International Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014) 4048

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International Journal of Educational Development

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev

The OECD skills strategy and the education agenda for development
Oscar Valiente *
School of Education, University of Glasgow, 11 Eldon Street, Glasgow, United Kingdom

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Skills policies are acquiring increasing centrality in the post-2015 debates and international
Keywords: organizations are presenting their views on the global situation of skills and the policies that should
International development
be implemented. The article reviews the policy framework of the OECD Skills Strategy and its
Education policy
Political economy
implications for the education and development debate in the post-2015 scenario. This strategy
Skills introduces two main innovations compared to the previous work of the OECD in education and skills. The
Vocational education rst one is the integration of analytical contributions from the new political economy of skills in a policy
Globalisation framework traditionally dominated by the human capital orthodoxy. This shift has important
implications for how the OECD understands the relation between education and work in capitalist
societies and on the policy recommendations they make to countries. The second innovation is the
extension of the geographical focus of the organization in order to assess the situation of skills and skills
policies not only in high-income countries, but also in low- and middle income countries as well. The
article argues that, despite these two salient innovations, there remain some absences and shortfalls in
the policy framework of the OECD Skills Strategy that will limit its effectiveness, particularly in low- and
middle-income countries.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction the international balance of power has challenged the traditional

geographical focus of the OECD, forcing it to actively enhance its
The OECD Skills Strategy (OSS) provides a policy framework global reach. The OECDs Directorate for Education and Skills wants
that guides countries on how to invest in skills for creating jobs and to play a more inuential role in the denition of the global skills
boosting economic growth. In the context of the global economic agenda for development in the post-2015 scenario and the OSS is
crisis, the Directorate for Education and Skills of the OECD its main policy tool for doing so. Given the renewed global interest
attempts to protect public expenditure in education and training in the skills sector of the education and development eld and the
by placing skills policies at the very centre of national strategies for scarcity of solid alternative policy frameworks at a global level, it is
economic recovery. The main objective of these national strategies reasonable to expect that a substantial number of stakeholders,
is to transform countries into internationally competitive high- including donors and governments in developing countries, will
skills economies. In the policy framework of the OECD, education use the OSS as a policy guide.
and training policies should contribute to these strategies by: (a) The policy framework of the OSS clearly recognizes that
developing the relevant skills for the knowledge economy; (b) education policies cannot aspire to provide better welfare
incentivizing the participation of inactive individuals in the labour opportunities if they operate in a context of high unemployment
market through retraining and up-skilling; and (c) fostering rates and low-paid jobs. The traditional orthodoxy of human
entrepreneurship and supporting employers in the creation of capital theories, where efcient labour markets reward investment
highly skilled jobs. in education and training with better jobs and income gains, is still
The OSS deserves our attention due to the leading role of the dominant in the OSS but it is now also combined with some of the
OECD in international debates on education policies among its analytical contributions from the new political economy of skills,
member countries and its increasing inuence in non-member with its emphasis on the institutional factors that shape the
countries. The growth of emerging economies and their impact on demand for skills in capitalist societies. This should be perceived as
a step forward in the OECDs commitment to education, as it will
assist countries in better identifying the strengths and weaknesses
* Tel.: +44 1413304538. of their national skills systems and in designing and implementing
E-mail address: [email protected] (O. Valiente). better policies for improvement. However, as this paper argues,

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0738-0593/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 O. Valiente / Interncational Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014) 4048 41

