Staggering figures from the the Economist Intelligent Unit show that in order to avoid a rise in regional unemployment and recession, South Asia needs to create one million additional skills training places every month for the next eight years.
The report reveals that of the 100 million skilled trainees needed to spur economic growth, South Asia lacks 96 million.
Looking at skills development trends in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, where 20% of the region’s 1.6 billion people are aged between 15 to 24, the research shows that in order to meet the demand of the potential burgeoning work force, South Asia will first have to address its fragmented technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector, the lack of private and public funding as well as the negative perception of vocational training in society.
“We are training for the immediate, these present jobs will disappear. We need to train for jobs that are yet to be created”
“The solution lies in the public and private sector. You need a leap of faith. The public sector needs to provide funding and the private sector, training,” Peter Upton, the British Council’s director in Pakistan told The PIE News.
Most of the countries discussed in the report, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, already have systems in place that would foster such partnerships, since most TVET providers in these countries straddle the public and private sector. Pakistan is the only exception where the public arm is the dominant provider.
Involvement from foreign private sector has proved successful in some countries, specifically Afghanistan where attitudes have shifted dramatically, with USAID’s Afghanistan Workforce Development Programme (AWDP) recently brokering 300 meetings between private sector companies and AWDP graduates. Nepal however, is less open to foreign involvement.
The region’s TVET market however, is small and highly fragmented and it lacks an institutional framework big enough to meet the current demand for over 100 million training places the report warns.
There are more than 750 universities in South Asia, with a further 1,500 planned to open but traditional universities still have a strangle hold on resources and funding, which is due in part to the perception that TVET is a fall back option for those who have failed to “make it” in the academic system.
“This is despite the reality that vocational skills development has a better framework for integrated learning than traditional higher education,” Upton explained.
In the past governments have neglected skills training, according to UNESCO, but state lead councils are being established across the region and Upton says “now governments are starting to investigate what areas they will invest in.”
Bangladesh set up its National Skills Development Council forming 22 ministries and agencies that are overseen by the Prime Minister. Likewise, India has also allocated US$1 billion to train 500 million workers by 2022. Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan also have governing bodies with their own country specific strategies to equip their work force.
In addition to the massive capacity gap, South Asia’s dated curricula also adds to the challenge of growing a young competitive work force. Traditionally, labour opportunities afforded by private firms involve time sensitive projects such as factory work, which lacks long-term employment prospects.
“Vocational skills development has a better framework for integrated learning than traditional higher education”
The region needs more programmes such as Bangladesh’s 9-year old Computer Literature Programme (CLP), that has over 70,000 students gaining basic hardware and software skills in 150 classrooms across 56 districts the report argues.
“We are training for the immediate, these present jobs will disappear. We need to train for jobs that are yet to be created,” Upton said.
This week over 90 decision makers met in London to discuss what they are calling “the skills revolution”. Dialogues included asking whether skills are the new global commodity, and highlighted the need for job creation to alter perception of the TVET sector.
Salahuddin Kasem Khan Co-Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Skills Development Council in Bangladesh said: “The West has an aging population. You can give us the technology and resources and we can give you the manpower.”
