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South Asia, particularly India, is poised to maintain high economic growth and is expected to reach by 2050 an income level that Europe is enjoying currently. South Asia needs to seize the opportunity provided by a growing youth population that needs to be converted into highly skilled and productive labor force. However, a binding constraint is inadequate education and training of the population. To sustain high economic growth and avoid falling in the middle-income trap, South Asia needs to invest heavily in education and particularly skills development to complement its large and growing investments in infrastructure. Skills training will require strengthening the skills ecosystem. In the long run, it is crucial to invest in lifelong learning to ensure synergy between formal education for soft skills and training that provides vocational skills to meet the emerging labor market needs. South Asia needs to learn from each other and also draw on global best practices to create more and better jobs.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the governments of developing countries have been focusing on improving substantially the socio-economic development and achieving the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. This chapter proposes a methodology for constructing a rural transformation index (RTI) based on three assessing indicator systems: the rural development level, the rural transformation level, and the urban–rural coordination level. The proposed methodology is based on the premise that how RTI demonstrates and corresponds to a certain rural development level can assist the policymakers and development planners to design and develop policies and strategies leading to the effective development of rural areas and an improved urban–rural relationship. The chapter suggests that more attention needs to be accorded to the collection of disaggregated data by rural–urban breakdown parameters that determine and fuel rural transformation.

Singapore’s population is aging. Retirement age is extended, and reemployment legislation has been introduced to extend the working lives of the Singapore population. To that end, several government agencies have offered a wide range of job-related skills training for many of these older adults. Beyond that, on the national level, one of the strategic thrusts in responding to the challenge of a graying population is to promote active aging by active learning, promoting lifelong adult learning for older adults in their retirement so that they may lead an active retired life – which in turn allows them to contribute back to society. This is the prevailing view in Singapore which tells only one aspect of the story.

This chapter tells another side of the story by proposing that retirees in Singapore may have their own realities in the golden years. These older adults are interested in learning but not job-related skills training. Consequently, there are learning implications between what they want to learn versus what is being offered in “re-hire-ment.”

Transitioning to a ‘green economy’ is more than a short-term response to current global crises. It can be a long-term strategy for sustainable development and poverty alleviation. A ‘green economy’ has four interconnected and mutually dependent goals: increasing economic growth alleviating poverty by reducing unemployment, increasing social inclusion and equity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving these goals will require existing education and vocational training systems to be capable of equipping future workers with the requisite breadth of competencies needed to take full advantage of the employment opportunities being generated by the ‘green economy’.

Asia’s spectacular growth rates are accompanied by concerns regarding environmental sustainability as the region recorded marked adverse trends of reduced water and air quality, depleted natural resources, and threats to biodiversity. However, with the right policies and incentives, Asian economies can make greening the economy viable and profitable in the long term. Education and training have a crucial role to play in the successful transition of economies to green and clean development. Yet, there is no systematic and comprehensive approach to linking education and training policies with climate change adaptation, mitigation, and greening policies. Investing in education is a critical long-term strategy to facilitate changes in consumption and behavior patterns that contribute to sustainable and climate-resilient progress. The far-reaching influence of education and training in this sphere has so far been underestimated. The Rio+20 outcome document provides an opportunity to redress this. Analyzing issues related to skills for greening economies is the theme of this chapter.

This chapter analyzes the steps taken in Korea to prepare training programs and developing skills aligned to such an overarching green economy vision and the lessons Korea offers to developing countries. This research tries to draw policy implications necessary to establish strategies for green job skill development in the target countries participating in the TA (technical assistance) project through a case study of green job skill development in Korea. Korea adopted green growth as a national strategy and set up necessary policies for each sector to achieve green growth because it is expected to contribute to economic development by bringing social and economic change and a change of manpower utilization that will, in the long term, create and expand the occupational cluster of green jobs. Korea has pushed ahead to develop and extend skill development programs in vocational training institutes, universities, and enterprises for green jobs that can serve as a role model for developing countries to establish effective policies and strategies to meet their growing demand for green jobs.

Climate change is generating economic and environmental threats with the pressures set to increase in the coming years. However, these threats also provide opportunities for those cities and regions that seek to address climate change by pursuing lower emission technologies. Where environmental concerns were once associated with problems of high costs and inefficiency, responding to the climate crisis is now rapidly becoming a high-growth industry where profits and returns are increasingly attractive. Research by the Environmental Protection Department identified electricity generation, property development, construction, transport and hospitality as ‘carbon-vulnerable’ industries in Hong Kong, China. This chapter has identified the potential workforce skills needed for Hong Kong, China, in these industries to create new and alternative economic opportunities through a shift to low-carbon technologies, aiming at identifying the changes in vocational training that are required to respond to the skills needs of industry and businesses resulting from climate change.

The development of employability skills is an essential component of TVET, and the list of skills varies across countries. However, they are all related to general skills valued by employers and the ones that help individuals gain employment and succeed at work. The emergence of a green economy agenda within the framework of sustainable development makes additional requests on the composition of employability skills. A green economy requires development of generic green skills (among other skills) that are in demand in almost any occupation (Pavlova, M. Economic competitiveness and ‘green skills’ development: issues and concerns for research. Presented at the international conference, Green Korea 2011, Seoul, 15 Sept 2011, 2011). These skills help the workforce to understand issues of green growth, to interpret environmental legislation and to increase energy and resource efficiency to enable the processes involved in greening the economy. This chapter examines the types of values that could underpin ‘enriched’ employability skills and discusses experiences and practices in China to illustrate a way of including values in TVET to address a green skills agenda.

This chapter draws on data from five Asian societies that participated in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). Samples of students from the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taipei, China, Indonesia and Thailand, aged approximately 15 years, answered a number of questions that tested their knowledge of issues related to sustainable development, and teachers and school principals were also asked to indicate the opportunities that were provided for students to engage with these issues both inside and outside school. The results showed that while environmental education appears to be part of the school curriculum across the region, its outcomes are uneven and the opportunities for students to engage with real-world environmental problems are also uneven. Suggestions are made as to how this situation can be improved.

This chapter draws together main themes and issues in skills development that need to be addressed through policy and strategy—these relate to the problems of adequate employment, skills mismatch, ensuring adequate foundational skills, and industry participation in skills development, putting in place standards and tools for skills measurement and monitoring and the need for employment services to supplement skills development. The chapter outlines possible areas for support for strengthening key policies and practices in skills development that can potentially lead to a coherent framework for skills development in Asia and the Pacific region.