East Asian countries are in the middle of the range in human capital development, with the gap between the best and worst performers among the biggest in all regions, according to the 2017 Global Human Capital Report released by the World Economic Forum.
Singapore ranked first in the region and 11
th in the world.
“It combines the world’s second-highest proportion of high-skilled employment with significant strengths in the quality of its education system and staff training,” the report said.
The city state is also yet to fully realize the human capital boost that would come from addressing its employment gender gap.
The report ranked 130 countries on how they develop their human capital across four dimensions – capacity, deployment, development and know-how. Capacity quantifies the existing stock of education across generations; deployment covers skills application and accumulation of skills through work; development reflects current efforts to educate, skill and upskill the student body and the working age population; know-how captures the breadth and depth of specialised skills use at work.
The indicators under each sub-index were filed under five distinct ages—0–14 years; 15–24 years; 25–54 years; 55–64 years; and 65 years and over.
Japan (rank 17) and South Korea (rank 27) “realize a high degree of their human capital on the capacity sub-index due to notable educational achievements of their older generations.”
Both countries, however, are “held back by relatively low labour force participation across the age range, due in particular to persistent employment gender gaps.”
Meanwhile, some countries in Asia are at the lower end of the list. Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia ranked 84
th, 89
th and 92
nd, respectively. “They trail the region despite their very high degree of utilisation across the deployment sub-index, the WEF said.
Other Southeast Asian countries complement their high deployment scores with skill-intensive utilization of human capital potential, shown in the know-how sub-index. Thailand, for instance, ranked 40
th in the world.
The Philippines took 50
th place.
Vietnam (rank 64) and Indonesia (65) “have made remarkable progress in educational attainment among their younger generations and have a correspondingly solid outlook for building their future human capital potential across the Development sub-index.”
Malaysia, ranked 33
rd, outperformed the rest of Southeast Asia outside of Singapore in capacity, development and know-how but was held back by deployment due to considerable employment gender gaps.
Human capital, the WEF said, refers to the knowledge and skills people possess that enable them to create value in the global economic system. It should be viewed as a dynamic, rather than a fixed concept. “It can be enhanced over time – growing through use and depreciating through lack of use – across people’s lifetimes.”
Human capital is most developed in Norway, Finland, Switzerland, the United States and Denmark.
“It is our hope that this Report can support governments, businesses, education providers and civil society institutions in identifying key areas for focus and investment,” the WEF said.
Related stories:
Bosses play bigger role in boosting staff skills
“Gender shouldn’t even be on the agenda”
