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2010/HRDMM/029

Agenda Item:7

Action Plan

Purpose: Consideration

Submitted by: HRDMM Secretariat

/ 5thHuman Resources Development
Ministerial Meeting
Beijing, China
16-17September 2010

Fifth APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting

Beijing, China

September 16-17, 2010

Action Plan (2011-2014)

For Developing Human Resources, Vigorously Promoting Employment, and Achieving Inclusive Growth

We, the Ministers responsible for human resources development from APEC economies and Heads of Delegations to the Meeting met in Beijing, 16-17 September, 2010, for the 5th APEC Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministerial Meeting. We recognize and value the fundamental role of human resource development in realizing inclusive and innovative growth and ensuring sustainable economic and social development within our economies. We reaffirm our commitment to the overarching priorities and recommendations in our Joint Statement. We undertake to develop this Action Plan and to direct the Human Resource Development Working Group (HRDWG) to advance the APEC Growth Strategy.

I. Strategic Approaches

Recognizing the cross-cutting nature of human resources development, we task the HRDWG to implement this Action Plan by:

●Developing work plans that balance the unique capabilities of the working group’s three constituent networks, and aligning projects with the priorities of SOM Steering Committee on ECOTECH (SCE);

●Promoting policy dialogues and joint research between APEC economies;

●Encouraging partnership among governments, the academic community, small and medium enterprises and other stakeholders;

●Building on the knowledge and resources available of relevant international and regional organizations and other APEC fora and disseminating a body of HRD knowledge through internal communication mechanism including the APEC HRD WiKi; and

●Recognizing the relevance of gender equity and other social justice issues to human resources development.

II. Priority Areas and Actions

In the next four years, the following priority areas and actions will serve as primary basis for the HRDWG to establish its annual work plans. We call on the HRDWG toconsolidate resources and take concrete actions in these priorities in pursuit of the priorities of the Joint Ministerial Statement.

A. Accelerating job creation by employment-oriented growth

Priority areas should include: sound macroeconomic policies with a focus on employment-oriented growth; active employment and labour market policies; public employment services to assist job seekers and labour market information systems.

To help APEC economies identify economic strategies that can promote job-rich growth and advance labour market efficiency and inclusiveness, the HRDWG’s actions should include:

●Conduct research and share experience on post-crisis job-creation efforts through economic recovery and growth;

●Identify factors affecting employment elasticity, high-quality jobs, labour productivity as well as participation;

●Analyze the impacts to employment due to economic integration, economic restructuring, industrial transformation, export demands fluctuation, income distribution arrangements.

●Study the sources of new job creation emerging from new sectors, professions and technologies;

●Conduct research on policies and processes that contribute to equitable and inclusive growth;

●Increase joint research efforts and sharing of good practices in member economies on employment for youth, women, older workers, migrant workers and other vulnerable groups;

●Share experiences and best practices on public employment services and the labour market information system.

B. Strengthening social safety nets

Priority areas should include: adequacy of social protection; the design and delivery of social protection programmes; and the link between employment and social protection policies to exploit potential synergies.

To help APEC economies identify social protection measures that can contribute to social resilience, social cohesion and inclusive economic growth, the HRDWG’s actions should include：

●Share experiences and best practices on good design and delivery of social protection programmes;

●Conduct research on effective measures to extend social safety nets, particularly to workers in informal sectors;

●Expand research on active social protection measures, with particular focus on social security, social assistance and benefits provided to the most vulnerable groups to encourage their employment;

●Take up cost-effective research to identify effective labour market programmes; and

●Work with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) to identify ways to encourage further Corporate Social Responsibility to assist vulnerable groups.

C. Building a skilled and adaptable APEC workforce into and beyond recovery

Priority areas should include: greater access to education and training; enhanced relevancy and efficiency of education and training; stronger partnership between training providers and businesses; new skills in emerging sectors and the use of new technologies.

To help APEC economies identify and develop flexible and responsive education and skills development policies to enhance skills and competences, the HRDWG’s actions should include:

●Identify and share innovative practices for the training of trainers, the development of quality training materials and occupational standards among APEC economies;

●Examine successful employer partnerships to promote vocational training and education and share good practices to raise the attractiveness of vocational training and education for the youth;

●Examine the training needs of professionals, managers, executives and entrepreneurs, and share best practices and experiences on successful training programmes, both at the level of economy and the enterprise;

●Identify training needs and develop training programmes to meet demands required by new industries and sectors;

●Support the adoption of new methods, technologies and tools to improve access to vocational education and skills development opportunities for those in need;

●Encourage business mobility of high quality professionals by including APEC volunteer initiatives to facilitate the voluntary dispatch of business experts among business/private entities in the region in order to exchange and transfer managerial and technical skills; and

●Encourage the establishmentof Economy-supported networks of APEC skills development centers that share exemplary workforce preparation, training and retraining practices;

III. Follow-up Mechanisms

We ask the HRDWG to align its projects and cooperation activities with the priority areas and actions outlined above. We instruct the Working Group to monitor systematically how this Action Plan is implemented, undertake regular evaluation and report on the progress achieved at its annual meeting.

We encourage the establishment of an APEC HRD evaluation framework and system to facilitate economies in measuring progress towards economic growth, particularly inclusive growth.

We instruct the HRDWG to work with other substructures and fora in APEC, particularly the Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG), ABAC and SEC to ensure the effective implementation of this Action Plan. The Working Group should take stock of the findings of previous projects and the experience of relevant international and regional organizations to ensure enhanced relevancy, effectiveness and efficiency of its technical cooperation and capacity building activities.

We encourage economies’ initiatives in the priority areas of this Action Plan. We welcome China’s initiative to implement the APEC Skills Development Promotion Project and instruct the HRDWG to provide guidance and support to it and to help ensure its envisaged achievements.

We instruct the HRDWG to produce a report on the performance of this Action Plan and present it to the next Ministerial Meeting for assessment.