Sectoral approaches to skills development

Skills are a key factor for the sustainable development of countries and advancing social justice for all. Skills matching requires various mechanisms, instruments and policies that are in place in a country and its regions or sectors aimed at reducing the gap between skills supply and demand in the labour market, increasing the employability of the workforce, reducing skill shortages and improving skills utilization. Accordingly, sectoral approaches look at changing skill needs from the perspective of a particular sector and ensures that skills development meets the labour market needs of the different economic sectors. Helping enterprises find workers with the right skills, and ensuring that workers acquire the skills they need to find productive employment is a key to unlocking the door to economic prosperity and building inclusive societies. Sectoral approaches, through the use of sector skills bodies strengthen good practices in skills development through putting an emphasis on skillsets needed in different economic sectors rather than taking a generic approach for skills development. They also provide an important platform for social dialogue on skills at the sectoral level. Moreover, adopting a sectoral approach to skills development enables countries and businesses to focus on developing the specific skills needed to maintain and improve their key economic sectors, making substantial contributions to improved productivity and competitiveness. In this regard, the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) in full collaboration with the Skills branch of the International Labour Organization is proud to offer the Fourth online Edition of the course Sectoral Approaches to Skills Development! The course will capitalize on the long experience of the ITCILO in organizing capacity building activities focused on skills development and sectoral skills development. Moreover, the course will emphasize a unique learning approach harnessing digital e-learning technologies using an interactive online platform that facilitates the learning process and provides participants with real-time feedback and support. OBJECTIVES The main objective of the course is to “help participants better understand the characteristics, methodologies, institutional arrangements, skills governance mechanisms such as sector skills councils, and sectoral skills development modalities needed for identifying labour market imbalances in terms of skills development at a sectoral level, in addition to recognizing the current and future skills needed at a sectoral level in a broader macroeconomic policy framework.” Upon completion of the course, participants will have: • Acquired a good understanding of the rationale behind sectoral approaches to skills development and the reasons for adopting a sectoral approach to learn about the drivers of change which impact the demand and supply for skills at a sectoral level; • Understood the sectoral skills anticipation process beginning with sector prioritization, sector definition, and collaborative mechanisms at a sectoral level; • Analyzed different methods and tools related to quantitative and qualitative methods to identify labour markets supply and demand imbalances at a sectoral level, in addition to learning how to measure skills mismatch at a sectoral level; • Discussed the different sectoral skills governance systems, focusing on success factors in establishing and sustainability of sector skills bodies; • Discussed the different sectoral skills financing and policy mechanisms at a sectoral level; • Attained a better understanding through group exercise, cases from the field, and other learning modalities of how to adopt sectoral approaches into adequate policy making and planning. CONTENT UNIT 1 • INTRODUCTION TO SECTORAL APPROACHES TO SKILLS DEVELOPMENT UNIT 2 • UNDERSTANDING SECTORAL SKILL NEEDS UNIT 3 • ILO STED – (SKILLS FOR TRADE AND ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION) UNIT 4 • SECTORAL GOVERNANCE AND FINANCING UNIT 5 • SECTOR SKILLS COUNCILS UNIT 6 • SECTORAL APPROACHES TO DELIVERY, ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION/ SECTORAL REFORMS ACHIEVEMENT Scoring a passing grade of 60% as a total of the weekly exams. NUMBER OF HOURS: 60