there remain some shortfalls in the policy framework of the OSS are to face the educational challenges of a global knowledge
that will limit its effectiveness, particularly in non-member economy.
countries. The rise of the organizations work in education has been
To develop this argument, the paper is structured into two main accompanied by the gradual reduction of this sector to its
sections. The rst section briey explains the rationale behind the economic dimension. Stressing the economic signicance of
launch of the OSS and reviews the most salient contributions and education has proven to be the best strategy for the Directorate
political priorities of the report Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives: for Education and Skills to position its work at the very centre of
A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies (OECD, 2012a). As we will see, the organizations policy agenda. The economistic perspective has
the OECD understands educational development not as a goal in not always dominated the OECDs work on education (Rizvi and
itself, but as a means for economic growth. The OECD shows Lingard, 2006); in fact, there are still remarkable exceptions to this
countries that their education and training systems should help to trend (OECD, 2007, 2012b, 2013b), but the Directorate for
revamp national economies and provides policy guidance for how Education and Skills is aiming to raise its prole and it needs to
to do this effectively. From the perspective of the OECD, education shape its discourse towards economic efciency if it wants to
and training policies should be better coordinated with social and attract the attention of the rest of the organization. The main
economic policies under national interdepartmental skills strate- concern of the OECD is with economic development; social issues
gies. These skills strategies should not only focus on improving the such as education play a secondary role if they are not framed
supply of skills through education and training systems, but also on within the economic efciency agenda. Human capital theory has
stimulating the demand for high skills in the market and their been extremely useful both in articulating the economistic
utilization in the workplace. The main innovation of this approach discourse in education and at the same time in defending the
is for education and training systems to abandon the passive role of importance of education and skills for economic development
only responding to the demands of the market, in order to become (Henry et al., 2001). The predominance of the human capital
an active part of the multisectoral strategy for transforming approach in the work of the Directorate for Education and Skills is
national economies. not only an ideological decision; it is also the result of an
The second section of this paper identies and explores some of institutional necessity.
the limitations of the OSS in the education and development eld. The OSS is the latest and most ambitious initiative undertaken
Three different arguments are discussed in this respect. First, the by the Directorate for Education and Skills to increase its political
OSS assumes that there is a set of policy reforms that can be inuence and to mainstream the human capital agenda across the
implemented globally, regardless of the socioeconomic conditions organization. The OSS constitutes the most important node of
of countries. This one size ts all approach might be relatively convergence for the work on education and skills of the different
effective when applied to skills policies in countries with similar directorates of the OECD. The Directorate for Education and Skills
levels of development, but it will be problematic if applied leads the OSS but other directorates (such as the Directorate for
simultaneously to high-, middle- and low-income countries. Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, the Directorate for Science,
Secondly, the OSS overlooks the conictive nature of the positional Technology and Industry and the Centre for Entrepreneurship,
competition for skills and how political arrangements determine SMEs and Local Development) also take part. This strategy is
the social distribution of productivity gains. While many govern- presented as a cross-committee initiative that brings together and
ments will feel comfortable with policy recommendations that are leverages policy lessons on skills produced by different projects
presented as technical solutions, political economy research has across the organization (Sellar and Lingard, 2013), all under the
showed that these interventions will fail to deliver expected leadership of the Directorate for Education and Skills.
outputs if the political problems of large-scale inequality and social The OECD Survey of Adult Skills is expected to be the main
exclusion are not directly addressed. Thirdly, the OSS advocates for source of evidence and the most powerful knowledge tool of the
a productivist model of development, where the main goal of OSS. This survey is a product of the Programme for the
education and skills policies is to foster economic accumulation. International Assessment of Adult Competencies PIAAC a joint
The OSS might benet from a closer look at the work done by other effort between the Directorate for Education and Skills and the
international agencies in integrating national skills policies within Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs with the
human development frameworks and the contributions of social purpose of measuring adults skills directly and linking these skills
justice theories (i.e., capabilities theory) to the current debates on measures to their social outcomes in the labour market. The
education and development. successful experience of PISA (Bieber and Martens, 2011; Break-
spear, 2012; Grek, 2009) and the technical expertise accumulated
2. The policy framework of the OECD skills strategy in previous adult skills surveys (mainly IALS and ALL) made it
possible for the OECD to develop PIAAC (Schleicher, 2008; Thorn,
The OECD has emerged in recent years as probably the most 2009). PIAAC assesses key skills (literacy, numeracy and problem
inuential international organization in the education eld in solving in technology-rich environments) and collects information
high-income countries. Historically, education was never a central on the antecedents and outcomes of skills development and skills
area of interest for the OECD and it was only in 2002 that education use among the adult population (Thorn and Schleicher, 2013).
became a separate and permanent Directorate within the Contrary to how the Directorate for Education and Skills worked
organization (Martens and Jakobi, 2010). The emergence of the with PISA in the past, the policy framework of the OSS was
knowledge-based economy and the success of PISA the published well before the rst results of PIAAC were available. The
Programme for the International Assessment of Students Perfor- Skills Outlook report (OECD, 2013a) analysed the rst data
mance have contributed to establishing education and skills as produced by PIAAC, but the OECDs policy framework on skills
signicant areas of work across the OECD and to attracting was published one year before in the report Better Skills, Better Jobs,
international attention to its educational agenda (Lingard and Better Lives: A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies (OECD, 2012a). The
Grek, 2007; Lingard and Sellar, 2013). In the policy discourse of the Directorate for Education and Skills developed the policy
OECD, education and skills have been reframed as central issues for framework of the OSS, collating lessons learned from the previous
national economic competitiveness (Robertson, 2005) and the work on skills carried out by different projects across the
educational rankings published by the organization are considered organization and did not wait for the analysis of PIAAC data
the best international measures of how well equipped countries before doing so. International surveys such as PIAAC or PISA seem
42 O. Valiente / Interncational Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014) 4048

