Workforce Development in Emerging Economies

Investing in skills has risen to the top of the policy agenda today in rich and poor countries alike. The World Bank supports its partner countries on this agenda in multiple ways: development finance, research and analysis, global knowledge exchange, and technical assistance. This report was originally conceived as a contribution to this catalog of the World Bank’s work, but its topic and findings are relevant to all policy makers and analysts interested in skills-building to drive economic growth and improve human well-being.

The book examines workforce development (WfD) systems in emerging economies around the world and presents novel systems-level data generated by the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-WfD benchmarking tool, which was created to implement the World Bank’s 10-year Education Sector Strategy launched in 2012. A key theme in the book is that WfD entails a multi-layered engagement involving high-level policy makers, system-level managers, as well as leaders at individual institutions. Too often, the conversation and actions are fragmented by intellectual, administrative and operational silos which undermine effective cooperation to solve the deep challenges of building job-relevant skills.

The book’s findings, based on cross-sectional data for nearly 30 countries and time-series data for five countries, identify successes and common issues across countries in the sample. In lagging countries, the biggest difficulties relate to: forming and sustaining strategic partnerships with employers; ensuring equitable and efficient funding for vocational education; and putting in place mechanisms to enhance training providers’ accountability for results defined by their trainees’ job market performance. By framing WfD in the broader skills-for-growth context and drawing on lessons from countries where well-designed WfD strategies have helped to drive sustained growth, this book offers clear guidance on how to enable a more effective approach to the inevitably complex challenges of workforce development in emerging economies.