Unemployment and underemployment of both skilled and unskilled workforce members is not a new problem. But it is an expanding predicament as technology and jobs evolve and education and technical training fail to keep pace and as millions of young people are disadvantaged from opportunity because they have not been properly educated or trained – due to poor-quality teaching or because of disparities that have kept them from remaining in school, such as gender, socio-economic status, location (urban/rural) or disability.

Considering that 60 per cent of the region’s workforce is engaged in the informal sector, cost-effective traditional skills training schemes or other relevant approaches to informal skills training are likely to be more relevant starting points for some countries. The e-forum’s discussion underscored the need for public–private and inter-ministerial collaboration as well as alternative training options, such as apprenticeships, better self-employment preparation and the role of non-government organizations as
providers of education and training.