Strengthening social dialogue in skills' matching in North Macedonia

An interactive workshop on anticipation of occupation and skill needs is taking place in Skopje, organised and financed under the EU-funded ILO project Strengthening Social Dialogue with a View to Creating More and Better Jobs, and co-facilitated by the ETF.

“Matching education with labour market needs remains a key challenge for North Macedonia,” reported Mrs Mila Carovska, Minister of Labour and Social Policy, who opened the training. The workshop had been requested by national authorities and social partners to help strengthen technical capacities and build on the progress of national and local institutions undertaking occupational and school-to work surveys and analysis, supported by the ILO, and skills’ needs identification exercises supported by the ETF.

Local Economic and Social Councils (LESCs) are the main beneficiaries of the EU supported project Strengthening Social Dialogue. The training objectives are to contribute to the mapping of institutions and approaches, give input towards inter-institutional collaboration mechanisms, policy proposals and a road map towards an effective and coordinated institutional framework for identifying current and future skills needs. In the long term, LESCs will be charged with setting priorities at local and regional level for economic and human resources development.

The workshop brings together representatives from various institutions including the LESCs, policymakers and technical experts from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of the Economy.

Background

Key components of developing an effective and comprehensive system include identifying institutional roles, responsibilities, resources and procedures. Better coordination of institutions, research methodologies (quantitative and qualitative) exploring innovative approaches are needed to cater for national, regional, local and sectoral level goals as well as effective dissemination of results to ensure they feed into policy actions.

Participants also include representatives from the VET Center, Adult Education and career guidance services as well as other institutions in the area of skills development and TVET and those involved in the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative information on education, labour market, business development and economic performance, and skills needs anticipation and matching.

Beneficiaries include institutions involved in educational planning, in the development of qualifications and standards, in examination and certification and in the delivery of initial and continuing vocational training (TVET schools, TVET Centres, universities, other training providers). Employment Service Agency, Workers’ and Employers’ Organisations, career guidance services and sector/industry-based associations will benefit from improved information and analysis. Finally, job seekers, individuals seeking career guidance, young people engaging in TVET will benefit from more pertinent skills, as well as enterprises looking for skilled workforce.