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 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 out 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.

Happy Employees Work Better

The 15th "Happy Employees Work Better" workshop was held on 6 - 7 November 2025. The workshop is a collaboration between ASK Training Pte Ltd and Living Better. The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Johnson Ong Chee Bin, Chief Happiness Coach of Living Better.

The workshop began with the evolution of the happiness economy, discussed extensively on the 8 dimensions of happiness DNA with a self-assessment instrument to measure the happiness level of each of the 8 dimensions, and the strategies and practices to raise and sustain the level of happiness for individuals and organizations.

OBE Ecosystem Approach to Future-Ready Education

The 9th AUN-EQI workshop on "OBE Ecosystem Approach to Future-Ready Education" was held on 28 - 31 October 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop was a collaborative capacity building initiative between ASEAN Quality Network (AUN) and Education Quality International (eqi) and was attended by participants from universities in the Philippines.

The OBE Ecosystem Framework (Version 5) was developed to advance future-ready education and to prepare higher education instiutions to be future-ready in the world of disruptions. The following fundamental principles of OBE ecosystem framework were extensively discussed:

• WISER outcomes: outcomes: learning outcomes that are formulated based on the work of the future, vertical and horizontally aligned, significance and SMART, ecosystem perspective and real-world learning.
• Ecosystem curriculum design: The system to design future-ready curriculum requires both outside-in (ecosystem) and inside-out (microsystem) approaches with an emphasis on integrated curriculum best practices and designs.
• Real-world learning: learning should involve real world challenges and real-world tasks in bridging the gap between theory and practice gap so as to develop graduates’ work readiness by focusing on nurturing attributes towards employability and lifelong learning.
• Integrated constructive alignment: curriculum should embrace an integrated (vertical and horizontal) constructive alignment within and outside the programme and institution with the ecosystem.

Case studies were held to reinforce the underatnding and application of the OBE Ecosystem Framework.

Advancing Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) and Internationalization of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) in Lao PDR

The workshop on Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) and Internationalization of Study Programmes was held on 22 - 23 October 2025 in Vientiane, Lao PDR for the Minsitry of Education and Sports (MoES) and supported by the LuxDev Lao/037. 

The workshop was graced by Dr.Ammany Norrlinl, Deputy Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), Dr. Somdeth Keovongsak, Dean of Faculty of Law and Political Science, National University of Laos, and Mr. Thomas Lammar, Charge d Affaires of the Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It was attended by more than 50 participants from the Ministry of Education and Sports, public and private universities and institutions in Lao PDR, and  facilitated by international curriculum experts of Education Quality international (eqi).

The 2-day workshop aims to advance outcomes-based education (OBE) and internationalization of study programmes at MoES and universities of Lao PDR in a holistic and unified way to raise the quality of higher education. The workshop was structured into 2 sessions with the first focused on OBE Framework and principles and the second on the internationalization of study programmes. The learning outcomes of the workshop were: 

• Apply the OBE framework and its principles to advance OBE implementation;
• Relate internationalization strategies and frameworks to advance internationalization of study programmes in higher education; and
• Formulate indicators to measure the success of OBE and internationalization implementation.

The workshop was concluded with the experts outlining the way forward for the participants and their institutions. It was closed by Dr.Ammany Norrlinl, Deputy Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) with a certification presentation ceremony to the participants by Dr. Reginald Pastrana, Senior Sectoral Advisor, Lux Development Programme LAO/037.