to be more useful in creating policy problems (Grek, 2010) and education and skills to economic development and social cohesion.
mobilizing policy agendas than in providing solid evidence to For the OSS, skills have become the global currency of twenty-rst
design the policy framework of the organization. century economies and without adequate investment in skills,
The following paragraphs analyse the policy framework of the people languish on the margins of society, technological progress
OSS as it was presented in the Better Skills report. The OSS policy does not translate into economic growth, and countries can no longer
framework rests on the OECDs traditional economistic focus on compete in an increasingly knowledge-based global society (OECD,
education and the primacy of human capital orthodoxy (OECD, 2012a: 10). Investing in skills is seen as the single most effective way
2001). However, as will be shown, the human capital orthodoxy, of not just promoting growth but also distributing its benets more
where efcient labour markets reward investment in education and fairly [through jobs] (OECD, 2012a: 11). This optimism cannot but be
training with better jobs and income gains, is partially substituted confronted by the harsh reality of the global economic crisis and its
by and combined with some of the analytical contributions from the effects on employment and public budgets. Even in these adverse
new political economy of skills and its emphasis on the institutional circumstances, the OSS asks countries to protect education and skills
factors that shape the demand for skills in capitalist societies. This from the cuts in the public sector: If cuts to public spending have to
analytical innovation has important implications for how the OECD be made, they should be based on the long-term cost/benet ratios of
understands the relation between education and work and on the alternative public investments. On these grounds, there is usually a
policy recommendations they make to countries. For human capital strong case to be made for maintaining public investment in skills
approaches, the phenomena of unemployment and underemploy- (OECD, 2012a: 18).
ment are the result of problems in the supply of skills, mainly the For human capital theorists, the market rewards the investment
quality of education systems and the low employability of of individuals in their skills with better jobs and higher earnings;
individuals. On the other hand, the new political economy of skills therefore, the problems of unemployment and underemployment
tends to identify the low demand for skills and the lack of jobs are basically caused by the low quality or the inadequacy of the
requiring qualications as the main problem, shifting the responsi- skills supplied by the workforce. Problems in the supply of skills
bility for this situation from individuals and the education system can be due to poor information on the needs of the market and/or
towards the state and rms. to the low capacity of education and training systems to respond to
these needs (CEDEFOP, 2010; OECD, 2010). For the OSS, there is
2.1. Human capital orthodoxy ample evidence that national education systems can do better in
developing the skills needed by the economy because, even at the
The central premise of human capital theory is that invest- height of the economic crisis in 2009, more than 40% of employers
ment in education and training is a key driver of economic growth in Australia, Japan and Mexico reported difculties in nding
(Schultz, 1961; Denison, 1967; Becker, 1964). More education and people with the appropriate skills (OECD, 2012a: 12). The OSS
training will contribute to the development of individuals skills, recommends that countries generate better information about the
which has been associated with both higher individual earnings skills needed and those available in the market. This information
and growing societal wealth (Hanushek and Woessmann, 2007, can be used to provide better career guidance for those seeking a
2008, 2012). For human capital theory, peoples skills have a great job, but it will be also crucial for educational planning. An informed
value for society as a factor of economic productivity. A highly educational planning would ensure that the supply of skills is
skilled workforce is comparable to other factors of production sufcient in both quantity and quality to meet the current and
involved in the capitalist production process such as natural emerging needs of the markets. Even in the case that education
endowments. An effective use of these resources would be systems could not satisfy the needs of the local markets, the
protable both for individuals, rms and for society as a whole. availability of this information would allow governments to
The emergence of the knowledge economy has been read by develop their own strategy to attract talent from abroad. In a
some of these authors as an empirical conrmation of their global knowledge economy, governments are encouraged not only
theories and as a new age of prosperity based on the development to facilitate internal mobility among local labour markets;
of human capital (Becker, 2002). In the age of human capital, the importing skills and talent from outside the country is also seen
economic success of individuals and countries will depend on how as very effective solution for dealing with the skills-shortages of
extensively and effectively people invest in themselves and their national economies.
skills. For human capital theorists peoples skills are more central As has been mentioned above, human capital orthodoxy sees
than ever to economic development and social welfare. Effective education and skills as the solution to the problems of exclusion
education and training systems will hold the key not only to a and social injustice. Providing the unskilled with skills is seen as an
competitive economy, but will also be seen as the foundation of antidote to unemployment, thereby eradicating poverty. The skills
social justice and social cohesion. If countries make the necessary of individuals determine their employability, which is seen as the
investments in human capital, few will need to be excluded from source of economic opportunity, choice and occupational status.
the prosperity that these investments will generate. It is assumed The OSS defends the idea that education and training can
by these authors that the global economy is in an evolutionary contribute decisively to tackling social exclusion by activating
process of technological upgrading, where the demand for the skills of the unemployed and those inactive in the labour
technical, managerial and professional workers will increase and market. Moreover, the OSS warns that, the demand for skills
the demand for low-skilled jobs and workers will decline. The changes, unused skills can become obsolete; and skills that are
argument is doubly optimistic. First, it assumes a constant and unused during inactivity are bound to atrophy over time (OECD,
progressive trend of technological development based on knowl- 2012a: 65). This atrophy of skills is what happens to the people
edge and secondly, it also assumes that this technological who, for different reasons, have been excluded from the labour
development will create more highly skilled jobs. From a policy market for an extended period of time. Retraining or up-skilling is
perspective, as the global economic competitiveness of countries offered as the most effective policy to bring the inactive and the
will rest on the knowledge and skills of its workforce, governments unemployed to the labour market in the post-recession period. In
will have very good reasons to place national skills strategy at the the OSS, these activation measures should be accompanied by the
very centre of their economic policies. exibilization of labour market policies and the restriction of
The OSS shares many of the postulates of human capital access to income-replacement schemes. Instead of keeping the
orthodoxy; in particular, the optimism about the contribution of inactive and unemployed out of the market through different
 O. Valiente / Interncational Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014) 4048 43

