Skills Development Initiatives Research Articles

Skills and HRD in the emerging global market perspective: A case of India

Skills are regarded an important growth driver in knowledge based globalised economy. In most of the developed nations and fast growing economies have very high proportion of skilled work force, while the skill levels among the Indian work force is abysmally low and probably among the lowest in the world. One of the reasons for the low skill trained manpower is terribly low institutional training capacity and the vocational education and training systems as being too supply driven and far-removed from market demand. India has distinct advantage of young age-population with declining dependency ratio which is termed as ‘population dividend’ while the industrialized nations have ageing population with rising dependency ratio. This precisely gives India an advantage with huge competitive edge internationally. While industrialized nations will be facing acute shortage of skills with increasing dependency ratio, India can harness this huge potential if skill development initiatives fructifies in right direction which will then be in real sense a ‘population dividend’. If this opportunity is missed then it may well turn in to ‘demographic nightmare’The paper aims at examining the skill issues in the context of globalization and seeks to scrutinize how the skilling efforts have moved on to central stage in order to reap the benefits. The paper explores the theme both from the demand and supply perspectives in a complex yet exciting global environment.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ejdi.v13i0.7210Economic Journal of Development Issues Vol.13 & 14 2011, pp.51-64

Skills development and disempowerment: Unraveling workplace skills transfer in trying economic times!

In trying economic times, firm-level skills development initiatives take second place as a result of the austerity measures in place or as their anticipated impacts become real (see for instance TUC, 2009). But what happens to national development imperatives in these times? This paper explores the impact of the 2008 global economic financial crisis on skills development and workplace equity for a selection of South African companies in the manufacturing sector. It reports on the results of a quantitative and qualitative firm-level response to the crisis. In light of the peculiar skills development and equity challenges facing the country, it is argued that national measures and firm-level recruitment trends are not likely to advance workplace equity as the quest for efficiency takes hold in an effort to survive the crisis. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Social capital and leadership development

PurposeAs organizations face volatile and virtual environments there is a growing need to equip emerging leaders with skills to generate, utilize and maintain social capital. This paper aims to examine five recent, large leadership studies to clarify the role that human capital or social capital capabilities play in present day and future leadership.Design/methodology/approachResearchers review five recent large leadership studies, assessing the human capital and/or social capital orientation of identified leadership capabilities.FindingsThe analysis indicates that, although there is a primary focus on human capital capabilities, social capital skills have begun to receive more attention as components of a leader's skill set.Research limitations/implicationsThe review focused on five published studies and does not reflect the comprehensiveness of a meta‐analysis. Hence conclusions may not apply to all situations. Further exploration and longitudinal study of the efficacy of various developmental approaches and the differential impacts of human and social capital approaches on leaders' effectiveness is suggested.Practical implicationsThe growing value placed on leadership social capital capabilities is further addressed here through the presentation of specific social capital skill development initiatives that may be implemented within an organization.Originality/valueThe paper suggests that social capital skills have received more attention recently, yet remain undervalued compared with human capital as important leadership components and offers suggestions for enhancing leadership development initiatives through specific foci on social capital skill development including adopting an open‐systems organic mindset, leveraging relational aspects of leadership development, and building networking and story‐telling skills.

Gender, skills development and poverty reduction

abstract This Briefing presents a gender analysis of skills development in South Africa within the broader context of economic growth and poverty reduction. Education and skills development are at the centre of development and economic growth through the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgi-SA) and Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). This Briefing is focused on how JIPSA as a strategy for skills development addresses gender equality. The paper uses a gender and development framework that sees gender relations as a unit of analysis to challenge the skills development initiatives' approach to gender issues. It argues that approaches to skills development assume an integrationist model that ignores cultural, historical and socioeconomic differences between and within women and men. This approach to gender equality is flawed and runs the risk of perpetuating poverty and economic inequalities between men and women and amongst women themselves by advancing those who are already advanced. The paper recommends a comprehensive analysis of gender issues that will inform a gender-sensitive approach to economic growth, skills development and poverty reduction.

