December 2019 – VET Toolbox

South Asia Seminar on Private Sector Engagement in Skills Development

South Asia Seminar on Private Sector Engagement in Skills Development

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Month: December 2019

South Asia Seminar on Private Sector Engagement in Skills Development

Summary

The British Council delivered an EU VET Toolbox regional seminar on ‘Private Sector Engagement in Skills Development in South Asia’ on 11-13 December 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal. This by-invitation event was limited to 60 delegates and brought together key stakeholders from policy and practice, including employers, from across the region and beyond to explore shared challenges and practical solutions to engaging employers in skills development.

Although the five countries are different in terms of their starting points and their economic and institutional framework contexts, they all face the same challenge: designing a VET system that supports economic growth and makes the country future-proof. As a consequence, not only the policy framework and the institutional design of VET, but also the acceptance of VET by the private sector is fundamental to ensuring a successful and sustainable system. The private sector is taken to mean both employers, who may be acting in a purely commercial capacity or who may be fulfilling a corporate social responsibility policy, and private, for-profit, training providers.

Only a policy framework which promotes an active participation of the different stakeholders in VET, such as the government, the private sector, educators as well as participants, determines whether VET is a viable and attractive option – for young people as well as for economies.

The specific objectives of the seminar were:

To analyse private sector engagement in VET in the five countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
To provide a global perspective on the current opportunities and challenges for private sector engagement in skills development.
To derive transnational policy recommendations to strengthen the role of the private sector and, thus, contribute to skill development in the region.
To showcase UK, international and regional expertise.
To showcase VET Toolbox project achievements to date and build engagement with the project in South Asia.

Would you like to know more? Read the post-implementation report.

Request-based technical support (2017-2022)

We offered technical assistance through short-term interventions that build VET system capacities.

Between 2017 and 2022, VET Toolbox successfully implemented technical interventions in eligible countries. Each intervention, requested by public authorities, social partners, and private institutions, has placed an emphasis on providing expertise to support systemic change, through capacity-building key stakeholders, developing tools, and advising on strategic planning.

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Assistance technique sur demande (2017-2022)

Depuis 2017, VET Toolbox a mis en œuvre avec succès des interventions techniques dans les pays éligibles. Chaque intervention, demandée par les autorités publiques, les partenaires sociaux et les institutions privées, a mis l'accent sur la fourniture d'une expertise pour soutenir un changement systémique, en renforçant les capacités des parties prenantes clés, en développant des outils et en conseillant sur la planification stratégique.

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Supporting the positive effects of European investments (2020-2024)

We implement opportunity-driven actions in 11 Sub-Saharan African countries accompanying European investments to help improve local benefits (e.g., jobs, income, local value chains) by addressing the skills gap.

We deliver demand-driven skills development and VET, catering to investment needs in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, through targeted skills development and VET programmes.

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Funding of innovative pilot projects (2017-2022)

We funded 11 pilot projects that promote inclusion of disadvantages groups in VET.

They focused on youth experiencing or at risk of exclusion, such as women (including young mothers), youth exposed to violence or extremist groups or with a criminal background, internally displaced people and returnees, youth from the poorest households and rural/remote areas, youth with (complex) disabilities, and other vulnerable and disadvantaged people.

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Actions axées sur les opportunités : des investissements de l’UE aux opportunités d’emploi (2020-2024)

Nous menons des actions de développement des compétences et de formation professionnelle axées sur la demande, répondant aux besoins d’investissement dans certains pays d’Afrique subsaharienne, par le biais de programmes ciblés de développement des compétences et de formation professionnelle.

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Financement de projets pilotes innovants (2017-2022)

Ils se sont concentrés sur les jeunes en situation d'exclusion ou à risque d'exclusion, tels que les femmes (y compris les jeunes mères), les jeunes exposés à la violence ou à des groupes extrémistes ou ayant un passé criminel, les personnes déplacées à l'intérieur du pays et les rapatriés, les jeunes des ménages les plus pauvres et des zones rurales/éloignées, les jeunes ayant des handicaps (complexes) et d'autres personnes vulnérables et défavorisées.

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Twinning and mentoring partnerships (2019-2022)

LuxDev and the British Council are working to support the development of TVET in different countries through various partnership agreements. As part of VET Toolbox, LuxDev used a South-South approach to match countries with similar contexts and improve the management of vocational training centres, focusing on public-private collaboration to improve the quality and relevance of training. The British Council set up intercontinental Mentoring Partnerships, bringing together local institutions with a UK TVET college, to focus on employer engagement and bring training programmes closer to the needs of industry.

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Partenariats de jumelage et de mentorat (2019-2022)

LuxDev et le British Council travaillent pour soutenir le développement de l'EFTP dans différents pays à travers des accords de partenariat. Dans le cadre de VET Toolbox, LuxDev a utilisé une approche Sud-Sud pour mettre en relation des pays présentant des contextes similaires et améliorer la gestion des centres de formation professionnelle, en se concentrant sur la collaboration public-privé pour améliorer la qualité et la pertinence de la formation. Le British Council a mis en place des partenariats de mentorat intercontinentaux, mettant en lien des institutions locales avec un collège britannique d'EFTP, pour se concentrer sur l'engagement des employeurs et rapprocher les programmes de formation des besoins de l'industrie.

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