Breaking Down the Learning Silos: What Role for Employers and the Private Sector in Education and Learning?

The role of employers and the private sector in shaping education and training agendas has become an issue of increasing importance. The expanded role of the private sector in shaping education is driven by two principal concerns. First, skills and education are ascribed an increasingly important role in securing economic competitiveness and achieving social welfare. Hence education and training are seen as playing an increasingly important role in shaping economic opportunities for individuals and companies, with human capital being viewed as central to the competitiveness of individuals, firms and locations in the global knowledge-based economy. With this recognition, the need to align education and training provision with the needs of the economy and thus employers has become more pressing. This has in turn led to growing concerns of possible misalignment in skills supply and demand. These concerns are closely aligned with the observation that while society is educating more people than ever, companies are increasingly complaining that they can’t find the skills that they require in the labour market. This issue has become particularly pertinent in recent years in a European context, where growing numbers of young people are struggling to find employment, while companies continue to refer to a lack of the right skills.