social benets that discourage labour market participation, the grow (Hirsch, 1976) as well the conict around the social
activation of the excluded through retraining and up-skilling distribution of opportunities and welfare.
would be a more cost-effective option for public budgets. From the perspective of the new political economy of skills, the
In summary, human capital orthodoxy provides the OSS with a main challenge for countries in the knowledge economy is not
theoretical framework that legitimizes the protection of the public guaranteeing an adequate supply of skills but incentivizing the
investment in education in a period of severe austerity. Education existing demand for skills and the creation of highly skilled and
and training systems, if adequately aligned with the needs of the highly waged jobs (Brown, 1999; Brown et al., 2001). Contrary to
market, will offer the skills that are necessary for national what human capital predicts, the investment in the education and
economies to grow, attract highly skilled jobs and maintain social training of highly skilled professionals will not create its own
cohesion through activation policies that improve the employabil- demand in the market. Employers do not react to the availability of
ity of those not participating in the labour market. more qualied labour by upgrading the conditions of work and
transforming the production process in their rms. Furthermore,
2.2. New political economy of skills competition between rms and the invisible hand of the market
will not directly lead employers to invest in upgrading skills
The new political economy of skills emerges as a critique of throughout the economy (Lauder, 1999). There is ample evidence
human capital theory and the discourse of the knowledge economy of low skills equilibria in the economy, where the competitiveness
(Brown et al., 2011; Cofeld, 1999; Green, 2013; Lauder et al., 2012; of rms and countries is based on low- qualied jobs and the low
Livingstone and Guile, 2012). Political economy authors show how wages of workers (Finegold and Soskice, 1988). The political over-
the discourse of the knowledge economy is shaping the way that emphasis on supply-side issues such as the responsiveness of
governments understand the role of education and skills in education systems to the needs of the market and the employ-
national economic development. The general idea behind the ability of graduates fails to recognize that the main policy problem
discourse of the knowledge economy is that countries are is how to foster the demand for skilled employment. National
supposed to think of the global economy as an open competition governments cannot just limit their skills policies to the education
for highly skilled jobs. Countries that can succeed in upgrading the and training of individuals; they also need to nd ways to
quality of their workforce will become the magnet economies for incorporate the expanding numbers of higher education graduates
highly skilled jobs (Brown and Lauder, 1996, 2006). National skills into highly skilled jobs. The capacity of national governments to
formation policies, therefore, need to focus on creating a world- intervene in the market and shape the demand for skills will
class labour force. Given the growing demand for skilled workers in depend on the model of capitalism that they have adopted and
knowledge intensive sectors, national skills formation systems will how they organize the production and distribution of welfare
need to focus on how to improve the supply of intermediate and (Green, 2006; Lauder et al., 2008).
highly skilled workers. The new international distribution of The OECD integrates some of the contributions from the new
labour will respond to a global auction for jobs where low-skilled political economy of skills into the policy framework of the OSS.
jobs will tend to migrate to low-waged economies and highly The OSS clearly recognizes that education and training systems
skilled jobs will continue to garner higher wages in the countries cannot aspire to improve the opportunities or welfare of
that are able to attract them. The politics of the magnet economy individuals in an economic environment characterized by high
consists in raising the skills and incomes of indigenous workers, unemployment rates and low-paid jobs. For the OSS, investing in
but also consists in attracting the most talented foreign workers skills is just the rst step; successful skills policies also need to
who meet the needs of national economies. The winners of these ensure that available skills are used effectively so that no
new global knowledge wars will be the magnet economies able to investment is wasted. [ . . . ] Developing skills and making them
attract a disproportionate share of these highly skilled and highly available to the labour market will not have the desired impact on
paid jobs from the rest of the world (Brown and Lauder, 1996). the economy and society if those skills are not used effectively
Political economists accept the importance of education and (OECD, 2012a: 13). With this idea the OSS introduces the problem
skills for economic development, but they question the dominant of skills utilization into its policy framework. Skills utilization is, by
discourse because it overestimates the extent to which nations denition, a problem of the demand side of the labour market, so it
within the global economy can create mass high-skilled is a problem of the economic structure of the country and not
employment. For political economists there is in general a genuinely a problem or decit of its education and training system.
growing gap between peoples increasing learning efforts on the The OSS recommends that countries adopt policies to support
one hand and the existence of knowledge-dependent jobs in employers in making better use of the skills available to them.
which they could apply their increasing knowledge investments These policies include promoting employee engagement, offering
on the other. The reality of the knowledge economy, contrary to greater job exibility, providing incentives for innovation and
what human capital would argue, is characterized by a rapid aligning business strategies with skills development in their
expansion of the global supply of skills and the incapability of the workforce. However, the OSS also recognizes that the incentives for
demand to follow this pace and to generate enough highly skilled employers to invest in their employees may be insufcient, even if
jobs for this highly skilled population. As a consequence of this employers may ultimately benet from such investments.
imbalance between the supply and demand for skills, countries Therefore, governments cannot assume that the market will
will need to deal with the social discontent produced by the false generate the adequate incentives and will need to intervene itself
promise of education and skills, as well as the social problem of in the economy to solve the problem of under-skilling in the labour
growing unemployment and underemployment among higher force and to achieve a good match between workers' skills and job
education graduates (Brown et al., 2011). This global process has requirements.
consequences not only for the distribution of wealth and welfare The very idea of an optimal and perfect match between the
between countries but also between social groups within supply and demand for skills that was largely advocated by
countries. Education and skills development will not protect manpower forecasting approaches is also questioned by the OSS. In
individuals from the precarization of their working conditions low-skills equilibria, people are matched with their jobs but at a
and new social gaps will emerge between those who have access very low level of skills. Low-skills equilibria can adversely affect
to the best jobs and the rest of the working population. As a result the economic development of a local economy, region or sector, or
of this process, the positional competition for the best jobs will indeed an entire country. For example, employers pursuing price-
44 O. Valiente / Interncational Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014) 4048

