standards are designed to be used as a basis for developing national standards and as a regional reference point.

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Reinventing Mutual Recognition Arrangements: Lessons from International Experience and Insights for the ASEAN Region

Mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs) are not new. For more than 100 years now, governments and nonstate actors have signed MRAs in an effort to provide a uniform and transparent way of recognizing the qualifications of foreign workers. MRAs are thus important international instruments, yet their scope and use have been rather limited. A Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysis of data collated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) suggests that most MRAs recognize only diplomas and include very few developing countries as signatories. Moreover, since the 1980s, there has been a noticeable decline in the number of MRAs signed. Indeed, it could be argued that MRAs are essentially 20th-century arrangements, and that their relevance today depends on whether they can adapt to the demands of an ever-changing international labor market.

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Regional Model Competency Standards: Welding services

ILO - 2015. These Regional Model Competency Standards for Welding have been developed by the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. They constitute a set of benchmarks that define the skills, knowledge and attributes required to perform a work role. The RMCS were developed after adapting and integrating contents from four national competency systems; including Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand. A comparison and alignment was made with the International Welding Certification System.

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ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework and National Qualifications Frameworks: the State of Play Report

SHARE Consortium - 2015. In 2015, ASEAN and the European Union launched the EU Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE) programme, which aims to support ASEAN in harmonising regional higher education by sharing European experiences. This report on the state of play of the AQRF and NQFs was commissioned by the SHARE Consortium Partner DAAD. It is divided into four sections: the first section outlines the AQRF, its key features, governance arrangements, and plans for implementation; the second section outlines the status of NQFs in the region; the third section outlines identified implementation issues; and the final section outlines recommendations for future assistance.

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