Not just jobs: workforce development in an economy based on skills

In a globalized economy, where capital and labor market and are very mobile, but the technology is evolving rapidly, the development of institutions which are engaged in the workforce plays a key role in achieving greater prosperity and standard of living. The analysis engine for economic development at local level shows that human resources are a fundamental source of economic development based on knowledge. Politicians in the labor market and training should contribute significantly not only to master the necessary skill set for the economy at the local level, but also to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and social cohesion. Institutions of the labor market can cope with a wide range of issues at the local level to attract and retain talented staff to catching up on missing skills in integrating immigrants, the inclusion of disadvantaged people in education and employment, improving job quality and increase competitiveness of local firms. They have a unique opportunity to contribute, depending on the volume of its programs and services, and its presence in the national economy, and at different levels of administration.

However, the policy of the labor market is relatively close down in the past, like most public institutions in employment is limited to the supply of suitable jobs for job seekers and to provide basic skills, providing direct employment, qualifications bodies are not always corresponded to the actual needs of business and strategic orientation of the local level. To optimize the potential contribution of the institutions related to workforce development for prosperity must be placed in a new overarching objective for workforce development: Complete management of human resources so as to better meet the needs of global economy, both nationally and locally, by improving economic competitiveness and social cohesion.
In practice attempts to achieve this goal is inevitably faced with many obstacles. One of them is the difficulty to accelerate changes in local education and training systems so as to provide skilled search. The other is related to overcoming the fragmentation of decision-making at local level in terms of human resources, immigration policies, integration policies and qualifications are often developed by different people in razlbichni institutions. The situation is aggravated due to the separation of economic development policies of the labor market, which often are provided in „silos.“ Lack of willingness to examine problems in the long term is another obstacle to the harmonization of local and national problems related to implementation of the qualification and labor policies.
Institutions that are engaged in workforce development can not work alone to achieve its goals. To encourage the development of human resources in a manner consistent with today’s economy, it is important to improve local government for workforce development. It is essential to achieve a high degree of coordination of policies, better adaptation to local conditions and greater participation of business and civil society in shaping the measures.
A review of experiences of OECD and the examples in the context of the seven countries included in the study, highlights the need to achieve better coordination and more effective balance between the efforts of policymakers at national and local level. While there is a need for more differentiation and experimentation at the local level is important to maintain efficiency and accountability in the overall policy framework. The conclusions reached as a result of this cross-border comparative analysis can be summarized in the following directions:
Introduction of flexibility in management. It should be possible at the local level to decide and to provide strategic guidance for the implementation of public programs and services, unless the execution of predetermined goals. In a targeted framework for management and development of the workforce, this means that centrally set political targets will be negotiated and locally, taking into account existing local strategic priorities.
Create a comprehensive framework of governance, which includes flexibility at the local level. Policy on workforce development must be managed in a way that stimulates greater differentiation at the local level, paying attention and the aggregate impact at the national level. The process of negotiating targets people at local level should be placed in a working framework to ensure that the objectives of the overall national policy will continue to be followed.
Building strategic capacity. Development of competences at the local level appears to be particularly important in this context as strategies for human resource development must be integrated and responsive to economic realities on the ground. The staff in the institutions related to the labor market must be well familiar with local business practices, local economic conditions, development of local industries and the appropriate methods to identify the missing skills and training gaps in local economic sectors. Also, these institutions must develop the necessary analytical skills to use this knowledge as a basis for developing a broad strategic guidance to the local level.
Creating a local database and information. Building understanding of the conditions of economic and labor market requires as a prerequisite, management of databases, detailed and diverse expertise in various fields. The ability to collect data locally and arranging them in a way that allows training on strategic planning is very important. National level can support this process through the disaggregation of these data at local level and through the development of analytical tools available that can be adapted to local circumstances.
Improving the management arrangements. Institutions involved in the labor market, should cooperate effectively with the business prosayuzite, civil society, universities, research centers, economic development agencies and local authorities. There is no mechanism for management to comply with all institutional frameworks, but the partnership is very important to gather all the actors and to develop relevant and realistic strategies.
Improve administrative processes. Alignment of policies through institutional reforms such as decentralization, it is difficult challenge. In large countries with complex distribution of power, the full interaction will probably always seem impossible. Eshirokomashtaben needed review of how the administrations operate, assist and implement policies to improve the relationship between various administrative levels and between different institutions. This is particularly important given that new, larger objectives related to human resources development, and affect many different areas of policy.