Transferable skills in vocational education and training

Transferable skills in vocational

education and training

Co-funded by the European Union

Implementing Agency

This document has been developed as part of the VET Toolbox project. The VET Toolbox was created in 2017 and provides

partner countries with know-how, tools and advice to improve the eecveness and inclusiveness of VET reforms.

It focuses on supporng VET systems to:

• become more demand-driven, with more eecve private sector engagement.

• become more responsive to labour market needs.

• provide increased access to (self-) employment, including for disadvantaged groups.

The VET Toolbox is co-funded by the European Commission and the German Government.

The VET Toolbox partnership is composed by GIZ, Brish Council, Enabel, LuxDev and AFD.

The intended beneciaries of the VET Toolbox are:

• Naonal vocaonal authories and regulatory bodies, including training funds:

• Naonal and internaonal enterprises involved in VET partnerships;

• Quality assurance organisaons responsible for learner assessments and examinaons;

• Public, private or mixed VET training instutes and VET pre-service and in-service instructor

training instutes;

• Naonal, regional and sectorial business and professional associaons and civil society

organisaons.

Website: www.veoolbox.eu

Youtube: hps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbygn0xKnJa_2586DOXEmeg/videos

Linkedin: hps://www.linkedin.com/company/18825159

E4D/SOGA

The VET Toolbox closely collaborates with, and has drawn experiences from GIZ’s Employment for Sustainable

Development in Africa (E4D) programme to promote employment, raise incomes and improve working

condions of, parcularly, women and youth in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa,

Tanzania, Uganda. E4D/SOGA – Employment and Skills for Eastern Africa - is a component of E4D aimed

at promong local employment

and economic opportunies in and around natural resource-based industries and related sectors in Kenya,

Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania. E4D/SOGA is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperaon and

Development (BMZ), the UK Department for Internaonal Development (DFID), the Norwegian Agency for Development

Cooperaon (NORAD) and Shell.

Publisher:

VET Toolbox Coordinaon Hub | c/o Belgian Development Agency Enabel

Rue Haute, 147 - 1000 Brussels - Belgium

Tel: +32 2 505 3700 | Email: info@veoolbox.eu | www.veoolbox.eu

Author: GIZ, E4D/SOGA | Photo credit: GIZ, E4D/SOGA

This document cannot be sold.

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

Over the past decades, the experience gained

with VET intervenons has suggested that

demand-led VET catering to a discernible

demand for skills is more successful than

supply-side focused VET. However, there is

the challenge that it is not always possible

to clearly describe the demand for labour.

There are at least two reasons for this:

First, operators of large-scale investment

projects typically outsource contract-based

work packages to specialised sub-contractor

companies. These, in turn, source the inputs

they require to deliver the sub-contracted

goods and services for which the operators

engage them through a mul-ered supply

chain. This makes it dicult for project

operators to establish and communicate

precisely what skills are required when

and by whom, and who will be hiring. In

addion, it also makes it more challenging

for VET intervenons to apply a demand-led

approach to skills development. A related

problem is that sub-contractors bid for work

packages against the background of their

technical experse and are then required to

deliver within a set me frame. This does not

give them long lead mes to hire and train a

local labour force.

Second, large-scale investment projects

smulate economic acvies because

workers and professionals working with or in

the supply chain of these projects spend their

wages and salaries on locally produced and

retailed goods and services. The beneciaries

of these mulplier eects, oen micro and

small enterprises, are oen not organised in

a way that they can communicate eecvely

to government authories their collecve

skills development needs.

INTRODUCTION

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

OBJECTIVE AND TARGET AUDIENCE

The objecve of this tool is to

provide guidance on supporng

the development of transferable

skills to improve the employability

of young labour market

parcipants in countries where

large-scale investment projects

are expected to oer jobs and self-

employment opportunies.

The target audience includes:

• Naonal vocaonal authories and regulatory

bodies, including training funds

• Naonal and internaonal enterprises involved

in VET partnerships, especially around large-scale

investment projects;

• Public, private and mixed VET training instutes

and VET pre-service and in-service instructor

training instutes;

• Naonal, regional and sectoral business and

professional associaons and civil society organisaon.

