Inadequate human resources development

Human resources development concerns increased emphasis within existing avenues, such as in-house training and research and development, broadening of skills of the workforce, development and assimilation of new technologies so as to maximize productivity. On the other hand, new avenues are needed to develop expertise for the new production opportunities and for the marketing of the resultant outputs. Human resources development is a necessary complement to the mobilization of additional investment finance for commodity-based development.

In many countries there is a lack of an effective private enterprise manpower policy applicable to the development of commodity extraction, conversion, manufacturing or service industries and to the agriculture and food-processing sectors. Also lacking is the provision for such a policy to be integrated into total manpower development and educational policy, in conjunction with national planning. The presence of migratory labour forces, skilled and unskilled, encourages minimum training for domestic labour and high turnover.

[Industrialized countries]

A lack of economic incentives has caused a dearth of manpower to enter the crafts in many high-technology oriented countries. There are shortages of skilled carpenters, plumbers, electricians, bricklayers and others, particularly in many major urban labour markets. Reports of unemployment in the wealthier nations are consistently higher in the unskilled sectors, and nonexistent in certain highly skilled industries. A 1990 USA report estimated that more than 4 out of 10 employees were not being properly trained to do the work the contemporary economy demanded.

[Developing countries]

The dearth of highly qualified administrators, executives, entrepreneurs, doctors, nurses, teachers, firemen, training instructors, etc, in the developing countries occurs side by side with massive under-employment and unemployment. Major projects are delayed and employment opportunities for unskilled workers are thereby restricted. The problem is intensified by overproduction of certain kinds of staff. For example, in the Philippines (1963-70) there was an estimated surplus of 15,000 engineers.

[Small island developing states]

Island developing countries, being small, cannot employ full-time the wide range of specialists required for social and economic development; and generalists cannot have, nor are they expected to have, a high level of technical competence in a wide range of fields. There are occasions when small island developing countries need experts of the highest calibre, but such occasions may be so rare in any one field that it is not worth training a local person. The manpower constraints facing small island developing countries have common characteristics but pooling of technical abilities has not been achieved to any extent on a regional basis.