> Subject: Linking Work, Skills and Knowledge: Learning for
> Survival and Growth was the title of the International Conference
> convened by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in
> close collaboration with the Working Group for International Co-operat
>
> Linking Work, Skills and Knowledge
> Knowledge-based economies, global competition, poverty and social
> exclusion are key challenges in today's world of work.
> Linking Work, Skills and Knowledge: Learning for Survival and Growth
> was the title of the International Conference convened by the Swiss
> Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in close collaboration
> with the Working Group for International Co-operation in Skills
> Development, in Interlaken, Switzerland, in September 2001.
> Participants from more than 50 countries focused their debates on
> informal economies. They came up with a number of key messages:
> * Governments must provide adequate policy frameworks for the
> development of the informal sector. The formal and the informal
> sectors require an integrated policy approach.
> * Private sector delivery of skills training must be encouraged
> and supported by governments.
> * Funding needs partnerships between public and private
> stakeholders. Governments should avoid excessive administration in
> functioning markets, while contributing positively to the overcoming
> of market failure.
> * Skills should be understood in a broad sense, embracing
> practical skills as well as tacit knowledge and social competencies.
> * Accreditation should be harmonized between formal and non-formal
> systems.
> * Access must emphasize the needs of the poor, and pay attention
> to women, youth and the disabled.
> * Training, integrated with quality education, should help develop
> individual, small-scale entrepreneurs, and the underprivileged, and
> provide transferable skills and core competencies.
> * Historical and cultural contexts impact on content and delivery
> modes.
> International agencies were requested to reallocate more resources to
> the informal economy, to assist in its social and economic
> development, and to raise awareness of its potential.
> The conference recommended that donor agencies should help promote
> complementarity between the formal and the informal sectors. They
> should also facilitate South-South dialogue and regional exchange on
> these issues.
> The full text of the "Interlaken Declaration" is available in English,
> French and Spanish at www.workandskills.ch/
> <http://www.workandskills.ch/>
> The Working Group for International Co-operation in Skills Development
> - an informal group of donor agencies and international organizations
> involved in technical and vocational education and training - met
> immediately after the Conference. Project proposals that emerged from
> the initiative "Learning for Life, Work and the Future: Stimulating
> Reform in Southern Africa through Subregional Co-operation" (see
> www.unevoc.de/botswana <http://www.unevoc.de/botswana>) were presented
> jointly by the Department of Vocational Education and Training of
> Botswana and the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre.
> For further information, please contact Mr. Hans Krönner, fax [+49]
> (228) 2 43 37 77, email: H.Kronner@unevoc.de
> <mailto:H.Kronner@unevoc.org>.
>
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