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On behalf of the Director General of the ILO, Juan Somavia, it
is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to this Forum which we
have co-organized with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security
and the China Academy of Labour and Social Security and China Labour
and Social Security Publishing House. I would like to recall our
DG’s words at the International Labour Conference where he said
that “Human resources development and, in particular, education
and training are critical to the ILO goal of creating greater opportunities
for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions
of freedom, equity, security and human dignity." He went on
to say that "Education and training are therefore a central
pillar of the Decent Work Agenda." An agenda which the government
of China has expressed support.
International experience demonstrates that for any country's economic
and job growth to be sustainable, for its enterprises to remain
productive, and for it to gain and keep a competitive edge in the
world markets, the country must have a well educated, adaptable
and appropriately trained workforce.
China, like many countries, knows this and is struggling to identify
and respond to the skills needs of its workforce in a time of increasing
globalization, new technologies and changing patterns of work. China
has some characteristics that should support this process, such
as robust economic growth, a central planning framework, and a strong
commitment to education for all, just to name a few. Yet, China
is still a developing country in some respects- producing at the
low end of the value chain; it is still in an economic transition
to market economy and it continues to face enormous employment surplus
pressure despite great achievements made in employment creation.
Skill shortages sit side by side labour surplus.
In a great number of enterprises in China as elsewhere today there
is a growing need for workers to become knowledge workers-those
able to adapt their skills to changing technology, solve problems,
work as part of teams, access knowledge and adapt it to their own
working environment.
Given the rapid changes and the overarching demand for new policies
and strategies for human resource development, in 2004, the ILO
adopted Recommendation No 195 on HRD: Education, training and lifelong
learning. The new recommendation is a dynamic forward looking instrument
intended to assist member States in developing the knowledge and
skills of their workforces to improve competitiveness and productivity,
while at the same time promoting social inclusion and decent work.
One of the premises of the instrument is that indeed an essential
component of economic and social stability is a workforce with the
appropriate skills and the ability to adapt to new technologies
and new work practices. Another is that education, learning and
training benefits a nation, its enterprises, its individuals and
its society at large.
If education, learning and training policies and strategies are
to be effective, mechanisms must be in-place that encourage the
involvement of the social partners and other key stakeholders, as
well as governments in the decision making process. Thus private
as well as state owned enterprises and trade unions have a key role
to play in identifying skill needs and supporting skill upgrading
and on the job training.
Of course this requires changes to the way in which education
and training is organized and made accessible. Many counties today
embrace the concept of "lifelong learning and training,"
but without the reform of education and training policies, restructuring
of the framework in which they operate and the development of relevant
strategies, as well as access to new knowledge and innovative ideas,
lifelong learning will only remain a concept.
At the international level we have identified main issues that
must be tackled in order to translate this concept into practice:
Increase investment in education and training
Ensure core work skills to enhance employability
Reform of vocational education and training to improve relevance,
responsiveness and accessibility
Recognition of skill and competency across firms, sectors and
borders
Social dialogue on training such as through tripartite mechanisms
Include disabled persons, youth, informal economy workers or
other target groups (i.e. migrants, older women)
Reform employment services and the role of private ones
Workplace learning, high performance management and apprenticeships.
Many of these issues appear relevant to this Forum, to the implementation
of new national policy and the challenge of developing high skilled
workers. It is commendable that China has expressly addressed human
resource and skill development in its 5 year plan in an overall
context of promoting innovation, advancement and equity.
Hopefully through your discussions, the participants will learn
about recent innovative training policies, practices and system
reform, and how others have made the necessary changes to respond
to the emerging challenges for skills development. There are many
interesting examples in the region and in Europe of how skills development
has been used in an integrated way to promote social and economic
development.
I would like to highlight the importance of having means or networks
available to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, products and
services. This Forum is a good example of the ILO assisting its
constituents in China by drawing on the expertise of the SKILLS-AP
Partner Organizations, in the Regional Skills Network and the ILO
staff supporting the Network.
I wish you successful and enjoyable discussions and the ILO as
well as the UNCT Theme Group on Education and Human Resource Development
stand ready to follow up this workshop. Thank you.
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