Equity and inclusive growth
G20 countries’ commitments to inclusive and balanced growth, and the international
community’s commitments to a global reduction in poverty, also drive efforts to expand
the availability of good education and training.
Women’s rising rates of participation in the formal labour market and rising levels
of educational attainment both contribute to greater social equality between women
and men. The educational performance of women is generally better than that of men.
However, women face widespread barriers in seeking to achieve the goal of equality
of opportunity and treatment in employment. Gaining new and higher-level skills can
both help more women to enter the labour market and contribute to lowering gender
disparities in the labour market.
Country %
Argentina 49.2
Australia 93.8
Brazil 33.8
Canada 94.8
China 93.5
France 92.6
Germany 90.6
India 92.2
Indonesia 46.7
Italy 87.5
Japan 96.7
Korea, Republic of 96.2
Mexico 48.9
Russian Federation 88.4
Saudi Arabia 33.1
South Africa 35.3
Turkey 58.2
United Kingdom 92.9
United States 91.8
Source:
OECD, 2010b, table A3.
Table 1: Proportion of students attaining basic literacy, based on average test scores in mathematics
and science from the beginning of primary to the end of secondary schooling (PISA scale)
10 A Skilled Workforce for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth
Efforts to combat marginalization in working life are best focused on early education and youth employment.
Young people who are not integrated into the labour market
at an early age are at high risk of long-term lower wages and employment insecurity,
and youth unemployment rates tend to be inversely proportional to level of educational
attainment.
In many countries, the transition from school to work is a critical threshold. A
successful transition is greatly facilitated by good access to vocational education and
training and in-work experience.
Worldwide, 80 per cent of people with disabilities live below the poverty line.
Evidence of skills deficits among persons with disabilities is most apparent in countries
where quotas for employing disabled people cannot be met because of low education
and skill levels.
Globalization of markets
The defining characteristic of the past 50 years of world economic growth has been
the closer integration of markets across regions.
This is observed most distinctly in the
growth of world trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and migration.
World trade grew 1.6 times as fast as world GDP between 1950 and 2007. Over
the latter part of this period trade increased by 5 per cent annually while GDP grew
by only 2.9 per cent. Between 1950–73 and 1974–2007 global FDI as a share of world
GDP grew by a factor of five, reaching over 25 per cent in the latter period.7
As world trade has grown, so the pattern of exports has changed. The share of
industrialized countries in world exports of manufactures has been declining since the
1950s, and more sharply from the 1980s. This decline reflects the increasing specialization of the industrialized countries in services.
The correlate is a rising share of developing countries in world manufactures exports to just over a third in 2006, twice the
level of 25 years ago (figure 1).
Shifts in the geographical origins and in the composition of trade have major
consequences for skills requirements. Economic transformation, for example from
agriculture into manufacturing and services, or changes within an economic sector,
for example from more labour-intensive manufactures to higher value-added manufactures, change skill requirements. Adjusting the skills of the workforce to these changing requirements, whether in a country, a local area or a single enterprise, is a continuing challenge everywhere.
International movement of labour, from South to North, but also within the South
and within the North,
is another prominent feature of globalization The total number
of international migrants has grown steadily to reach 214 million in 2010, of which the
ILO estimates half are economically active or migrant workers.
The increase in migration within and among countries calls for special arrangements to be made for the education and skills training of immigrants, and for the recognition of the skills they bring with them. It also calls for policies to retain human capital
and avoid brain drain. A separate concern is that curtailing the movement of skilled labour will constrain growth and innovation:8
this issue is receiving increasing attention
in countries with ageing societies and projected labour shortages