• Development projects/programmes/partnerships that support VET and life skills

development for employment in and around large-scale investment projects.

CONTEXT

Mul-er supply chains are typical for capital-intensive investment projects that comprise a

labour-intensive construcon phase, which is followed by a less labour-intensive operaonal

phase. For example, these types of investments include oil, gas and mining projects;

downstream energy and other ulies projects, and infrastructure and construcon projects,

including those intended to aract new types of investments to host countries, such as

investments in industrial zone projects). When the construcon phase of such capital-

intensive projects is completed, workers move on to other projects located elsewhere.

Or they move on to alternave employment opportunies, including as self-employed

entrepreneurs.

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

In addion, when those employed in the construcon phase but also in the operaonal

phase of large-scale industrial projects spend their wages and salaries on locally produced

and retailed goods and services, they smulated wider demand for locally produced and

traded goods and services that oer potenal opportunies to a wide range of sole-trading

entrepreneurs and micro and small-scale enterprises. These oen struggle to improve their

own skills or nd workers with the relevant skills and competencies. Because they are small

and their margins are low, they cannot aord to provide in-house training to new recruits. In

turn, they are oen not suciently organised to communicate eecvely with government

authories and third pares what their skills development needs are.

When it is not possible to clearly describe demand, the resulng problem is that, although

construcon phases generate demand for local labour as well as opportunies for self-

employment and enterprise development, the nature of the skills development required to

match potenal demand with an increase in supply is also less clear. VET intervenons can

deal with this problem by focusing on developing transferable skills.

DEFINITION

There are dierent concepts and understandings what

transferable skills actually are. The denion used for this

tool is that of the Internaonal Labour Organisaon (ILO

2007), which denes transferable skills as employable

skills which can be used producvely in dierent jobs,

occupaons and industries

. The essence of this denion

is that transferable skills enable workers to access dierent

types of employment opportunies and dierent forms of

employment across dierent sectors. Figure 1 lays out the

nuances of the ILO denion.

Other perspecves - from educaon specialists and educaon economists - dene transferable

skills primarily in terms of the competencies that enable individuals to apply themselves to a

wide range of social and economic opportunies, not only related to accessing employment

and advancing their professional careers, also with respect to successfully parcipang in

society and the economy more generally. They focus on , which include

basic educaon in terms of numeracy and literacy, but also ‘so skills’, such as the ability to

think crically and innovate, interpersonal and social skills that typically refer to the ability

to communicate eecvely, collaborate and work in teams.

Foundaonal skills may also include more intrinsic competencies such as self-discipline and

-------------------------------------------

ILO (2007) Portability of Skills. Commiee on Employment and Social Policy. Geneva: Internaonal Labour Oce.

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

self-movaon, and the ability to learn independently and act with integrity.

ILO’s more employment-focused denion of transferable skills disnguishes between core

life skills and general vocaonal-technical skills:

• Core life skills

ILO’s core life skills include (a) so-called ‘tradional’ core skills, such as literacy, numeracy,

communicaon and social skills, as well as (b) ‘new’ core skills. The laer are described as

cogniv-analycal skills that support self-learning, creavity, innovaon and independent

decision-making. Arguably, social skills and ‘new’ core skills are what educaon specialists

would refer to as ‘sot skills’.

(Note: the VET Toolbox Tool LIFE SKILLS AND WORK READINESS IN VET lays out further the

raonale for strengthening these types of skills).



General vocaonal-technical skills are dened as skills that build on the standardizaon

of products and processes, as well as the diusion of similar technologies across dierent

enterprises and sectors of an economy. This is why they are transferable.

In contrast to ‘general’ vocaonal-technical skills, there are ‘specic’ vocaonal-technical

skills, which relate to parcular jobs or rms and are considered less transferable. However,

it is important to recognise that specic vocaonal-technical skills are typically built on the

prior acquision of general vocaonal-technical skills.

