Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand

In Guinea, the quality of human capital is as crucial for economic success as its vast mineral resources. Improving the quality of education, ensuring the creation of a productive labor with high returns, and, above all, encouraging the creation of...

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Main Author: World Bank Group
Format: Report
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/905311497588215383/Skills-in-Guinea-supply-and-demand
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28055
id okr-10986-28055
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-280552021-04-23T14:04:43Z Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand World Bank Group SKILLS DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION POLICY EMPLOYMENT LABOR MARKET In Guinea, the quality of human capital is as crucial for economic success as its vast mineral resources. Improving the quality of education, ensuring the creation of a productive labor with high returns, and, above all, encouraging the creation of private enterprises through a favorable business climate are all essential to boosting productivity and skills. Today, traditional civil service opportunities available are insufficient to absorb ever-growing numbers of Guinean graduates. University enrollments have increased tenfold over the past 10 years, reaching more than 95,000 students in 2012. Graduates between the ages of 25 and 35 face an unemployment rate close to 30 percent, posing a threat to social stability. Education remains disconnected from work, and students are not distributed among academic disciplines according to any economic logic. Technical and vocational training is underdeveloped relative to the needs of industry, namely mining, construction, and agriculture in particular. Companies hire mainly through personal connections, creating a system in which, for all sectors but agriculture, the majority of employee’s report obtaining their jobs through acquaintances. Even in the formal economy, firms recruit predominantly via informal networks. The lack of transport infrastructure and weak electrical power grid, coupled with a poorly developed financial system and challenging institutional environment hinder both the creation of new businesses and growth of existing businesses. Growth projections are encouraging, although not as high as expected due to the Ebola virus disease, and demand for skilled labor is now a national priority. Maximizing the outputs of these new jobs will require strengthening the linkages between higher education (including technical and vocational education and training (TVET)) and high-growth sectors. In this note, we review the current state of education and workforce skills in Guinea. With the support of the new employer-employee survey prepared under this technical assistance and household surveys covering years 2007 and 2012, the note will identify the key bottlenecks faced by firms in hiring qualified workers. The note will conclude by providing recommendations to improve workforce quality. 2017-08-28T21:45:13Z 2017-08-28T21:45:13Z 2015 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/905311497588215383/Skills-in-Guinea-supply-and-demand http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28055 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Education Study Economic & Sector Work Africa Guinea
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION POLICY
EMPLOYMENT
LABOR MARKET
spellingShingle SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
EDUCATION POLICY
EMPLOYMENT
LABOR MARKET
World Bank Group
Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand
geographic_facet Africa
Guinea
description In Guinea, the quality of human capital is as crucial for economic success as its vast mineral resources. Improving the quality of education, ensuring the creation of a productive labor with high returns, and, above all, encouraging the creation of private enterprises through a favorable business climate are all essential to boosting productivity and skills. Today, traditional civil service opportunities available are insufficient to absorb ever-growing numbers of Guinean graduates. University enrollments have increased tenfold over the past 10 years, reaching more than 95,000 students in 2012. Graduates between the ages of 25 and 35 face an unemployment rate close to 30 percent, posing a threat to social stability. Education remains disconnected from work, and students are not distributed among academic disciplines according to any economic logic. Technical and vocational training is underdeveloped relative to the needs of industry, namely mining, construction, and agriculture in particular. Companies hire mainly through personal connections, creating a system in which, for all sectors but agriculture, the majority of employee’s report obtaining their jobs through acquaintances. Even in the formal economy, firms recruit predominantly via informal networks. The lack of transport infrastructure and weak electrical power grid, coupled with a poorly developed financial system and challenging institutional environment hinder both the creation of new businesses and growth of existing businesses. Growth projections are encouraging, although not as high as expected due to the Ebola virus disease, and demand for skilled labor is now a national priority. Maximizing the outputs of these new jobs will require strengthening the linkages between higher education (including technical and vocational education and training (TVET)) and high-growth sectors. In this note, we review the current state of education and workforce skills in Guinea. With the support of the new employer-employee survey prepared under this technical assistance and household surveys covering years 2007 and 2012, the note will identify the key bottlenecks faced by firms in hiring qualified workers. The note will conclude by providing recommendations to improve workforce quality.
format Report
author World Bank Group
author_facet World Bank Group
author_sort World Bank Group
title Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand
title_short Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand
title_full Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand
title_fullStr Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand
title_full_unstemmed Skills in Guinea : Supply and Demand
title_sort skills in guinea : supply and demand
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2017
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/905311497588215383/Skills-in-Guinea-supply-and-demand
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28055
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