based competition strategies that rely on low-quality and enhance its global reach. The OSS is in agreement with the
standardized production require only a limited range of low-level increased interest of the organization in extending its inuence
skills from the bulk of the workforce. These price-based strategies beyond member countries. For this reason, the Better Skills report
leave the local workforce vulnerable to displacement because of makes repeated reference to the situation of jobs and skills in
innovation and competition in global markets and workers have emerging economies and middle income countries, which are
few incentives to remain in education because local employers are cited more than fteen times in the report (OECD, 2012a). The
neither seeking, nor are they willing to reward, high levels of skills. report also makes explicit reference to the situation of the MDGs in
For their part, employers have little incentive to upgrade West, East and Central Africa (OECD, 2012a: 41), the OECD
production processes or workers' skills since this can undermine Education for Development Framework and the OECD Strategy for
their price-based competition strategy. These examples demon- Development (OECD, 2012a: 107). The OECD has expressed the
strate that, a good match between available skills and job tasks is political will to extend its geographical focus and enhance its
not always a positive indicator (OECD, 2012a: 95). The aim of skills inuence in low- and middle-income countries and the OSS is
policies should be to avoid the low skills equilibria by upgrading strongly aligned with this aim.
the demand for skills rather than trying to match this supply of Since the early 1980s, the global education agenda for
skills with a labour market that only requires low levels of skills. development has neglected the growing needs of many developing
The OSS tries to integrate the skills utilization paradigm and countries in expanding and reforming their TVET and skills
some of the critiques raised by the new political economy of skills sectors (Klees, 2008; Psacharopoulos, 1985; Psacharopoulos and
into a policy framework clearly dominated by human capital Woodhall, 1985; Robertson et al., 2007; Samoff, 1994). The
orthodoxy. It must be remembered that human capital orthodoxy prioritization of basic education in the Education for All Jomtien
has been extremely useful to positioning education and skills as a Conference in 1990 and the focalization of universal primary
priority of the economic agenda of the OECD, so no theoretical education by the MDGs did not help to correct this situation
innovation should damage the general claim that more education (King, 2007; Mundy, 2007). In fact, the successful failure of the
leads to greater earnings and economic growth. This theoretical universal primary education goal has done nothing apart from
eclecticism is managed in the policy framework of the OSS through increase the social pressure on secondary and post-basic
the distinction between short-term and long-term strategies. This educational levels (King et al., 2007). The educational priorities
distinction is clear in the OSS when analysing the situation of in the post-2015 era seem to be changing and international
higher education graduates: while higher education often leads to organizations are already presenting their own views on the global
good employment prospects over a lifetime, [ . . . ] it could also situation of skills and making policy recommendations to better
increase the likelihood of unemployment in the short term. Skills equip populations in low- and middle-income countries with the
surpluses can also be temporary, resulting from a rapid expansion necessary skills for the knowledge economy (World Bank, 2011;
of the tertiary-educated population and an insufcient demand for UNESCO, 2012). Given the renewed global interest in the skills
these workers. In the long run, the availability of higher levels of sector in the education and development eld and the scarcity of