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

Core skills

Transferable skills:

Employable skills which can be used producvely in dierent jobs, occupaons, industries

(ILO 2007)

Vocational/technical skills

Traditional skills ‘New’ skills



and social skills

e.g. ability to read,

write, handle infor-

maon and numbers,

communicate with

others, use compu-

ters, language skills,

ability to interrelate

to others, work in

teams, movate and

demonstrate lea-

dership, manage rela-

onships, punctuality.



and personal skills

e.g. ability to

analyse and solve

technical and /or

business-related

problems eecvely,

using thinking

skills and applying

methodologies; ability

to make judgements

and take decisions;

ability to acquire new

knowledge, learn from

experience, openness

to new soluons and

innovaon.



and business

knowledge that can



sectors in an economy

e.g. skills that have

become general

as a consequence

of standardizaon

of products and

processes and the

diusion of similar

technologies between

enterprises (includes

HSE awareness and

procedures).



and business

knowledge that







Workers typically

acquire these skills in

enterprises that are

specialized in narrow

product and service

niches.

(highly transferable)

(limited transferability)



TRANSFERABILITY ACROSS SECTORS AND/OR SKILLS LEVELS

In deciding which types of vocaonal-technical skills are relevant for which parcular country/

regional/ or local context, it is helpful to considering whether transferability is sought across

sectors or skills levels.

• Across sectors

Transferability across sectors can be understood in terms of asking whether there is (potenal)

demand for general vocaonal-technical skills upon which specialist skills are built. In some

industries, technical and vocaonal professionals typically acquire their specialist knowledge

on the back of general vocaonal-technical trades. For example, this is the case in the extracve

industries (oil, gas, mining), where sector professionals oen acquire their specialisms on

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

the back of inial training and work experience in trades such as civil engineering and

construcon, heavy machine operaons, metal fabricaon, mechanical engineering and

electrical/ electronic/ mechatronic works.

Transferability across sectors can also be understood in terms of asking whether there are

new technologies that are gaining in relevancy and, therefore, are becoming more widely

used. For example, to produce on-grid and o-grid renewable energy requires knowledge

and skills in installing and maintaining new technologies in a variety of geographic contexts,

including urban and rural sengs.



Transferability across skills levels is

key to idenfying the foundaonal

basis of the core life skills required for

workers and professionals to become

skilled vocaonal-technical workers.

To eventually become skilled workers

and professionals, vocaonal-technical

trainees need a certain basis of core life

skills that enable them to embrace new

technologies. For example, they need

these skills to adapt to the consequences

of digitalising producon processes and

service delivery. Similarly, the occupaonal

remit of a vehicle mechanic has changed dramacally over the past couple of decades and

is poised to change further as the automove industry is moving toward electricaon. This

required that VET trained persons are equipped with sucient core life skills to move with

the me.

Transferability across skills levels is also relevant for idenfying the pathways for upward

occupaonal mobility via the vocaonal-technical route. For example, especially in Sub-

Saharan Africa, many young people leave formal educaon aer primary school or lower

secondary school

. However, this is not where their acquision of core life skills should end.

Therefore, young people sll need to be supported to strengthen core life skills throughout

their early working life so that they can move up the skills ladder as their professional careers

-------------------------------------------

Countries vary considerably in the number of school years associated with primary and lower secondary educaon

and also in the mandatory school leaving age. Typically, the length of primary educaon varies from 4-7 years. In

countries where primary educaon ends at year 7, this may also be the end of the legally mandated school age.

In the ideal case, educaon and skills development systems are designed such that a highly skilled worker can

achieve an educaonal level that is at par with university-trained professionals, or at least that he/she can enter

university level training via a vocaonal-technical route, as opposed to a general-educaon based academic route.

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET



-------------------------------------------

Figure 2 refers to the rst six of a total of eight ISCED-11 levels. ISCED stands for Internaonal Standard for the

Codicaon of Educaon, of which the latest version was published in 2011. This Standard is provided by the United

Naon’s Educaon, Scienca and Cultural Organisaon (UNESCO), for the purpose of assembling, compiling,

analysing and comparing data on educaon programmes and aainments. Many countries have their own naonal

qualicaon frameworks which they map into the ISCED-11. The Standard can be found here: hp://uis.unesco.org/

sites/default/les/documents/internaonal-standard-classicaon-of-educaon-isced-2011-en.pdf

progress. For example, they may be starng o as vocaonal-technical trainees with limited

secondary educaon. But in order to become skilled trades persons and professionals,

they need to be supported to acquire more core life skills alongside gaining praccal work

experience

Figure 2 illustrates transferability across sectors and skills levels, using the UNESCO’s ISCED-11

Standard

for the levels and the electrical trade as the praccal example.

