Skills Development in the Time of COVID-19

TARGET GROUP: INSTITUTIONS

OBJECTIVES

·      To understand the challenges faced by TVET institutions during this crisis and to identify emerging innovations implemented in different contexts, in order to facilitate the sharing of information among TVET providers, policymakers and social partners.

SUMMARY

The COVID-19 pandemic is the most significant health crisis that the world has faced in the past 100 years. It has disrupted our way of living with unprecedented consequences for our daily lives, including how we work and learn. According to estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO), 14 per cent of working hours were lost globally in the second quarter of 2020 when compared to the last quarter of 2019 (ILO 2020a). This loss is equivalent to 480 million full-time jobs, an indication of a massive disruption to labour markets around the world (ibid). The situation jeopardizes the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular Goal 8: “Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all,” and its target 8.5, which calls for the achievement, by 2030, of “full and productive employment and decent work for all.” Furthermore, there is an important change in the work modality, as roughly one third of the world’s workers live in countries where workplaces were required to close (with the exception of those for essential workers), and another 42 per cent of workers were in countries with partial workplace closures (ILO 2020a). In order to keep businesses running, a large number of workers were required, where possible, to radically adapt their everyday approach to work. Teleworking (when the nature of the job allowed) became one of the most widespread adaptations.

REFERENCE

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_776788.pdf