21st Century Inequality: Transferable skills and who learns them.

• In Event: Mind the Gaps: From Access to Equity in Ethiopia, India and Vietnam

Proposal

Workplaces around the world are changing, linked to the growth of the ‘knowledge economy’ and to increasing globalisation of business and services. The increasing interconnectedness of economies is leading to ‘flexibilisation’ of the labour market (Beck 2000) and as a result developing countries face both greater risk and greater opportunity from participating in the global economy. In this context, education has become an even more important asset – an educated population is a product which a country can ‘market’ (Drucker 1967), which may be key to ‘inclusive growth’, especially in countries with large youth populations. However, educational assets required by labour markets may also be shifting – in fast developing contexts requiring a workforce which has ‘21st century skills’; a complex and multi-layered set of capabilities including problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, English language and communication (World Bank 2014).

21st century skills, also known as ‘transferable skills’, are increasingly seen as important and necessary outcomes of secondary education (OECD 2015). Learned in and out of school, and across subject areas, they are known to be hard to define, assess and teach (UNESCO 2016). Yet as labour markets evolve, the World Bank (2014), among others, argues that quality learning in secondary schools must include the development of transferable skills if school leavers are to be able to participate in the 21st century workplace. As changing technologies making it hard to predict the torts of competencies which will be required in five, ten or fifteen years’ time, it is the transferable nature of these skills which may accord them their relevance. 21st century skills may come to define the ‘winners and losers’ in future labour markets.

This paper explores the ways in which the Young Lives longitudinal study, which has followed children in four developing countries over the past 15 years had developed unique longitudinal measures of selected transferable skills (problem solving, critical thinking and functional English) in a new secondary school effectiveness survey in Ethiopia, India and Vietnam. The design of Young Lives permits analysis of the predictors of the development of 21st century skills – at household and school level – allowing us to generate a picture of both levels and inequalities in these skills which are in turn transformed into inequalities in the labour market.

In the diverse country contexts covered by the Young Lives school survey, transferable skills are of considerable policy interest as the ‘next phase’ of quality education, as reflected by amendments to school curricula (Federal Ministry of Education 2010; MHRD 2016; World Bank 2015). Yet in contexts such as Ethiopia and India, where studies show that education systems are not delivering basic learning outcomes for all (Rolleston 2016), this paper explores whether policymakers’ current focus on transferable skills will be helpful or even possible, or if it will prove to be another area in which the most disadvantaged are left behind. Drawing on pilot data from the Young Lives transferable skills assessments, it discusses inequalities within and between countries on these key skill domains, and consider their implications for marginalisation, poverty and education system reform.

References:
Beck, U. (2000) What is Globalization? Cambridge: Polity Press.
Drucker, P. (1967) The Effective Executive. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.
Federal Ministry of Education (2010) Education Sector Development Program IV (ESDP IV), 2010/11 – 2014/15, 2003 EC – 2007 EC. Addis Ababa: Federal Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2016) Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy 2016. New Delhi: MHRD, Government of India.
OECD (2015) Skills for social progress: the power of social and emotional skills. OECD Skills Studies. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Rolleston, C. (2016) Escaping a low-level equilibrium of educational quality. RISE Working Paper 16/008
UNESCO (2016) Education for People and the Planet: Creating a sustainable future for all. Paris: UNESCO.
World Bank (2014) Skilling up Vietnam: Preparing the workforce for a modern market economy. Main report. Hanoi: Vietnam Development Information Centre.
World Bank (2015) Project Appraisal Document for a Renovation of General Education Project, Vietnam. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Authors

• Padmini Iyer, Young Lives / University of Oxford

• Rhiannon Moore, Young Lives / University of Oxford