2012: The year of global reports on TVET, skills and jobs: Consensus or diversity?
After the dearth of global skills analysis for many years, there is now suddenly a glut. 2012 has been a significant year for those interested in the links among Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), skills, and jobs - especially evident in the launch of a number of global reports on these topics. Global reports range from the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) ‘Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a Deeper Jobs Crisis’, to the World Bank’s ‘World Development Report 2013: Jobs’.
This issue of NORRAG News examines the different meanings of skills in global reports: high, medium, low, foundation, transferable, technical and vocational skills, as well as life-skills. It also focuses on the state of skills in urban and rural areas, and the current usage of ‘skills-for-poverty-reduction’, as well as ‘skills-for-growth’. The reports under examination cover skills in the informal economy, as well as work-based skills and on-the-job training. Some of the reports also consider the emerging meanings and frontiers of TVET.