The ILO released a report titled Financing mechanisms for promoting social inclusion in skills and lifelong learning systems: Global overview of current practices and policy options which analyses pros and cons of practices around the world, exploring ways by which access to and participation in skills development and lifelong learning of disadvantaged people could be improved.
The report found out that governments and policymakers should utilize the financial mechanisms (domestic/implemented abroad) to impart skills and lifelong learning to disadvantaged groups of people, so as to enhance their participation. It is useful since a lot of these groups have been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The group includes women, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, people in rural areas, the elderly etc. who face structural barriers to access the skill development programs. The result is their low labour force participation and a wage gap.
With skilling programs, the employability, competitiveness and productivity of these groups would be enhanced, and that in turn would lead to economic diversification and transformation of economies. The report suggests that governments should take learnings from and utilise the mechanisms implemented elsewhere to their local advantage. One way is to provide grants, training vouchers, subsidies and allowances as financial incentives to encourage training among disadvantaged individuals.
Prat Tuca, Regional Technical and Programme Coordinator of the ILO-UK Skills for Prosperity Programme in South-East Asia, was of the opinion that non-financial instruments could be more effective if coupled with financial instruments which address the financial barriers to training participation.
The report also highlights some effective financing mechanisms for enterprises. They are targeted grants, tax incentives or differentiated levy payments which could be provided to the formal sector enterprises to encourage them to train their disadvantaged workers. However, the report suggests keeping in mind the need for social inclusion. Untargeted or hasty approaches might be ineffective in fostering social inclusion since they are not designed with inclusion in mind, rather they only increase overall training.
The report notes that small enterprises, in particular in the informal sector, are likely to have high levels of disadvantaged owners as well as informal employers. These are the hardest to reach and efforts should be aimed at reaching these groups. Overall, the solution lies in applying financial mechanisms alongside non-financial measures such as raising awareness, guidance and counselling to bring about a holistic approach.
To start, governments can review their existing mechanisms with the aim to find out the root causes of social exclusion from skills and lifelong learning among disadvantaged groups. Further, they need to strengthen monitoring and evaluation so that the enforcement agencies can selectively reach out to the targeted groups and individuals.
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