JANUARY 2014
SABER in Action:
Workforce Development
.4Matching education systems to workforce needs
Equipping national workforces with job-relevant skills is a continuing
challenge, and mismatches are a persistent concern. Many school graduates
cannot find jobs commensurate with their education and training. Employers
complain of difficulty in filling vacancies and bemoan the scarcity of soft skills
for boosting productivity. More broadly, skills constraints make it difficult for
companies to innovate and invest in more lucrative economic areas. A goal of
SABER-Workforce Development is to help countries improve their workforce
development framework.
Establishing a framework for policy dialogue
Given the diversity of stakeholders in workforce development, as well as the diversity of the
perspectives, experiences, and priorities, a common understanding of concepts and terms,
backed by evidence on how the system functions, is essential.
The conceptual framework for SABER-Workforce Development (WfD) identifies three  SABER-Workforce
functional dimensions of policies and institutions that affect workforce development  Development provides
outcomes.
outcmes.a diagnostic that shows
*   Strategy. The alignment of workforce development with a country's national goals for  system  strengths and
economic and social development.                                             weaknesses relative
*   System oversight. The governance arrangements that shape the behavior of key
stakeholders, including individuals, employers, and training providers.      to international best
*   Service delivery. The mechanisms for managing the provision of services in the field.  practice
SABER-Workforce Development diagnoses system strengths and weaknesses relative
to international best practice. The conceptual framework allows stakeholders to reach a
common understanding of these issues, creating a platform for discussing priorities for
system improvement.
Building ownership and stakeholder engagement
Thirty countries with vastly different economies and levels of development are using SABER-
Workforce Development to assess their policies and institutional structures and to propose
and enact new policies, regulations, and assessment systems.
In each of the three functional dimensions some countries are assessed as Established
or Advanced and others as Latent or Emerging. But where a country stands today is less
important than its commitment to using SABER and the evidence on what works in changing
policy and improving results.
The Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) produces  nAustrilnan
knowledge on education policies and institutions based on global bests t E or
practice, with the aim of helping countries systematically strengthen their  asE Ea LN A
education systems to achieve learning for all children and youth.                       UKaid


SABER-WfD involves country counterparts early in data collection and in workshops to
present and validate initial results. The process enhances ownership of the results while
the framework allows for structured conversations based on common understanding of
concepts and challenges.
SABER-WfD allows countries to see what steps others have taken to address common
challenges. So, not only does it provide a platform to launch reform, as the examples below
show, but it also creates opportunities for learning from what has worked elsewhere.
SABER-WfD in action
Bulgaria. The implementation of SABER-WfD coincided with the development of a new
legal framework for technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The key TVET
stakeholders drafting the new legislation were all involved in the application of SABER.
Through workshops organized to validate the findings, SABER-WfD was integrated into
professional stakeholder discussions of workforce development. SABER-related reports and
data will be used for future dialogue with the government in developing a new law regulating  Participatory data
pre-university education.                                                           collection and
Iraq. The SABER-WfD assessment provided analysis for the development of a draft national  validation enhance
TVET strategy that is being discussed by the government and should be approved this year.
The findings were also used in the design of ongoing World Bank technical assistance that
aims to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Education of Central Iraq to implement  results
the TVET strategy and improve vocational education.
Uganda. The application of SABER-WfD coincided with the government's endorsement of
a comprehensive Business, Technical, and Vocational Education Law. SABER workshops
provided the basis for a shared assessment by stakeholders of Uganda's workforce challenges
and priorities for reform. Participants examined the structure and content of the SABER-
WfD data collection instrument and identified the kinds of programs most needed. The
workshops also helped establish clear targets for stakeholders to monitor implementation.
Malaysia. SABER-WfD was used to frame recommendations in the World Bank publication,
Malaysia Skills Report, which identified shortfalls in the country's education system that limit
its ability to become a high-performing economy. Chronic weaknesses in teacher training
and an overcentralized school system were leaving the country's workforce behind other East
Asian economies in developing core cognitive skills, especially in science and math.
Better systems producing better outcomes
Countries can use SABER-Workforce Development to foster reforms that make their
workforces more competitive and attractive to investors. Future work will analyze features
of economies and institutional settings that facilitate or hamper a country's ability to reform
workforce development.
Australian
THE WORLD BANK            UKa        Aid                       www.worldbank.org/education/saber