Skills and Related Training Issues

The impact of globalization on employment and working conditions is partly determined by differences in levels of skills, and the extent to which skills are upgraded through training initiatives. As companies expand across borders, the geographical spread and composition of their workforces change as well.

Training for TE workers is therefore attributed varying objectives and priorities. In the higher-income countries, where the risk of employment loss is greater, priority tends to go to evaluating and renegotiating retraining schemes for: redeployment within specific enterprises and related businesses, and new jobs in other enterprises/sectors. In the middle-income countries with good prospects for TE employment growth, higher priority is given to reshaping vocational and on-the-job training schemes for the upgrading and differentiation of products. In the low-income countries, the key issues are to create or improve vocational training schemes for technical skills and attitudes through effective linkages with on-the-job training programmes.

The ILO has carried out assessments of training needs and provided assistance to member States in the development of vocational training systems, in-plant training, and apprenticeships and other training schemes directed towards young workers in the TE sector, in accordance with conclusions adopted by earlier sectoral meetings covering the TE industries.