people and planet

13
Cognitive skills.......................................................................................................................... 244
Non-cognitive skills.................................................................................................................247
Combinations of cognitive and non-cognitive skills for work........................... 250
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................253
Target 4.4 focuses on one of education’s outcomes:
skills for work. It is similar to target 4.6, on literacy
and numeracy, in two respects: both refer to workrelated
skills and neither refers to the means by which
these skills are to be acquired.
With its explicit reference to technical and vocational
skills, target 4.4 appears closely linked to target 4.3,
which refers to technical and vocational education.
However, skills for work are acquired in almost all
education programmes and, critically, can be acquired
outside education systems – for example, within families,
communities and workplaces. Indeed, unlike hereditary
traits, work-related skills originate in deliberate and
intentional experiences: they are dynamic and can be
developed throughout the course of a lifetime.
A central concept for this target is decent work, which is
enshrined within Articles 6 and 7 of the 1966 International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
According to the United Nations (UN) Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, decent work
respects fundamental human rights as well as worker
rights in terms
of work safety,
remuneration and the
Other than literacy and
physical and mental
numeracy, it is difficult integrity of the
worker.
to envisage any skills
that are relevant and
It is less clear what
easy to measure
skills are needed
for decent work.
Moreover, skill
requirements are specific to job opportunities, which
differ enormously across countries. Other than the
foundation skills of literacy and numeracy, in fact, it is
difficult to envisage any skills for work that can satisfy
all the criteria: measurable along a common scale at
low cost; able to be acquired through education; and
relevant in various labour market contexts. Faced with
this challenge, the Inter-agency and Expert Group on
Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs)
proposed measuring ICT skills, opting for relative
ease of measurement at the cost of narrowing the
scope of the target.
This chapter reviews the skills that matter most for
work and asks whether they can be monitored. It
focuses on general skills, which are applicable in a range
of work contexts, and not on technical and vocational
skills, which are specific and not suitable for global
comparisons. It skips one of the proposed thematic
indicators, the attainment rate – not only because it was
covered under target 4.1 but also because it has relatively
little relation to the possession of actual skills.
The chapter discusses cognitive and non-cognitive
skills, a somewhat arbitrary distinction as non-cognitive
skills – known by several other labels, such as soft or
socio-emotional skills – involve cognition. In practice,
depending on the context, a combination of skills is
usually relevant. The chapter closes with a discussion of
financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills as examples
of work skills that develop at the nexus of intellectual,
social and emotional abilities.
COGNITIVE SKILLS
Basic cognitive skills include literacy and numeracy. They
are essential for getting work that pays enough to meet
daily needs, pursuing further education and training
opportunities, leading a healthy life and engaging actively
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CHAPTER 13 | TARGET 4.4 – SKILLS FOR WORK