Resolutions to reform higher education and augment worker retraining over the next 10 years were passed today at a meeting of the Executive Yuan task force on national human resources presided by Premier Jiang Yi-huah.
These plans will serve as the basis for Taiwan's talent cultivation, training and recruitment policy, officials said.
"In recent years, rapid demographic change, structural transformation of industries and the expansion of higher education have combined to create a discrepancy between the knowledge college graduates learn in school and the practical skills needed by the marketplace. This has resulted in a supply-demand imbalance: that is, the nation is facing unemployment and labor shortages simultaneously," stated the premier.
"In order to raise national competitiveness, the Executive Yuan will deepen the national talent pool over the next decade through diverse channels, capitalize on the outstanding human resources Taiwan already has and provide the vocational training industries require."
Today's meeting chiefly focused on student talent cultivation and manpower retraining. The former subject was addressed by the Ministry of Education (MOE), which spoke about its White Paper on Human Resource Development, and the latter by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), which explained its planning concept for addressing the labor market's supply-demand imbalance through additional training of the existing workforce.
The MOE's white paper mainly touches on three major fields: basic education; technical and vocational education; and the use of college education to train talents with international perspectives for global deployment. The document's roadmap for national talent cultivation and development consists of 16 promotional strategies and 39 action plans. Following approval by the Executive Yuan's task force for talent cultivation, the MOE will formally convene a press conference tomorrow to release this white paper to the public.
At present, the nation faces shortages of basic- and high-level labor and a glut of mid-level workers, according to estimates by the CEPD. Moreover, surveys conducted by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics and the Council of Labor Affairs show that "skills incompatible with job requirements" is the chief reason for which job applicants cannot fill job vacancies. This demonstrates the necessity and importance of re-training the mid-level labor force to upgrade its capabilities, officials said.
The CEPD plans to provide more such training, determine what skills are in demand and mold the labor environment using eight strategies:
1. Assisting and encouraging the private sector to train talents for industrial development
2. Transforming private schools into training institutions
3. Encouraging investment in individual skills and training
4. Assisting and encouraging enterprises to train their own talents
5. Establishing a dialogue mechanism between training institutions and industry on labor supply and demand
6. Setting up a registration platform between training agencies and industries
7. Promoting technical and vocational standards and certification systems
8. Adjusting relevant laws and regulations
These policies are intended to gradually channel private sector investment into labor training, develop training that is based on market demands, and usher in sound and healthy development of talent-training institutes to reduce the discrepancy between university subject matter and requisite real-world knowledge.
The MOE's white paper is a blueprint for national talent cultivation for the next decade, the premier said. "It will help train workers with various skills needed by society and who have transnational mobility, which will lead Taiwan forward and raise its international competitiveness," he pledged.
Currently, the government's most pressing priority is to train middle-level manpower in the current workforce, Jiang emphasized. The formulation of the CEPD's plan, to be undertaken by the agency after the views of the Executive Yuan's talent policy task force are incorporated, will be headed by Minister without Portfolio Kuan Chung-ming, who will delegate work and responsibility to relevant ministries and then submit the final draft to the Executive Yuan for approval.