skills can trigger a demand for these skills and an accompanying solid alternative policy frameworks at the global level, it is
evolution towards higher value-added production in the wider reasonable to expect that a substantial number of stakeholders,
economy (OECD, 2012a: 84). For the OSS, despite the fact that in including donors and governments in low- and middle-income,
the short term, a skills surplus may develop, in the long term will use the OSS as a policy guide.
investing in the skills supply will always pay off because it can help Traditionally, the OECD managed the education for develop-
to transform the kinds of employment on offer in such economies, ment agenda through the Development Assistance Committee
as employers can more easily recruit skilled workers who, in turn, DAC, but nowadays the organization is mainstreaming its work
improve the quality of the work that they do. with low- and middle-income countries across all the directorates,
The main innovation in the policy framework of the OSS is to including the Directorate of Education and Skills. The Directorate
shift the focus of skills policies from the supply side and individual for Education and Skills has some experience working with low-
employability towards the demand side and the political and middle-income countries thanks to its Division of Non-
commitment to job creation (Desjardins, 2012). This is a very Member Economies and it should not be forgotten that some
important political sleight of hand that shifts the responsibility for member countries are also middle-income countries (Turkey and
unemployment rmly onto the shoulders of the state and rms Mexico). In addition, the Directorate for Education and Skills, in
and not onto individuals and the education system. With this coordination with DAC members and development agencies (i.e.,
policy innovation, the OECD puts some distance between its skills the World Bank and UNESCO), has recently launched the PISA for
strategy and the neo-liberal agenda in education that, with the Development project with the aim of increasing the policy
excuse of economic competitiveness, is constantly questioning the relevance of PISA in low- and middle-income countries. Similarly
quality of education systems and weakening the role of the state in to the approach taken in the case of the PISA for Development
the funding, management and provision of education and training project, the OECD is actively soliciting interested government
services. Under the OSS, countries are encouraged to embark on ofcials from low- and middle-income countries for a third round
national strategies that coordinate the action of different areas and of PIAAC and donors and other agencies are invited to ensure
levels of government. The recognition that the problem is not sustainable funding to meet the costs of implementing the survey
(only) in the supply of skills implies that education systems cannot in these countries.
address skills problems alone and a more coordinated national While recognizing that the OSS might play a very inuential role
strategy is needed. in the global skills agenda for development in the post-2015 scenario,
in the following section it will be argued that it is necessary to
3. Absences and shortfalls from a development perspective problematize the possible undesired effects that the OSS might have
on the educational development of low- and middle-income
While the OECD has risen to a leading role in the international countries. It is argued that the OECD should be careful when
debates on education policy among its member countries, the recommending good policy practices from high-income countries to
growth of emerging economies and their impact on the the governments in low- and middle-countries. Given the very
international balance of power have challenged the traditional different socioeconomic and political conditions that these countries
geographical focus of the organization, forcing it to actively face, the translation of policy solutions from the former to the latter
 O. Valiente / Interncational Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014) 4048 45

