In the past three decades, economic growth in Asia has been the envy of the world. Asia’s rapid economic growth was, in part, propped up by a relatively broad human capital base, in terms of completion of basic education, combined with low wages. The education systems in Asia, including technical and vocational education and training (TVET), were well suited at the time to allow Asia to become the world’s assembly line. In simple terms, formal education and on-the-job training were generally able to supply the hard skills (technical skills such as machine operation, welding, etc.) and soft skills (e.g., functional literacy and numeracy) needed to meet the skills needs of the Asian economies to catch up with the rest of the world and capture a growing share of basic industry and service sector production globally.

However, in recent years, the alignment between supply of skills and demand for skills that previously converged in the case of Asia has been increasingly impacted by key global shifts and trends. This report identifies six key shifts and trends that have had critical implications on either skills supply and/or skills demand in Asia, thereby straining the previous alignment in this regard.