Country Orientation Towards Skills Development

ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 54 At the international level, TVET has gained momentum and played important roles in preparing the qualified future workforce. In fact, under United Nation it has a wider mandate to address various social, economic, and environmental issues. The Bonn Declaration in October 20014 states that it is believed to be the master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help to achieve sustainable development. This international thrust has trickled down to the regional and national levels, including Southeast Asia. Countries in Southeast Asia have placed TVET as an important and integral part of the mainstream education, the general or academic tract. In fact there have been significant efforts to break the barrier between the two types of education by initiating multi-exit multi-entry policy, an articulation that open up an opportunity for students to transfer from and to various types of education and employment. There are some major developments in the area of TVET in the region. Malaysia and Thailand recently has reestablished TVET at secondary level. Indonesia plans to increase enrollment in secondary-level TVET so that the ratio of students will be 68:32 TVET: General High School in 2015. Singapore has tremendously improved the image of TVET through Institute of Technical Education and improved the graduates’ employment rate almost 94 per cent. Realizing that TVET now is in the primetime, this is a great opportunity but at the same time also a challenge for all stakeholders to continuously improve and sustain the momentum so that TVET can fulfill the high expectation for contributing to high productivity and progressive and sustainable development. Some of the issues that TVET institutions should address are raising the skill standards and relevancy. Realizing that TVET doesn’t evolve in vacuum, considering various factors such socio, demographic, economic aspects is very important. Using the various examples from countries in Southeast Asia, this paper discusses various issues and challenges, and opportunities in skills development in the region.

B. Country Orientation Towards Skills Development

In this 21 st century there are emerging trends that many countries are experiencing. The salient phenomena that we are facing among others are the technology, economic, and social changes Majumdar, 2009. Technologically we are facing more advanced technology. The online technology that offers almost unlimited ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 55 access to information has changed the way we manage and share information. Technological skills are necessary for knowledge workers to improve productivity of organizations. Many countries are embracing knowledge economy that places more value on the knowledge that catalyses technical innovations and achievements which propel economic gains. This signifies the important role of TVET as breeding ground for the necessary skills and work qualifications Majumdar, 2009. With globalisation, “labour mobility is on the rise” Smart, 1998 as people take their talents across borders in search for better prospects Stiglitz, 2002. In the social trends, TVT has to play important roles in reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development, equity and inclusive growth. Educational focus must shift towards more enduring skills, such as life skills, language capabilities as well as research skills while continuing to provide rigorous training in current technical skills NORRAG, 2007, p.24. The orientation of skills development in Southeast Asia varies depending on the country’s status of development and the influence of international agencies in the country. Examining the practices of the international training and donor agencies in Southeast Asia, skills development in Southeast Asia can be grouped into three approaches or orientations: poverty reduction, economic and social development, and governance. According to Langstaff, Weyer, and Carton 2007. The Poverty Reduction approach is based on the hypothesis that through skills development different types of poverty can be alleviated. Multilateral agencies in general are the main promoters of skills development for poverty reduction and the fight against exclusion. The objective of poverty reduction is usually related to the Millenniums Development Goals MDGs and Education for All EFA vision. As a result, basic education primary education in particular is given priority and gender issues are taken into consideration. Skills Development SD is considered as the cornerstone of economic and social development. Institution building and workforce development are priorities and TVET and Higher Education are also components of SD for economic and social development. The governance approach is a way to look at skills not just for developing economic growth or for fighting poverty, but to train people to be able to reflect on and define the right balance between economic and social development. In this sense, ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 56 governance is a prerequisite for poverty reduction and development. Behind the governance approach there are some other objectives, for example: developing democratic institutions; combating corruption; promoting human rights; facilitating decentralisation; and building peace and security. Issues and challenges in Skills Development There are many issues and challenges in skills development in Southeast Asia. This section will only focus on the selected issues and challenges namely 1 Training content to meet current and future demands, 2 Training processes, and 3 Skills standards, assessment, and recognition. Training content to meet current and future demands To decide what types and levels of training, training providers should map out the demands whether the provider is aiming at fulfilling local, national, or international demands. There is big potential labor market in the region. ASEAN’s labour force is massive and still growing. In 2015 it is expected to have around 225 million. In 2015, the services sector is expected to be the largest sector in terms of employment in the region, accounting for over 41 per cent of total employment. Small and medium-sized enterprises SMEs provide jobs for the majority of workers in the region ranging from more than 50 per cent in Singapore to more than 90 per cent in Indonesia ILO, 2008. The ILO report 2008 highlights that labour productivity, education and migration play important role in shaping the Southeast Asian’s competitiveness, growth and development. Productivity growth is one of the main determinants of a country’s overall competitiveness. It is also essential for creating quality jobs and reducing poverty: Increased labour productivity can lead to higher wages, better working conditions and more investment in human resources. In recent years, China has overtaken ASEAN in terms of output per worker, while the gap between India and ASEAN has markedly narrowed. Significant disparities between ASEAN countries are evident: Singapore’s productivity level was nearly 12 times that of Cambodia, 9 times that of Myanmar and 8.5 times that of Viet Nam. Please refer to Table 1 for details. ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 57 Table 1. Output per worker 1997, 2002, 2006-2007, and growth in output per worker and employment 1997-2002, 2002-2007, selected economies Note: ASEAN productivity figures exclude Brunei Darussalam and Lao PDR Sources: The Conference Board and the Groningen Growth and Development Centre, Total Economy Database, January 2008, http:www.conference-board.orgeconomics; National statistical offices Cited from ILO, 2008. An estimated 1.5 million ASEAN workers leave their home countries each year to work abroad, including within the ASEAN region. While the shift of workers from agriculture to industry and services in some low- and medium-income ASEAN countries will continue to support productivity growth, the pressure to innovate and improve efficiency within sectors will become increasingly im portant. Figure 1. Staff shortages as a constraint in South-East Asia ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 58 Source: EIU: Asia Business Outlook Survey, 2008 Cited from ILO, 2008. Growing employment in the area of services and manufacturing is quite significant in Southeast Asia. Agriculture, regardless of the dominant sector in most countries, experienced negative growth in employment; see the details in Table 2. Table 2. Change in Employment and Annual Growth by Sector of Employment in Southeast Asia Considering the existing and the predicted employment sectors both at the local, national and regional level is one of the important steps in designing appropriate programmes at secondary, industry-based and non-formal TVET. For postsecondary level TVET, the programmes can follow or lead the employment trends by introducing new programmes that can create new competitive advantages. The initiatives of opening new programmes or leading the trends in employment should be based on strong research and development. In responding to the technical skills, TVET institutions should not offer narrow occupational skills aiming for the needs of particular companies. Focusing on narrow occupational skills appears to be a major problem; instead there is a need to take a sectoral approach and look at all competencies that are performed in a given sector. Even though narrow skills are very relevant to meet the needs of particular businesses or industries, this will limit career mobility or options. ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 59 Besides the technical skills or “hard” skills that corresponds the employment sectors, TVET should also prepare students with the “soft” skills, such as communications skills, team work, work ethic, etc. These soft skills are prerequisite for employment and for moving up the next level of skills. According Gray and Herr 1998, there are three levels of essential basic occupational skills: Level 1, work ethics soft skills; Level 2, basic academic skills; Level 3, occupational specific and advanced workplace literacy skills. Please see Figure 2 for illustration. Figure 2. Skills Pyramid Level 1, work ethics, including other soft skills are very important or basic prerequisite for anyone to work. Many research findings support the importance of soft skills in today’s work. According to Casner-Lotto Barrington 2006 soft skills include among others professionalism or work ethic, oral and written communication, teamwork and collaboration skills, critical thinking or problem-solving skills are very crucial. These skills are consider more crucial than the basic skills such Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, Humanities, and History. The issue now is how to teach and assess soft skills. The practices vary in Southeast Asia; some teach it as an integral part across various courses, others teach it as special courses, and the rests only monitor whether students have fulfilled the criteria listed in an assessment form but do not teach it. Level 1Work Ethics and other Soft Skills Level 2Basic Academic and General Skills Level 3Specificand Advanced Skills High skillsHigh wage Low skills-Low wage ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 60 Level 2, basic academic skills, includes among others Mathematics, Science, Language, History, Physics, Basic Engineering or Economic Courses are the basic vocational and technical skills that prepare individual to adapt easily and to learn faster in any job situations. These are prerequisites to move to next level, the more specific and advanced vocational and technical skills. Level 3, specific or advanced occupational skills, are the skills needed to perform specific tasks in the occupation. These are the prerequisites to compete for higher salary level skills. Some argue whether these specific skills should be taught at the secondary level or should be taught at tertiary or learned from outside of schools. TVET should prepare students for mastering all the three levels of skills to make them competitive in the labor market. For employability level one is vey crucial and for receiving a high salary position a candidate should master all, especially the level 3 skills. Training processes There are many ways of delivering TVET: formal, non-formal, and informal education and training. The formal TVET either through formal schooling or formal training plays important roles in skills development. In most cases formal schooling is usually administered under the Ministry of Education and the formal training is under the auspices of Ministry of Labor. The non-formal either through company-based training or community-based training is also contributing significant portion of manpower skills development. The informal training either through family or personal learning experiences regardless of limited recognition, is also very important in contributing to individuals’ skills. The current trends in recognizing skills acquired from various ways, including non-formal and informal training that is commonly called Recognition of Prior Learning, will make TVET more efficient, effective, and attractive. This will eventually benefit not only the candidates but also the company and the national productivity as well. ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 61 Skills Standards, Assessment and Recognition Skills standards. There are two main approaches of how skills standards are developed: top-down and bottom-up approaches. In the top-down approach, skills standards are usually developed at the national level. The national body is formed representing various educational and training stakeholders. The common composition of this body is government representatives, business and industry representatives, professional association, and education and training specialists. Training providers will use this national skills standard as a guideline in developing the curriculum, the training content, and assessment. Since most of the national skills standards are usually general, the training providers can interpret or enrich the contents according the local needs. Most of skills standards of this type addresses national-level. At the implementation level, however, not all SEAMEO member countries have widely adopted the national skills standards due to various reasons: the unavailability of the standards, limited scope of standards, and lack of enforcement and recognition SEAMEO VOCTECH, 