ICT Inclusion and Gender: Tensions in Narratives of Network Engineer Training

Government, major information and communications technology (ICT) companies, and educational institutions in the United Kingdom currently claim that ICT skills training offers inclusion into the new economy. We focus on a private–public training initiative and its impact on the socially excluded, specifically lone women parents. Narrative data from four United Kingdom educational sites participating in this computer network engineer training program highlight a systemic paradox: that ICT skills development initiatives designed to support lone women parents are simultaneously working in opposition to broader policy goals such as work–life balance and ironically serve to reproduce the participants' classification as socially excluded. The assumptions underpinning the model of social inclusion driving the ICT skills training course are analyzed critically using the concepts of community of practice, classificatory systems, and marginalization. Our findings suggest that ICT training courses and initiatives should be accompanied by changes in pedagogic practice that accommodate the more wide-ranging needs of those targeted for inclusion, as well as changes in employment settings. We conclude by exploring the implications of this for government policy formation, business vendor qualifications, the design of ICT skills training initiatives, and our understanding of the role of ICT skills in overcoming the digital divide.

“But my subject's different”: a web-based approach to supporting disciplinary lifelong learning skills

Many new initiatives in Higher Education institutions choose to develop web sites to support their work, not least because web-based delivery of support materials from a central unit can help to deliver development materials via a single point of access, and ‘on demand’. But this presents its own difficulties in terms of the selection and structure of generic material, and in making students aware of its existence. In this paper, the problem of designing a centrally managed web site (both in terms of structure and format) that adequately supports students across the institution will be discussed, and a strategy for developing a site that meets departmental needs will be presented, together with a discussion of the impact of this approach on the role of the developer. This is illustrated within the context of supporting Key Skills. ‘Key’ or ‘transferable’ skills are now recognised as being essential for most people in work and in life. Development of these skills is being encouraged at every level in education, and is demanded with increasing frequency by employers and professional bodies. Within Higher Education, the skills debate has prompted an examination of how students manage their own learning, and skills development initiatives encourage learners to seek ways of filling gaps in their knowledge and experience. However, at university level, it is frequently the case that explicit development of key skills must fall to students' spare time or to their extra-curricular activities. This is partly explained by departmental traditions and experience, which may not encompass skills development. The UCL Key Skills site model, based on a ‘core’ website with customised departmental homepages, allows departments to make best use of central resources by ‘personalising’ the routes into these for their students. It also draws an important distinction in terms of the purpose of the web site, between management of information (for the central site) and pedagogy (for the departmental pages). The model helps to lay the foundations for graduates' lifelong learning by encouraging skills development, within a discipline-specific setting. The benefits of this approach—which included greatly increased levels of engagement and raised awareness amongst staff—are illustrated by a case study from the UCL Geography department, and wider applications of the model as a way of supporting centralised initiatives are discussed.

Review of Micro-Credit and Business Development Programmes in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Review of Micro-Credit and Business Development Programmes in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Embedding Inward Investment through Workforce Development: Experiences in Wales

The author examines the role of workforce development—in the form of skills upgrading and training—in integrating and embedding foreign direct investment (FDI) in the economy of Wales. He finds that by far the most important deciding factor in choosing Wales as an investment location is the availability of the government grants and subsidies that facilitate the initial location process. If this assistance were not available then the majority of FDI projects would not be attracted to Wales. The perception during the location decisionmaking process by potential FDI plants of the availability and quality of skilled labour in Wales is good compared with that of other potential regions. However, upon locating it appears that there is a significant shortfall between this perception and the actual quality of skilled labour available. Although the large majority of FDI plants utilise ‘aftercare’ training and skills-development initiatives facilitated by regional institutions and agencies the programmes in place in Wales are not always of the standard required by inward investors. The author finds that training budgets are significantly higher among FDI companies in Wales than comparably sized businesses in the United Kingdom as a whole, indicating that their contribution to regional workforce development has been underemphasised. It is concluded that, despite some recent restructuring, inward investors in Wales have attempted to act as ‘local’ agents, exerting an influence on and having an interest in the socioeconomics of their residing localities, suggesting an increasing degree of embeddedness.