6 Bachelors or equivalent

5 Short-cycle terary educaon

4 Post-secondary, non-terary

3 Upper secondary educaon

2 Lower secondary educaon

1 Primary educaon

Highly transferable Transferable

Limited

transferable

ISCED-11

• Occupaon-

specic terary pro-

ciency

• Occupaon-

specic upper

secondary pro-

ciency

• Occupaon-

specic secondary

foundaonal pro-

ciency

• Primary foundational

proficiency

Tradional

core skills

   

‘New’

core skills

General

skills

Specialist skills Skills that relate to

new technologies

Job/rm specic

skills

EXAMPLE: ELECTRICAL WORK

Transferability across sectors

• Electrical engineer

(BA)

• Electrical technician

• Master electrician

• Cered Electrician,

Electrical installator

• Trainee electrician

• Experienced techni-

cian/ professional for

plant electrics

• Experienced

technician for elec-

trical environmental

engineering

• Industrial electrician,

specialising in plant

electrics, operaons

etc.

• Industrial electrician

specialising in HVAC

• Trainee industrial

electrician

• Experienced electri-

cal technician for solar

power plants

• Mechatronics

technician

• Electrician specia-

lising in solar/wind

power

• Electrician speciali-

sing in energy ecient

HVAC

• Trainee electrician

aware and familiarised

with new technologies

• LNG technician –

electrical work

• Industrial electrician

focused on LNG plant

installaons

• Electrical helper

• Experienced electri-

cal helper



TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

POSSIBLE SCENARIOS

In the process of designing and targeng strengthening VET programmes, the following four

scenarios may be taken into consideraon:



When primary and/or lower secondary school leavers are the target group for VET, it

needs to be considered to what extent VET should sll include strengthening core life skills

alongside providing young people with vocaonal-technical skills. Training in core life skills

should aspire to bring VET students up to the level where as vocaonal-technically skilled

workers they can a) advance into higher value professional specialisms (with support from

their employers), and/or b) embrace new technologies as these become more standardized.

For example, solid core life skills will help a vehicle mechanic originally trained on manual

combuson engines to re-train and adapt to repairing vehicles and machines with increasing

digital contents, electric motors, sophiscated HVAC technology and so forth.



If VET is targeted at those with completed lower secondary educaon, the focus should be

on solid general vocaonal-technical skills in key occupaons, so as to strengthen the basis

upon which workers can acquire specic skills, including skills that relate to new technologies

and/ or to specic jobs in parcular types of rms. Eorts should be made to idenfy where

the current provision of general VET is decient in relaon to potenal demand. One of the

quesons to ask is whether VET providers have kept up with the use of technologies and

work pracces that have already (or are poised to) become standardized in the actual work

environment, for example with respect to the ‘greening’ of exisng occupaons. Experience

has shown that industrial employers are oen already appreciave of workers bringing a

sucient level of core life skills (including health, safety and environmental awareness) and

some vocaonal-technical knowledge. Given this basis, they are then oen very willing to

provide specialist in-house training using their facilies and machinery.



Where the provision of skills training is associated with emerging industries, praconers

should ascertain whether and where there are commonalies and complementaries

between the skills required by these industries and exisng economic acvies already

carried out in the country. This would serve to idenfy and verify, if there are areas of

specialism that might be worth introducing into the curricula of general VET for key

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

occupaons. For example, if an emerging renewable energy sector is poised to increase

the demand for plant electricians that are also demanded by the manufacturing industry

or the convenonal energy and mining sector, it could be worth considering to supplement

the training of general electricians with a specialist training model on plant electrical work.

Similar consideraons may be considered for digitally-based goods and services.



