Peru’s Labor and Employment Minister Alfonso Grados addressed the need to enhance employability and productivity of the workforce across Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum economies, especially the young ones through soft skills development.
According to the World Bank, Peru ranks among 35 countries with higher soft skills development gaps, a reality evidenced in at least 70% of APEC economies. This situation must be reversed,” he pointed out.
Most economies nowadays face the challenge of having a workforce whose skills are consistent with the market’s needs, but employers still struggle to find optimal personnel, the government official noted.
The minister added the lack of soft skills’ development translates into market access and permanence restrictions. This is particularly a concern among youngsters, whose first work experiences have a strong impact on their careers.
Remarks were made during the opening of the International Symposium on Strategies for Strengthening Employability (Soft) Skills as part of the 6th APEC Education Ministerial Meeting taking place in Lima until October 6th.
Peruvian initiative
The minister of Labor and Employment Promotion also informed Peru seeks to create a knowledge network on better practices to develop soft skills towards employability. Such efforts will benefit the Asia-Pacific region and are expected to constitute a global benchmark.
“We seek to institutionalize good practices and experts’ synergy in order to formulate and implement policies and strategies to strengthen soft skills in APEC,” he stressed.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), founded in November 1989, is a forum seeking to promote trade and investment liberalization, facilitate business and promote economic cooperation between its 21 member economies: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
