Skills-First Ecosystem Framework

The skills-first economy is an emerging paradigm where economic growth and workforce strategies anchored on skills mastery over formal qualifications.  It has reshaped recruitment practices to hire on what individuals can do rather than what degrees they hold. This approach is expected to expand talent pools, improving equity, and aligning workforce development with fast-changing industry needs, technological advances and demographic shifts. Since 2019, there has been a growing trends towards skills-based hiring and several major companies like IBM, Google, Cisco, Walmart and Boeing have implemented a skills-first approach in their hiring and talent management strategies. 

The shift towards skills-first led to the establishment of a Skills-First Readiness and Adoption Index which is jointly developed by OECD and the Centre for Skills-First Practices (CSFP) at the Singapore University of Social Sciences-Institute for Adult Learning (SUSS-IAL). 

Source: https://www.oecd.org/en/data/dashboards/skills-first-readiness-and-adoption-index.html

The rise of a skills-first economy has profound implications for higher education, especially in curriculum design, credentialing, assessment and graduate employability. HEIs must shift from emphasizing in knowledge to future-ready skills, co-create skills-based curriculum with stakeholders, integrating microcredentials, badges, skill certification and authentic performance or skills-based assessment as employers seek our graduates who demonstrate job-ready skills rather than academic knowledge. 

The Skills-First Ecosystem Framework is conceptualized to facilitate HEIs to implement skills-first ecosystem with the support from their national agencies.