Managing skills challenges in Asean-5 (Executive summary)
This report provides insights and recommendations on how the ASEAN-5 (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines) can respond to skills challenges impacting their economies. It puts the spotlight on the need for an industry-oriented approach to develop job-specific skills in key growth industries, on which the success of the national growth strategy hinges. The industries selected include the information and communication technology (ICT) industry (in all five countries), electronics and electrical manufacturing (Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines), finance and insurance (Singapore), oil and gas (Malaysia), automotive (Thailand and Indonesia), and tourism (Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines). By focusing on skills gaps in key growth industries, the study provides insights into the nature of the skills challenges and how they can be effectively managed. For each country, the authors have also used a successful skill-training initiative to illustrate how skills challenges can be overcome in each country given its peculiar constraints. The report concludes that overcoming challenges will require government and employers to work together to develop coherent policies and targeted incentive structures for workers to acquire general and job-specific skills.