SABER Workforce Development Ireland Multiyear Country Report 2012
This study benchmarked levels of support for workforce development (WfD) in Ireland and
identified measures which progressed workforce development within a framework of human
capital development. The study piloted a new diagnostic tool (SABER-WfD) to assess Ireland’s
workforce development between 1980 and 2000, a period of economic expansion in Ireland and
major reform in workforce development. The tool is part of the World Bank’s initiative on
Systems Assessment for Better Education Results (SABER) which focuses on several policy
domains including workforce development. Three broad functional dimensions of workforce
development policies were assessed based primarily on secondary source materials: strategic
framework; system oversight; and service delivery. The findings demonstrated Ireland’s overall
progression on each of these dimensions; moving from an emerging to an advanced system
between 1980-2000 in respect of workforce development strategic framework and service
delivery, and to an established framework for system oversight by 2000.