Skills development as an essential lever in socio-economic growth

One of the cardinal points in the Government Programme 2015-2019 is to transform Mauritius, paying particular attention to building a stronger economy and a fairer society with increasing opportunity for all. It is a fact that efforts are being made to graduate Mauritius to a high income economy. This strategy increasingly focuses on knowledge-based goods and services and high-value manufacturing sectors as potential growth poles, while simultaneously jolting the vast potentialities of the ocean economy.

The above presumes the parallel development of high skills, technology, research and development, innovation and enterprise as fundamental enablers. It is undeniable that the skills of the Mauritian workforce will be one of the important determinants in the above development, as they are one of the prerequisites for firms to take advantage of new production technology and techniques. Another important consideration is that Mauritius has an export-oriented economy that is heavily reliant on the global market and its inherent challenges. Individuals trained to supply such markets must be increasingly flexible and adaptable to move within and between sectors, and firms, locally, regionally and internationally.

Skills development is therefore becoming increasingly more important in the drive to enhance productivity, stimulate competitiveness, and to bring people out of poverty. The country needs to focus on the right skills mix so that everyone can contribute to and benefit from economic growth, including necessary skills to improving life chances and high skills to narrow productivity gaps with comparator countries and value-add to existing and emerging sectors. Supplying the adequate and appropriate level of human capital is a complex and challenging endeavour; especially with the dynamics of the labour market, the need to transit to a ‘high skill equilibrium’ and the intrinsic unavoidable lag in furnishing required skills. Such skills must fundamentally make individuals more employable in the labour market.

Skills are generally developed and acquired at three levels, namely: national, enterprise/institutional and individual levels. The only way to attempt achieving such an objective is to adopt an all-integrating approach by wiring the stakeholders in the skills development sphere and unleashing their collaborative energies. Such stakeholders include the private sector, training providers (both academic and vocational), the public institutions, the youths and the population in general.

One of the responsibilities of education and training institutions is to produce trained manpower to meet the needs of the industry. Therefore, employers should have a greater involvement in national training policy implementation and skills supply.

The government and public bodies must provide the infrastructure, funding and the policy framework within which the remaining stakeholders can operate. It must also intervene in areas where the market fails. The Human Resource Development Council (HRDC), operating under the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research is one of the important players in this skill development ecosystem. Its main objectives are to:

• promote human resource development in line with national economic and social objectives;

• stimulate a culture of training and lifelong learning at the individual, organisational and national levels to enhance employability of the labour force and increase productivity; and

• provide the necessary human resource thrust for a successful transformation of the country’s economy into a knowledge economy.

The HRDC addresses the above objectives by intervening at the various levels along the skills development value chain (school-vocational-university-labour market-enterprises), through policy development, skills development projects and targeted fiscal instruments. Notable generic areas for the current and forthcoming intervention of the HRDC are sub-optimal investment in technical training by firms, supply of technical training, development of demand-led and efficient training support schemes, addressing constraints faced by small enterprises for ramping-up their skills level and improving the training culture at the level of firms.

The Government Programme 2015-2019 respectively mentions at paragraphs 73 and 74, the introduction of a ‘Skills for growth scheme’ and the provision of an ‘Integrated Career Counselling System’. The HRDC is directly involved in the implementation of these two projects.

As previously mentioned, the skills challenge is not a uni-institutional endeavour, but rather a joint one. All stakeholders must make concerted effort to improving skills in the economy and take full advantages of new opportunities. Initiatives of the HRDC along with complementary programmes from other actors of the skills ecosystem will contribute towards achieving the right skills mix that will assist the country towards better economic growth and a fairer society.