Skill Development and Regional Mobility: Lessons from the Australia-Pacific Technical College
Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper No. 34
38 Pages Posted: 23 May 2014
There are 2 versions of this paper
Skill Development and Regional Mobility: Lessons from the Australia-Pacific Technical College
Skill Development and Regional Mobility: Lessons from the Australia-Pacific Technical College
Date Written: May 1, 2014
Abstract
Developing countries invest in training skilled workers and can lose part of their investment if those workers emigrate. One response is for the destination countries to design ways to participate in financing skilled emigrants’ training before they migrate — linking skill creation and skill mobility. Such designs can learn from the experience of the Australian-aid-funded Australia-Pacific Technical College (APTC). The APTC is financing and conducting vocational training in five Pacific island developing countries for thousands of workers with the objective of providing them with opportunities to find employment at home and abroad — including in Australia. With thousands of graduates across the region the APTC has attained its goal of skill creation, but has not attained its goal of skill mobility. This paper establishes and explains this finding, and draws lessons for future initiatives that may seek to link skill creation with higher levels of skill mobility.
Keywords: Regional mobility, migration, foreign aid, Pacific, skill mobility
JEL Classification: F22, F35, O10, O19
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation