Publication: Providing Skills for Equity and Growth: Preparing Cambodia's Youth for the Labor Market
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2010
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2010
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The scope of this report is twofold. First, it documents skills gaps and mismatches and attempts to understand the reasons for them. Second, it provides a framework for thinking about skills development, drawing on international best practices, with the intent of stimulating further discussion. Given the breadth of the task, in this report we narrow the focus on a particular segment of the labor force: unskilled youth. There are several reasons sustaining this choice. First, unskilled youth, most of whom are out of school and have little chance to integrate themselves into the labor market, represent a significant share of the labor force that will remain active for the next 30 or 40 years. If nothing is done, out-of school youth will benefit at best only marginally from growth, and may even become an obstacle to sustaining growth in the long term. Second, the current educational system still faces a strong challenge in retaining students, and unskilled youth are likely to remain high on the agenda in the next decade or even longer. Finally, in the past decade, training programs designed specifically for out-of-school youth have begun to emerge around the developing world, in particular in Latin America, and recent evaluations suggest that they can be effective in increasing productivity and the chance of finding employment. Nevertheless, many of the findings of this report extend to overall skills development in Cambodia. In particular, the report points to significant market failures preventing both firms and training providers from offering quality training at all levels, as well as the need to develop certification and accreditation systems that are valued and recognized by employers and span all levels of education. The report proceeds in four chapters. The first covers demographic trends and the labor market. The second looks at skills gaps and mismatches. The third reviews existing training providers. The concluding chapter considers policy options in going forward.
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“World Bank. 2010. Providing Skills for Equity and Growth: Preparing Cambodia's Youth for the Labor Market. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21748 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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