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What is SKY project about?

About our purpose, characteristics and mission

SKY[Skills and Knowledge for Youth] home What is SKY project about?

What is SKY project about?（Skills and Knowledge for Youth）

Recently, developing countries demonstrate remarkable economic growth. Accordingly, the economic growth rate in Africa has exceeded developed countries since 2000.
However, a large part of national incomes for developing countries, particularly in Africa, originate from export of crude natural resources and low value-added productions. Because they share the low value-added work, the lives of workers in these countries are insecure.
Also, in today's globalizing world, many firms from developed countries invest in developing countries. Africa has a huge potential as a market and production base, which attracts many global companies. At the same time, the lack of human resources with necessary skills impedes their advancement in Africa.
The availability of skilled workforce will be a big incentive for companies to choose the sites for investment.
Moreover, despite the rapid economic growth and increased investments by global companies, in many developing countries, the issue of a high unemployment rate is still unresolved. The youth unemployment rate is particularly high.
To link the vital economy with stable employment, it is indispensable that each worker acquires firm knowledge and skills.For this purpose, technical and vocational education and training has been attracting a great deal of attention.

SKY is a research project with the following aimsSKY is a research project with the following aims

1) To propose effective means for developing industrial human resources which contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction in developing countries
2) To specify if technical and vocational education and training is providing a workforce with skills demanded by the industries
3) To develop the skills assessment module and operationalize it, so that it would benefit governments of developing countries, so local and investing firms can benefit

Strengths of SKYStrengths of SKY

Using the skills assessment sheets developed originally by SKY, we can provide answers to the following questions for relevant industries:

Whether there are any mismatches between the skill expectations of employers and the training providers
Whether the actual skills which workers have match with the expectations of employers and trainers
Whether the curricula of training institutions are relevant and succeed in developing people with in-demand skills

For the governments of developing countries

The governments of developing countries have to provide technical and vocational education and training within the limited public budget effectively and efficiently. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to get accurate answers to the following questions: Are there any mismatches between the training and employment?; Are the workers’ skills appropriate for the work they do?; Are the curricula of training institutions appropriate to develop needed types of skills? To be able to answer them, one has to establish the methods of conducting the skills assessment of workers and accurately assess the gaps between the supply and demand sides of the skilled workforce.

For firms which consider foreign investment

One of the major impediments to foreign investments is the availability of a quality workforce on site. Are there good workers with necessary skills? Can we secure a sufficient workforce with necessary skills? Where do we need to start from to train workers on the job? The skills assessment conducted by SKY will help you to find the paths to get the concrete measures to answer these questions.

Pilot studies are conducted in three countries, aimed at standardizing the skills assessment module for application in different countries and industrial sectors