Workforce Development

Southern Africa?s demographic transition presents an opportunity for countries to expand their workforce, and grow. To achieve this, they?ll need to make the right investments in education, health and social assistance, balancing the needs of old and young. This will make a difference for generations to come.

In May 2016, around 100 innovative graduate students from universities across Bangladesh participated in the innovation incubator contest Make-A-Thon 2016. Within 3 days, they developed 32 prototypes to tackle problems affecting a wide range of sectors in the country: healthcare, transport and infrastructure, agriculture, biomedical engineering, energy generation, physical challenges, sustainable energy management and many more. Here are the 10 winning projects.

More than 2 million youths enter the workforce every year in Bangladesh. Many of them lack the relevant education to compete on the job market at home and overseas. In 2010, the government of Bangladesh started the Skills and Training Enhancement Project (STEP) to improve technical and vocational education. So far, more than 100,000 poor youth in 93 polytechnic institutions have received training stipends. Building on this and other successes, the World Bank is increasing its support to help more men and women create a better life for themselves.

Alan Larrea Rivas started as a dishwasher. Then he studied at the Pachacutec Institute of Culinary Arts in Peru, a cooking school that helps underprivileged kids learn to cook and get jobs. Alan is now the head chef of a major hotel. His advice: even when you don?t have a sol, never give up on your dreams. #itsnotonly #endpoverty

Through its young people, Africa finds itself faced with an unprecedented opportunity. Every year between 2015 and 2035, close to five million more people will turn 15 years of age across the continent, while in the rest of the world the population will grow older. As noted in the 2014 World Bank report on youth employment in Sub-Saharan Africa, only a quarter of the young people who enter the labor market each year over the next decade will find a salaried position, and only a small fraction of them will secure formal employment in ?modern?

Kenya is not short of jobs; it is short of high productivity jobs. This is one of the main findings of the 13th edition of the Kenya Economic Update. Kenya?s economy is creating more jobs than in the past, but these are mainly in the informal services sector and are low productivity jobs. In order to increase the productivity of the small household enterprises, policy interventions could be geared towards increasing access to broad skills beyond formal education, creating linkages between formal and informal firms, and helping small scale firms enter local and global value chains.

On 1 March, 2016, the World Bank launched the Tajikistan Higher Education Project in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The goal of the project, financed from the International Development Association for the amount of US$15 million, is to develop mechanisms that improve and monitor the quality and labor-market relevance of higher education in the country.

In Bulgaria, higher socioemotional and cognitive skills matter most when it comes to getting a job.

Risks and opportunities for Latin America's Ninis.

Naitumu is one of four wives. A mother of five children. Watch how she and members of the Samburu people in northern Kenya are improving their lives by adopting climate-smart herding methods; sending their children to school; and finding new ways to earn money. That?s not only good for the Samburu and their traditional culture, but also for their unique environment that?s rich in wildlife.