Where VET is targeted at potenal labour demand idened in associaon with specic

capital projects - for example in the extracve industries or other natural-resources based

industries, or the construcon, the ulies and the infrastructure industries and adjacent

sectors - praconers should verify with relevant industry representaves at what depth

general vocaonal-technical skills are required and how long (these representaves think)

it takes to acquire the necessary praccal skills. For example, an important queson is

whether it would be considered realisc that a short period of on-the-job training would

suce to enable generally trained VET graduates to resume sector-specic job roles. If

this were deemed impossible, it could mean that the specic skills requirements are such

that prospecve jobholders would be expected to already possess (a) specialist vocaonal-

technical skills, and/or (b) be familiar with non-standardized job or rm specic technologies,

and/or (c) have previously held a similar job in the same industry.

EXAMPLES OF PROJECT/PROGRAMME CASES



In Ghana, GIZ’s E4D Programme

partnered with Samsung Electronics,

the South Korean Internaonal

Development Agency, KOICA, and with

the Ghanaian Council for Technical

and Vocaonal Educaon and Training

to implement a programme targeng

women to be successful in selling,

installing and servicing consumer

electronics. This praccally-oriented

programme focused on general vocaonal-technical skills in electronics, as well as on sales,

customer communicaons and entrepreneurial competencies and on aer-sales servicing

skills. Training providers were encouraged to provide trainees with immediate opportunies

to put their learning into pracce. As Samsung is expanding its African market, it has been keen

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

to draw on this pool of trainees to support its repair outlets. On the hand, the beneciaries

also received training that has prepared them to take up self-employment opportunies in

the formal or informal economy.

For more background and details on this case example, see fact sheet.



JOB MARKET

GIZ’s E4D/SOGA Programme

implemented comprehensive

work readiness training in

the northern region of Cabo

Delgado, Mozambique, to impart

transferable vocaonal-technical

as well as core life skills to young

people to prepare them for

the job market. School-leavers

and drop-outs graduates were

oered basic general vocaonal

training in electrical installaon

and maintenance, welding,

rigging and hospitality, as well

as core life skill training in areas

such as communicaon skills,

occupaonal hygiene and safety,

personal nance, rst aid, HIV awareness and several addional modules. The objecve has

been to equip beneciaries with skills that would help them capture potenal employment

opportunies on the back of natural gas developments taking place in the region. Recognising

the relevance of this training focus, GIZ has adapted and upscaled this approach for a similar

programme delivered in Uganda.

For more background and details on this case example, see fact sheet.

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS IN VET

LIMITATIONS

The limitaons of transferable skills are twofold: rst, the demand for labour may be so limited,

specic and/or short-term contract-focused that focusing on developing general vocaonal-

technical skills would not make much of a dierence to local hiring. However, transferable

skills may nevertheless help beneciaries to take up or improve their self-employment

acvies. Second, the gaps in tradional core skills may be so severe that companies do not

want to contemplate invesng in developing general vocaonal-technical skills. Instead, they

may focus on training a small number of selected specialists with terary educaon, and/or

invest in automaon and digitalisaon to reduce labour as a producon input.

There is also a more fundamental limitaon, highlighted by educaon experts. They have

reached the conclusion that early acquision of transferable core life skills has a posive

impact on people’s social and economic achievements in later life. They stress that acquiring

these types of transferable skills should start from a very early age, because they shape

people’s opportunies throughout their later lives. And, they see children’s early and primary

learning experiences - taking place in the family environment as well as formal care and school

sengs - as an important condioning factor for the extent to which transferable skills can

be further strengthened during adolescence, young adulthood and later in life. In conclusion,

pedagogical experts and educaon economist are strong advocates for invesng in these

skills from very early on, ideally with good quality early childhood learning. Essenally, they

see less scope for making up for serious gaps in later life. That said, it is also recognised

that, even if formal educaon is poor, children and youth may sll learn valuable core life

skills outside of the school seng, for example, when they are engaged in contribung to

subsistence livelihoods.

The VET Toolbox partnership is composed by GIZ, Brish Council, Enabel, LuxDev and AFD.

Co-funded by the European Union