might be very problematic. It is also argued that ignoring the politics religious and political specicities of these contexts. While in high-
of skills formation and its implications for social justice might income countries and some emerging economies we already have
undermine the relevance and effectiveness of the OSS recommen- extensive knowledge of how skills policies recommended by the OSS
dations, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Finally, it will interact with local and national labour market arrangements
is argued that the OECD economistic approach to education and skills (Green, 2006), in middle- and in particular in low-income countries
will reproduce the problems of productivist conceptions of the policy recommendations made by the OSS do not even come
development and should therefore be complemented with the close to addressing the challenges to skills development in labour
contributions made by social justice theories to the debates on markets dominated by the large presence of the informal sector
education and human development. (King and McGrath, 2002) and with very different characteristics
from those in high-income countries.

3.1. One size ts all

3.2. Technical solutions for political problems
The implementation of policy solutions from high-income
countries in low- and middle-income is one of the most problematic As part of the aspiration of universal validity, the OSS is framed
international practices that have been inspired by modernization within technical terms and around issues such as access and
approaches to development. Modernization theories have informed quality of education and training and the adequacy of skills, or of
the policy advice of international organizations and Western the skills mismatch between the skills of individuals and the
governments from the early 1960s (Rostow,1960) and had signicant requirements of jobs. This technical denition of the skills goals
implications for educational policy globally (Dale, 2005). In this does not help to identify and engage with more deep-rooted
perspective, education is fundamental in the development of the problems of social justice in national systems of skills formation
technical and cultural skills needed for the creation of modern such as social and political exclusion, and ethnic and social
individuals and for economic development to take off (Inkeles and discrimination. Moreover, the technical denition of education and
Smith, 1974). Human capital has been the main modernization skills goals by international organizations is sometimes just a
theory in the education eld and has always aspired to have general strategy for obscuring the political nature of the policy recom-
applicability to countries with different levels of development. For mendations that they make to countries (Bonal, 2002; Klees, 2008;
human capital theorists, the direct relationship between education Robertson et al., 2007; Tarabini, 2010).
and skills and economic growth is indifferent to national history, For the OSS the best way to promote social equity in low- and
culture and identities because it conforms to the universal laws of middle-income countries is to ensure access to and success in
economic development (Becker, 1964). These authors defend the quality education for all (OECD, 2012a). This might be achieved by
idea that the larger investment in schooling and skills explains the investing in high-quality early childhood education and initial
productive superiority of economies in the high-income countries schooling, particularly for children from socioeconomically disad-
and their success in the global economic competition (Becker, 1964, vantaged backgrounds. The most effective strategy would be to
2002; Schultz, 1961). In order to catch up with the level of ensure that children start strongly in their education careers and
development of high-income countries, the rest of the countries that rst skills beget future skills. Later in life, nancial support
should follow the same course of policies and increase their public targeted at disadvantaged students and schools might improve the
and private investment in education and skills. development of skills. The policy menu of the OSS for eradicating
The policy framework of the OSS has been developed to address the causes of poverty and social injustice is based on targeting the
the needs of high-income countries and it is difcult to imagine how poor with education and skills development programmes from
these policy recommendations could be easily translated to the their early childhood through their course of life. The OSS clearly
political and economic contexts of low- and middle-income sees skills as the key to tackling inequality and promoting social
countries. While the Better Skills report is full of references to the mobility because, investing in skills is far less costly, in the long
problems faced by low- and middle-income countries in becoming run, than paying the price of poorer health, lower incomes,
high-skills economies and some best practices from developing unemployment and social exclusionall of which are closely tied to
agencies are included in different boxes throughout the report, there lower skills (OECD, 2012a: 18).
are no specic recommendations for these counties in the report. This technical denition of skills policies completely ignores the
The policy framework of the OSS identies very different problems politics of skills formation and its implications for social justice.
in low- and middle- income countries from the ones that one sees in While the OSS has been very successful in integrating some
high-income countries, but these different situations do not seem to conceptual contributions from the new political economy of skills
require differentiated policy solutions. Large-scale inequalities into its policy framework, it still neglects the conictive nature of
between rural and urban areas in China (OECD, 2012a: 24); school the positional competition around the social distribution of skills
drop-out rates and the phenomenon of brain drain in Sub-Saharan and the benets of innovation and productivity gains (Brighouse
Africa (OECD, 2012a: 41, 73); the persistence of child labour in Brazil and Swift, 2006; Brown, 1999; Hirsch, 1976). Many governments in
(OECD, 2012a: 48); and the importance of the informal sector and developing and donor countries will feel very comfortable with a
gender disparities in MENA countries (OECD, 2012a: 64, 86) are set of recommendations that are presented as technical solutions
some of the skills challenges identied by the Better Skills report in for more effective skills formation, but political economy research
low- and middle-income countries, but little or no reference is made in low- and middle-income countries (Novelli et al., 2014;
to a specic policy agenda to tackle these situations. Poppema, 2009; Shields and Rappleye, 2008) has shown that
The education agenda for development is constituted on a global most of these technical solutions will fail if the problems of large
scale and too often this agenda is later mobilized by global actors and inequalities, lack of social rights and political marginalization are
donors in different countries without a proper analysis of the specic not the direct focus of these interventions.
cultural, political and economic factors that shape national
education and skills systems (Dale, 2000). A global skills agenda 3.3. Productivist model of development
based on the idea that one size ts all will necessary fail to deliver
the expected results because of the unintended consequences of The economistic approach to skills formation in the OSS is
interventions that are not sensitive to the distinctive cultural, social, clearly linked to a productivist model of development. Under these
46 O. Valiente / Interncational Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014) 4048

