Human Development
Human resources development
Description:
The development of human resources has three essential and interdependent components: the building of appropriate incentives, the promotion of effective training of employees, and the rational development of formal education.[Building incentives]. This is to encourage individuals to prepare for and engage in the kinds of productive activity which are needed for accelerated growth. Large outlays for education are, for example, unlikely to produce the kind of high-level manpower needed if the proper incentives are lacking.
[Training of employees]. Training involves the development of specific skills which are needed to perform a particular job or series of jobs. It is a continuous process of human resource development rather than a simple pre-employment indoctrination.
[Development of formal education]. Traditionally, human resource development has focused primarily on education and secondarily on health. Human resource development is frequently equated with investments in formal education. The essential function of formal education is to prepare people for training rather than to train people for particular occupations. The main purpose of primary education is to make people literate and to make them more effective citizens in the modernizing society. The major mission of secondary education is to give students firm grounding in verbal and written communication skills, mathematics, foreign languages, history, social studies and science, aiming for breadth rather than specialization at an early stage, and especially if a large part of the occupational skill development is to be left to later training in employment or to post-secondary educational institutions. The mission of higher education is to provide liberally educated persons for positions of leadership in the modernizing society and to develop high-level technical manpower.
Vocational training and management development are operational approaches to human resources development. An emphasis on school and university education has recently shifted from national economic and technical requirements towards the socialization function of schooling, examination of the screening hypothesis and studying labour market segmentation. Effective educational planning is now seen to be based on realistic assessment of the operations of the labour market which are in a continuous state of flux, in particular in terms of employment patterns. It is difficult to avoiding dealing with what was required yesterday rather than what is required today, as old skills are outdated and new skills required. The vocational and job-specific education, previously considered economically necessary, is now superseded by the demand for more flexibility. Instead of trying to forecast the impossible, the system must be capable of responding rapidly and effectively to changes in the economy and in society. This means emphasizing recurrent education and training and retraining of adults.
Three components are indicated:
- [Creating human resources], focusing primarily on education and training.
- [Deploying human resources], emphasizing entrepreneurial and managerial abilities, research, technology, general skill formation, participation in decision-making. The possibility of deploying the human resources which have been invested in over a wide range of social, economic and cultural activities must be assured. Since the population is widely educated it must, necessarily, be included in decision-making.
- [Incentive structures to realize desirable deployment], through action to: (a) adapt the income structure (monetary and non-monetary) so that occupations and education are chosen in line with future development of society; (b) adapt decision-making structures to be horizontal instead of hierarchical, and to provide a maximum of participation together with speed and efficiency; (c) redirect educational spending with priority for primary and lower secondary education, selected research institutes and middle level management. Additionally, changes are necessary in educational and research structures and facilities.
Finally there is the question of innate ability, motivation and achievement. This varies globally, so that some areas in the world are clearly more successful than others and the people are psychologically orientated towards success. The human factor may be the limiting factor in economic and social development.
The ultimate objective of economic development should be human development. However, there is no commonly accepted definition as to what in practice constitutes human resources development. According to a report of the United Nations Development Programme, human resources development should be broadly defined, because of its intersectoral links, as "the maximization of the human potential as well as the promotion of its fullest utilization for economic and social progress". This definition "requires that people be given the opportunity to apply the full range of their skills and abilities, fulfil their desires and ambitions and make their contributions to the improvement of their lives and their society. Thus, human resources development depends upon a political and social utilization of human potential. It thus depends on the very nature of society and its economic history and culture". Regional, subregional and national differences must be taken into account; an operational human resource development strategy can be articulated only within the context of each country's special conditions.
Human resources development is a crucial requirement not only to build up technical knowledge and capabilities, but also to allow people to better use the resources they command, to stretch them further and to create new values to help individuals and nations cope with rapidly changing social, environmental and development realities. Knowledge shared globally would assure greater mutual understanding and create greater willingness to share global resources equitably. This calls for broadening education (improving skills necessary for pursuing sustainable development, providing insights on the interaction between natural and human resources, between development and environment, raising global awareness) and devising new methods for environmental education and new incentives for engaging into sustainable development paths.
Narrower:
Vocational training