Skills development for employability and inclusive growth: Policy dilemmas and priorities in South Asia

Abstract

Most countries in South Asia are either in the middle-income bracket or moving towards it; to move up the value chain towards higher incomes, they need more skilled people and larger investments in infrastructure. The combination of globalization, technological advancement, unprecedented labour mobility, and the demographic dividend offers them enormous opportunities—but they urgently need to catalyze the private sector through unified funding to scale up the high-quality training that can have a major and positive impact on the economy. This article suggests crucial ways to transform the skills training ecosystem so it can respond to the labour market’s needs, both at home and overseas. Among them are more effective funding arrangements, strong institutional arrangements for effective coordination, improved training modalities, significant engagement by the private sector, and quality assurance through partnerships between the national quality assurance agencies and industry/sector councils.