Employer Voices, Employer Demands, and Implications for Public Skills Development Policy : Connecting the Labor and Education Sectors
Educators believe that they are adequately preparing youth for the labor market while at the same time employers lament the students’ lack of skills. A possible source of the mismatch in perceptions is that employers and educators have different understandings of the types of skills valued in th...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/02/25994096/employer-voices-employer-demands-implications-public-skills-development-policy-connecting-labor-education-sectors http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23921 |
| Summary: | Educators believe that they are adequately preparing youth
for the labor market while at the same time employers lament
the students’ lack of skills. A possible source of the mismatch
in perceptions is that employers and educators have
different understandings of the types of skills valued in the
labor market. Using economics and psychology literature to
define four skills sets—socio-emotional, higher-order cognitive,
basic cognitive, and technical—this paper reviews
the literature that quantitatively measures employer skill
demand, as reported in a preference survey. A sample of 27
studies reveals remarkable consistency across the world in
the skills demanded by employers. While employers value
all skill sets, there is a greater demand for socio-emotional
skills and higher-order cognitive skills than for basic cognitive
or technical skills. These results are robust across region,
industry, occupation, and education level. Employers perceive
that the greatest skills gaps are in socio-emotional
and higher-order cognitive skills. These findings suggest the
need to re-conceptualize the public sector’s role in preparing
children for a future labor market. Namely, technical
training is not equivalent to job training; instead, a broad
range of skills, many of which are best taught long before
labor market entry, should be included in school curricula
from the earliest ages. The skills most demanded by employers—
higher-order cognitive skills and socio-emotional
skills—are largely learned or refined in adolescence, arguing
for a general education well into secondary school until
these skills are formed. Finally, the public sector can provide
programming and incentives to non-school actors, namely
parents and employers, to encourage them to invest in the
skills development process. Skills, labor demand, cognitive,
non-cognitive, behavioral skills, competences, employer
surveys, skills policy, education policy, training policy. |
|---|