productivist conceptions of development, individuals are reduced culturally sensitive approaches interrogate subjects about their
to human resources for economic exploitation and accumulation own conceptions of welfare and work and their motivations to
(McGrath, 2012); their skills are assessed by their contribution to engage in education and training (Powell, 2012, 2013) and how
employability, and education and training policies are mainly their religious beliefs shape their understanding of the role of skills
designed to foster economic growth (Anderson, 2009). As has been and competition for jobs in a society (Tan, 2008). Similarly,
argued above, the economistic approach to education and skills has inequalities between individuals and social groups in their access
been a strategic component of the program of work carried out by and use of skills are better understood under this culturally
the Directorate for Education and Skills, but in the education and sensitive approach. The inclusion of learners with disabilities
development eld, productivist conceptions of development have cannot be achieved without a proper understanding of the
been largely criticized and challenged by human-centred practices and beliefs that lead to the persistence of stigma,
approaches (UNDP, 1990). While, in productivist models of prejudice and discrimination (Karangwa et al., 2010; Trani et al.,
development, the skills that matter are the skills for growth, 2012). Skills policies that try to rectify gender inequities, an issue
in human development approaches skills for life and that has high priority on the global agenda, will not be effective if
sustainability are also development goal in themselves (King, they do not challenge directly the cultural attitudes and practices
2009). Moreover, the recent adoption of the capabilities theory of within patriarchal societies (Maclure and Denov, 2009). The
justice (Sen, 1999) in the educational and development eld has misrecognition of ethnic and language diversity is also a
stressed the intrinsic importance of the educational good for fundamental driver of educational marginalization and skills
developing the agency freedom of individuals (Unterhalter and deprivation (Breidlid, 2013; Pherali and Garratt, 2013) and a global
Brighouse, 2007). Under human development frameworks, skills agenda based on the prioritization of quantitative targets, e.g., the
formation systems cannot only be designed to satisfy the needs of number of adults enrolled in education and training activities, is
the economic systems, but also to satisfy wider basic needs of unlikely to foster the rectication of these inequalities. Any set of
individuals and their communities. global skills policies that did not take into account these cultural
The productivist conception of development is very present attitudes
throughout the Better Skills report, the only exception being the and contexts will presumably fail to contribute to the human
rst chapter, in which some reference is made to the non-economic development of these populations.
outcomes of skills. In this initial chapter it is stated that, skills
affect people's lives and the well-being of nations in ways that go 4. Conclusions
far beyond what can be measured by labour-market earnings and
economic growth. For example, the benets of skills to an The OSS introduces some signicant policy innovations
individual's health are potentially great. Skills also relate to civic compared to the previous work of the OECD in education and
and social behaviour as they affect democratic engagement and skills. The rst is the aim of renovating their traditional human
business relationships. Institutional trust, for example, is vital for capital approach to skills by incorporating some of the analytical
the functioning of democracies; and without trust in the rule of law contributions of the new political economy of skills. This
and in others, business relationships function less efciently innovation implies that education and training systems are no
(OECD, 2012a: 10). This initial commitment to the non-economic longer passive recipients of the demands from employers and
benets of skills disappears from the policy framework of the OSS markets. Instead of that perspective, education and training
when the substantial policy issues are discussed. The rest of the systems become integrated into national skills strategies
framework is basically concerned with forecasting the skills needs designed to upgrade the demand for skills of an economic
of the economy, satisfying the demands of employers, intensifying structure that is unable to absorb a highly skilled workforce. This
workplace-learning schemes and using skills policies to activate policy shift should be very much welcomed by those who have
individuals in the labour market. For the OSS, the human skills that criticized the neo-liberal orientation of skills agendas and the
are not used in the labour market are basically a waste of resources inhibition of the state when faced with the structural crisis of
for society: in all countries, many individuals are out of the labour employment.
force by choice, because of their personal or family circumstances, The second policy innovation is the growing desire of the
or because there are nancial disincentives to work. Unused Directorate for Education and Skills of the OECD to play an
human capital represents a waste of skills and of initial investment important role in the denition of the global education agenda for
in those skills (OECD, 2012a: 65). development in the post-2015 scenario. The lack of attention paid
Human-centred approaches to development are not only to the skills sector by development agencies during recent decades
relevant in normative terms, they are also important for and the internationally recognized technical capacity of the OECD
understanding local cultures, their needs and the reasons for in education might be sufcient reason for some governments in
educational disadvantage. In the development debate, post- low- and middle-income countries to follow the policy recom-
colonial theory has highlighted the Eurocentric nature of debates mendations and advice offered by the OECD. However, as has been
and the negation of indigenous and traditional cultures and argued here, there are still many risks associated with the direct
knowledge in the development discourse, as well as identifying the mobilization of the skills agenda of the OECD in the cultural,
ongoing legacies of colonialism and imperialism in contemporary political and economic contexts of low- and middle- income
development practice (Amin, 1997). These theories have had a countries. The geographical shift of the OECD and its Directorate
strong impact on development thinking, including in the eld of for Education and Skills should be accompanied by the integration
education and development (Crossley and Tikly, 2004). The of current theoretical and policy debates in the development eld.
evolving eld of critical political economy has also recently Otherwise, they will be reproducing most of the mistakes that
reected a concern to integrate the cultural into its analysis. This other international organizations have made in the past and that
cultural political economy orientation (Jessop, 2004; Jessop and have caused great damage to the development of these countries.
Oosterlynck, 2008; Robertson, 2012) is underpinned in part by a Both the growing global activity in the skills sector and the interest
concern with enriching analysis of subjectivity and individual of an organization such as the OECD in the skills policies of
agency in development debates. Instead of assuming that low- and middle-income countries should be seen as very positive
integration in the global economy requires the same skills news. Having said that, it will be necessary to engage in a wide and
or similar sets of skills for all countries and social groups, informed international debate about whatthe assumptions and
 O. Valiente / Interncational Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014) 4048 47

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