Person:
Lee, Kiong Hock

Education Global Practice
Profile Picture
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Economics of education
Degrees
ORCID
Departments
Education Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated: January 31, 2023
Biography
Kiong Hock Lee contributed to the development of the Systems Approach for Better Results (SABER)-Workforce Development tool in his capacity as senior World Bank consultant to the team.  He began his career in commercial banking in Malaysia before joining the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, where, in his capacity as lecturer, professor and chairman of the Division of Analytical Economics, he taught courses on the economics of education, and on labor and personnel economics.  He has served as a consultant to the Economic Planning Unit, Prime Minister’s Department, Malaysia; the ASEAN Secretariat, the Asian Development Bank, the International Labour Organization, and the UNDP on human resource development and labor market information systems.  He has led and conducted reverse tracer studies on skills training, and is the co-editor of a three-volume longitudinal tracer study on the transition from school to work in Malaysia.

Filters

2000 - 20191
Browse document type tree
Reset filters

Settings

Statistics
Citations

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Workforce Development in Emerging Economies: Comparative Perspectives on Institutions, Praxis, and Policies
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-06-15) Nam, Yoo-Jeung Joy; Tan, Jee-Peng; Lee, Kiong Hock; Flynn, Ryan; Roseth, Viviana V.
    Investing in skills has risen to the top of the policy agenda today in rich and poor countries alike. The World Bank supports its partner countries on this agenda in multiple ways: development finance, research and analysis, global knowledge exchange, and technical assistance. This report was originally conceived as a contribution to this catalog of the World Bank’s work, but its topic and findings are relevant to all policy makers and analysts interested in skills-building to drive economic growth and improve human well-being. The book examines workforce development (WfD) systems in emerging economies around the world and presents novel systems-level data generated by the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER)-WfD benchmarking tool, which was created to implement the World Bank’s 10-year Education Sector Strategy launched in 2012. A key theme in the book is that WfD entails a multi-layered engagement involving high-level policy makers, system-level managers, as well as leaders at individual institutions. Too often, the conversation and actions are fragmented by intellectual, administrative and operational silos which undermine effective cooperation to solve the deep challenges of building job-relevant skills. The book’s findings, based on cross-sectional data for nearly 30 countries and time-series data for five countries, identify successes and common issues across countries in the sample. In lagging countries, the biggest difficulties relate to: forming and sustaining strategic partnerships with employers; ensuring equitable and efficient funding for vocational education; and putting in place mechanisms to enhance training providers’ accountability for results defined by their trainees’ job market performance. By framing WfD in the broader skills-for-growth context and drawing on lessons from countries where well-designed WfD strategies have helped to drive sustained growth, this book offers clear guidance on how to enable a more effective approach to the inevitably complex challenges of workforce development in emerging economies.