The proposed project will enhance dialogue and coordination among ASEAN Member States (AMS), and support the strengthening of capacity, frameworks and mechanisms to facilitate the increased mobility of labour in ASEAN. The project will focus on 1) improving availability and sharing of information on labour migration and labour markets across ASEAN; 2) enhancing the recruitment and employment services and information available to migrants with regard to intra-regional migration in ASEAN; and 3) facilitating the referencing, quality assurance and mutual recognition of workers’ skills and qualifications. The project will support 8 ASEAN Member States (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam), and in doing so will target those AMS which are still in the process of developing effective migration management and labour market policies and mechanisms to support ASEAN integration, and require additional support. This will be achieved through:
1) Supporting the inception and initial development of a concrete mechanism for sharing information on labour markets and migration across ASEAN, through: a) a targeted capacity building series on the management and sharing of labour market and migration information, including enhancing capacity of AMS Government officials to generate and share data on labour market demands in order to inform Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) programs ; b) a consultative meeting to discuss the structure, scope and parameters of an ASEAN labour migration information sharing mechanism and appoint a Task Force for further action; and c) through these activities, supporting the development of an action plan and template for an ASEAN information sharing platform (envisaged to be a web portal on labour markets and migration).
2) Mapping existing recruitment channels, procedures and related services; and promoting enhanced provision of ethical recruitment and employment services in ASEAN, particularly in relation to the free flow of skilled labour as envisaged by the ASEAN Community, through the hosting of a meeting on ethical recruitment and human resource practices in facilitating labour mobility in ASEAN;
3) Facilitating the effective and timely recognition of workers’ qualifications and skills through capacity building on referencing and quality assurance of workers skills and competences, utilizing the ‘SLOM Guidelines on Quality Assurance and Recognition of Competency Certification Systems among ASEAN Economies’ (developed through the partner project funded by JAIF), targeting particular those AMS with newly-introduced National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) and skills standards, most especially Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam.
The proposed project will complement the Senior Labour Officials Meeting (SLOM) Working Group on Progressive Labour Practices to Enhance the Competitiveness of ASEAN (SLOM-WG) Work plan for 2016-2020 and will be implemented in close coordination with AMS Governments coordinating the various activities under this work plan. This project will be funded by IDF to complement the partner project funded through the Japan ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), entitled “The Development of Cross National Guidelines for HR Qualification and Skills Recognition among ASEAN Economies”.