2006. The second type skills standards, the bottom-up approach, are developed by businesses or industries or training certification company who specializes in certain area. At SEAMEO VOCTECH, for example, IC 3 Internet and Computing Core certification and Microsoft Office Specialist by Certifort, U.S.A.; ICDL International Computer Driving License and e-Citizen by ECDL European Computer Driving License Foundation, and other various certification by Pearson Vue are some examples of skills standards developed by private businessindustry. The second type of skills standards is usually more explicit and details in terms of scope and content of the skills standards. Since the companies are usually for profit organisations, they try to get as many participants as possible to generate funds. It is up to the employers in recognizing the certification. The government has a minimum or no involvement in promoting or recognizing the certificates issued by these training and testing companies. Most of the skills standards adopted by training providers were focused on prescribed skills to perform the relevant jobs; the employability or soft skills have not received enough attention yet. Efforts to integrate soft skills in the qualification framework should be continued considering that these skills are considered very important by employers. ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 62 Assessment of Skills. In this section, the paper will highlight assessment methods commonly used by training providers in SEAMEO member countries and the assessors involved in the process. The most common assessment techniques used were written tests and demonstrations of skills. The written tests mostly assess the knowledge of the participants about the areas being tested. The demonstrations were used to assess participant’s skills in performing related tasks. The use of documents, such as portfolio, is getting more popular in some countries like Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philipinnes. Most training providers in the region hire their own assessors, the trainers or instructors, to assess participants’ skills competencies, except in Indonesia hiring the assessors from various stakeholders is more common. Skills Certification. In a country where national skills standards have been developed and enforced, most training providers used the standards as a guideline in developing their curriculum, designing the course content, and assessing their students’ or trainees’ competencies. Training providers are the most common primary agent that issue certificates. The next common practice is that the certificate is signed by two parties, training provider and businessindustry partner. In formal VTET, a graduate may receive a diploma and several certificates issued by private agencies. In Indonesia, secondary VTET students must take national examinations and may take as many certificates as they want from other agencies like CISCO, Professional Association, or other training and certification provider to increase their employability. Many countries in the region have become more interested in adopting National Qualification Frameworks NQFs, which are often seen by governments as a solution to both national and regional skills recognition. However, there is increasing debate in both the policy and academic literature about whether NQFs aresuitable for developing countries Grunwald et al., 2004; King and Palmer, 2007; McGrath, Martins, Smith, Cachalia and Kane, 2005; Young, 2005; the consensus of opinion at the moment suggests that they are not. ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 63 Skills Development Opportunities in Southeast Asia Expanding the key players and their contribution The role of the government in skills development is very strong in all Southeast Asian countries. Even though individual and private companies, institutions or organizations have important roles in skills development, the government is still the major player. All public agencies and government ministries at the certain level also contribute and participate in skills development. In general, however, two Ministries— Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labor different names are used in this region— are the major players in skills development. Ministry of Education is responsible for formal education and schooling; while Ministry of Labor is responsible for providing training to school leavers and providing assistance in job placement. Ministry of Labor play important roles in coming up with skills standards that in some cases have duplication or incoherent with the one developed by Ministry of Education. Public-private partnerships are becoming more popular especially in countries that have big businesses and industries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam. This can be a major player in future and will help sustain skills development. The contributions from international and foreign agencies for skills development in developing countries in Southeast Asia are also very significant especially in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Timor Leste, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The list of international agencies that are predominant in assisting the above countries are USAIDS, AusAIDS, ILO, UNESCO, UNEVOC,JICA, KOICA, InWEnt, the World Bank, SwissContact, SEAMEO. In order to maximize skills development, expanding the key players, especially by engaging private sector is very crucial. This will not only contribute to the relevancy of TVET but also its sustainability. At the same time, the involvement of private sectors can be enhanced by engaging more in the planning, execution, and evaluation of the programme. Improved coordination among external agencies is also necessary to minimize overlapping. Facilitating Labor Mobility Labor mobility is an important element of the envisaged ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. The statistics shows that 13.5 million migrants originating from ASEAN, of whom 5.3 million living in other ASEAN ISBN : 978-602-97249-0-5 International Seminar on Vocational Education and Training 64 Member Countries. According to Kim 2008, Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar are the major senders of 3.6 million, 2.3 million, 1.6 million migrant workers respectively. The major destination countries are Malaysia and Thailand with 1.9 million each , and Singapore 1.2 million. According to Kim, the economic and social benefits of migration both for sending and receiving countries are enormous. To prepare students with more suitable skills not only working in the country but also abroad, TVET should incorporate inter-cultural understanding and international languages—especially English. Indonesia has been sending TVET students to attach in foreign companies. Mastering foreign language competency, especially English, is also mandated for TVET students regardless of some limitations. Students in Singapore are also having an exposure to learning about and working in conditions outside of their culture, country, and region, so as to benefit from opportunities abroad which are on the rise due to globalization Tiew Ming, 2007. This initiative is also happening in other countries in the region.

C. Concluding Remarks