2011/SOM1/008
Agenda Item: 7
Brief Introduction of the APEC Skills Development Promotion Project and Centre
Purpose: Information
Submitted by: China
/ First Senior Officials’ MeetingWashington, D.C., United States11-12 March 2011
Brief Introduction of the APEC Skills Development Promotion Project and Centre
1. In September 2010, Chinese President Hu Jintao announced that China decided to launch, together with other APEC member economies, the APEC Skills Development Promotion Project in his address at the opening ceremony of the 5th APEC HRD Ministerial Meeting in Beijing. Two months later in Yokohama, Japan, President Hu reaffirmed China’s commitment to launching the Project and Centre with a view to assisting APEC economies developing members in particular, in human resource capacity building.
2. The Joint Ministerial Statement adopted at the 5th APEC HRD Ministerial Meeting expresses ministers’ support for China’s initiative to implement the APEC Skills Development Promotion Project and their expectation to the subsequent establishment of an APEC Skills Development Promotion Centre (China), which means an effort to build synergy among HRD relatedcentres in APEC economies’and strengthen economic and technical cooperation (ECOTECH) in the field of human resources development across APEC fora and economies. In the HRDWG Action Plan (2011-2014), ministers alsoinstructed the working group to provide guidance and support to the Project implementation.
3. The purpose of the Project is to build capacity of vocational trainers of APEC economies, along with policy dialogues, people exchanges and high-standard training material and skills qualifications development.
4. The APEC Skills Development Promotion Project outlines 5 main outputs as follows:
A. Policy Dialogues and Seminars. One seminar will be organized on vocational training policy and practices for each year within the project duration (2011-2014).
B. Training Courses for Vocational Trainers. Four courses (1-2 week for each) a year in selected professions will be organized.
C. Youth and Skills Summer Camp. Two camps (2 weeks long each) will be hosted in China within the project duration to share experience on skills acquisition and raise the profile and the attractiveness of skills training to the youth.
D. Joint Development on Curriculum and Skills Qualification in above-outlined professions with a view of qualifications harmonization and better and updated training materials.
E. An APEC Skills Development Promotion Centre (China).
5. The APEC Skills Development Promotion Centre is aimed at strengthening dialogue, exchanges and practical cooperation in the field of skills development in APEC. The Centre will be based on an existing skills development hub and is also aimed at building an APEC consortium to network economy-supported skills development centres to share expertise on training and retraining. It will be responsible for implementation of major programme activities, and will continue to function, under the guidance from the HRDWG, after the Project.
6. On 17th February 2011, the APEC Skills Development Promotion Centre was formally launched at the Public Training Base (PTB) in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. Chinese vice Premiere Zhang Dejiang, ministers from relevant authorities, 2011 SOM Chair representative, Executive Director of APEC Secretariat and delegates from 16 economies were present at the unveiling ceremony. It was followed by the first activity of the Project, a seminar on post-crisis skills development policies for two days in the same city.
7. For the second half of year 2011, 4 training of trainers (TOT) courses have been planned and the preparation is now underway.