1. OECD SKILLS STRATEGY Flanders introduction Good practices workshop, 18 September 2018
Andrew Bell
Team Leader, OECD Skills Strategy Projects
OECD Centre for Skills
Education and Skills Directorate

2. OECD Skills Strategy Contributes to economic prosperity
Contributes to social cohesion
The OECD Skills strategy has provides countries with a strategic and comprehensive approach to assessing their skills challenges and building effective national skills systems.
…using a framework composed of 3 interrelated pillars:
Developing relevant skills
Activating skills supply, and
Putting skills to effective use
It also recognises that to maximise economic and social returns, countries also need to strong skills systems:
In which ministries and stakeholders collaborate and coordinate their efforts
And that there are effective skills financing and information mechanisms in place

3. Applied in 10 diverse countries…and counting
The OECD Skills Strategy has been applied in 10 diverse countries
And we have just launched a project in Latvia las week.
And latter this year we launch projects in Poland and Kazakhstan

4. Making unique contributions…
Mapping the skills system
Aligning policies
Identifying policy priorities
Making policy recommendations
The aim of the project in Flanders is to:
Map the skills system
to better understand the institutions, policies and stakeholders that influence the supply and demand for skills.
Identify policy priorities
to help Flanders to target investments to policy areas with the most potential to improve skills outcomes.
Provide advice for aligning skills policies:
to ensure that policies are coherent and mutually reinforcing
Making policy recommendations and identifying considerations for implementation:
to support Flanders to move from diagnosis to action.

5. Employing a whole-of-government approach
Flemish Government
OECD
Finance and Budget (FB)
Directorate for Education and Skills
Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI)
Work and Social Economy (WSE)
Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
Education and Training (OV)
Local Employment, Skills and Social Inclusion
VDAB, SYNTRA, SERV, and more
As with all of our projects, we are working closely with an inter-ministerial project team with participation from…
This project team is involved in all aspects of this project, including the organisation of this workshop.
For its part, the OECD has put together a team of experts from EDU, CFE-LESI and ELS

6. Engaging all relevant stakeholders
Levels of government
Stakeholders
Employers
Trade unions
Ministries
Educational institutions
Consensus
Skills –development and use
Government agencies
Employment services
Recommendations
Commitment
SME representatives
Regional and local authorities
Student organizations
Professional associations
Given the central role of a wide range of stakeholders in the skills outcomes of Flanders, including …
The OECD and NPT are engaging people like you in meetings and workshops such as the one today in order to:
build a consensus about what are the most important skills issues facing countries and what can be done about them,
generate concrete policy recommendations, and
build a commitment to take joint action to address these challenges and opportunities.

7. OECD Skills Strategy Dashboard
The OECD skills strategy dashboard provides a high-level snapshot of their system performance and to help them to identify priority areas for action.
Dirk will speak a greater length about Flanders ’skills performance momentarily, but suffice it to say that it shows that:
Flanders performs well overall…
….especially in the development of the skills in youth,
However, there are a number of areas where Flanders is only an average or below average performer, including:
The development of a culture of adult learning,
The full and effective use of adults’ skills

8. 5 Priority areas for the project
Developing a learning culture
Preliminary analysis of skills outcomes
Strengthening skills use in workplaces
Improving skills matches
Discussion with Project Team
Strengthening skills governance and structures
Improving the financing of education and training
Based on:
Our preliminary analysis,
And discussions with the project team,
We have identified the following 5 priority policy areas that we will cover in this project.
They are:

9. Timeline of Skills Strategy project in Flanders
Skills Strategy Seminar
(31 January)
Launch of project
Questionnaire
Diagnostic Workshop
(15 May)
Pre-workshop survey
Briefing Pack
Develop draft recommendations
Site visits
Good practices workshop
(18 September)
Identify good practices
Refine recommendations
Launch of Report
(January 2019)
Raise public awareness
Key moments in the Skills Strategy project in Flanders

10. The Good Practices Workshop
Discuss and evaluate national and international good practices
Explore the level of support for the draft recommendations from the Diagnostic Workshop
Refine the recommendations
The Aim of our workshop today is to:
Discuss and evaluate national and international good practices
Explore the level of support for the recommendations
Refine the recommendations from the Diagnostic Workshop

11. For more information
To discuss OECD’s work with countries on National Skills Strategy projects contact: To learn more about the OECD’s work on skills visit: