Regional Training Programme On “The Effective Usage Of Labour Market Information (LMI) For Guidance On Education And Employment”

|Overview|

Labour Market Information is an important source for guiding our students for their further education or for employment. Better understanding of labour market needs and skills matching have featured high on the policy agenda of many countries, driven by both rapid technological advances and global competition. Skills matching can also help reduce unemployment, particularly among young people. It helps build a better life for individuals by improving employability, social mobility and inclusion (European Training Foundation, 2016).

High-quality and easily accessible LMI are fundamental features of a competitive labour market. LMI can improve both short- and long-term matches of labour supply and demand to ensure that individuals build and renew the skill sets required in the dynamic marketplace (Woods & O’Leary, 2006).

Considering the importance of having high-quality and accessible LMI for matching the requirements in education, training, and employment, this training programme offers opportunity for education policymakers and practitioners to enhance their knowledge and skills about LMI and how to use it effectively.

Specifically, this training programme will equip participants with knowledge about LMI including the overview of development process and characteristics of good LMI, having skills on reading, assessing and interpreting, presenting relevant LMI, and disseminating LMI for the purpose of guiding students.

 |Objectives|

The general objective of this training programme is to provide participants with knowledge and skills about Labour Market Information, ranging from the overview about the development of LMI, being able to assess the quality of LMI by knowing some characteristics of good LMI, having the skills on how to access, read, interpret, present and disseminate relevant LMI.

In particular, after completing this course the participants will have been able to:

• Explain various definitions and components of a good LMI.
• Elaborate general process in developing LMI.
• Present the current practices in developing and /or using the existing LMI for guiding students’ further education or employment
• Demonstrate how to access, read and interpret relevant LMI.
• Assess the quality of selected LMI.
• Present relevant LMI for guiding students either for further education or for employment.
• Disseminate LMI to relevant stakeholders.
• Develop an action plan for using LMI for guiding students in their respected institution.

|TOPICS| 

1. Overview of Labour Market Information

This topic will cover definitions, types, and what LMI looks like. In addition, the session also discusses who produces LMI.

2. Sources of LMI

This session will explain various sources of LMI which include internet sources, printouts, national sources, regional sources and how to find local sources of LMI. 

3. Good Practices is Developing and/or Using LMI

The participants are required to share the current practices in developing and/or using the existing LMI for guiding students’ further education or employment though the presentation of country papers.

4. Reading, assessing and interpreting LMI

This session will guide participants on how to select, read tables and charts of LMI, checking reliability and validity – the quality of LMI, and interpreting LMI. If necessary, participants will also be guided to analyse further the existing LMI.

5. Presenting selected LMI

This session will provide information about choosing LMI that is suitable for the audience, checking understanding, avoiding pitfalls, and presenting it to relevant stakeholders.

8. Disseminating selected LMI

In this session, the participants will be guided in selecting information for dissemination to colleagues, developing a clear presentation, and discuss various methods of disseminating LMI.

7. Action Planning

In this session, participants will be required to develop and present an individual action plan by utilising the experience from the course to enhance the development and effective use LMI in their home institution/organisation.

 |Expected Outputs|

At the end of the course, participants will be able to produce a group project reflecting their knowledge and skills how to access, read, interpret, present and disseminate relevant LMI. In addition, each participant will also produce an individual action plan describing the plan of action related to the development or the use of LMI for the home institution upon the completion of the course.

|Target Participants|

The participants should preferably include those who are/were involved in research activities, development of LMI or job information, or those providing guidance and counselling to their students for further education or employment. Participants must possess relevant background in education and employment context, understand basic statistics, and with working computer knowledge and skills, e.g. computer programmes on MsWord, Excel and PowerPoint.