Transitions from education to work: workforce ready challenges in the Asia Pacific

The transition from school to work is a fundamental platform to build societies in order to sustain resilient economies. However, it remains a major labour market policy challenge across nations, largely pertaining to mismatch between skills acquired through educational provisions and those required for productivity, consequently employment and employability in globally competitive work environments. The premise of the book is grounded in contentions that mismatch between skill sets and labour market needs leads to poor productivity and unemployment. The book is organised in three parts. Part I comprises two chapters outlining the issues and challenges of work-readiness. In Part II, the authors analyse the challenges of work- readiness for labour markets in Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, Australia, Nepal and Laos. Asia is well represented here. Other Pacific nations are likely to present quite distinct set of challenges with work-readiness. The country cases reported in Part II cover different types of economies, education systems and industrial arrangements yet encounter common as well as distinct challenges with work-readiness of graduates. While there are consistent claims of mismatch between what graduates learn in educational institutions and what employers need, the need for greater input into the curriculum from employers is understated. Paradoxically, while a mismatch of skills and implied poor productivity is consistently argued across the nine country cases, many graduates still seem to find employment as foreign workers in other countries. The final two chapters in Part III give a synthesis of comparative analysis and conclusions. In Chapter 1, Burgess, Cameron, Dhakal and Brown summarise a range of issues about work-readiness. Their examination and interpretations of ‘work-readiness’ unpack the complex nature of this phenomenon. A clear description for the context of the book sets out a common basis for understanding the concept when reading the country chapters (3–11). The authors paid particular attention to discussing the key stakeholders and their roles in improving graduates’ work-readiness. They contend that tertiary institutions and employers play a key role. They also mention ‘individuals, families, communities, organisations and governments’ (12) as important investors. In all the discussions throughout the book, the important role of learners and their responsibilities seem to be shadowed under commentaries about other actors