From Training to Transformation: Building Inclusive Skills Systems for All Career Stages

The World Bank’s 2025 technical note outlines a comprehensive framework for building lifelong skills systems for adults and out-of-school youth, emphasizing tailored training, career guidance, and systemic coordination. It advocates for institutionalizing adult learning through sustainable governance, financing, and labor market information systems to boost employability and economic resilience

The June 2025 World Bank Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 2517, authored by Jeremy Lebow, Eliana Carranza, and Xiaoyan Liang, presents a strategic framework for embedding skills development into lifelong economic systems. Supported by research and insights from institutions such as the World Bank, UNESCO, and the International Labour Organization (ILO), the paper emphasizes the urgent need for coordinated, institutionalized systems that cater to the skill-building needs of adults and out-of-school (OOS) youth. As global labor markets shift due to automation, aging demographics, digitalization, and environmental imperatives, the ability of individuals to reskill and upskill continuously has become essential, not just for personal livelihood but for national economic resilience.

The urgency is particularly acute in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where foundational skills remain perilously low. Data cited in the report show that 96% of youth in low-income countries and over 85% in regions such as South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa lack basic proficiency in literacy and numeracy. Compounding the issue, a large portion of the workforce in 2050 has already exited secondary education as of 2023, making it clear that traditional education systems cannot address this looming skills gap. Without active intervention, these individuals face long-term economic marginalization.

Building Inclusive and Adaptive Skills Systems

The paper lays out a holistic system with four primary service categories: skills development, skills recognition, career guidance, and linkage with broader labor market services such as job placement and income support. These are supported by essential pillars, governance, financing, and labor market information systems (LMIS), to ensure quality, coordination, and long-term sustainability. Central to this framework is the emphasis on tailoring services to individuals' career stages. Youth in transition from school, adults seeking career shifts, displaced workers, and the self-employed all have distinct needs. Programs must be modular, flexible, and designed for real-world relevance, with offerings like short-term training, micro-credentials, apprenticeships, and foundational literacy or digital skills.

The system also recognizes that different types of providers, public, private, nonprofit, and employers, bring unique strengths. Public institutions offer reach and equity but may lack market responsiveness. Private actors often provide cutting-edge, job-relevant training but may exclude disadvantaged learners without subsidies. Nonprofits fill critical gaps in remedial education and entrepreneurship training, while employers are essential for on-the-job learning. Coordination among these actors is crucial, and the paper underscores the government’s role in ensuring quality and accountability through accreditation, qualification frameworks, and strategic planning.

What Works: Lessons from Training and Career Guidance

Drawing on extensive evaluations, the authors reveal that well-targeted short-term vocational training can boost employment by up to 6% and increase earnings by 10% or more. Programs that combine technical skills with foundational or socioemotional components perform even better. For instance, Colombia’s Jóvenes en Acción, Liberia’s EPAG, and youth programs in Nepal and Bangladesh showed significant gains in long-term earnings, particularly for women. Adult learners, while facing cognitive challenges like lower plasticity, can still succeed with instructional design that incorporates repetition, real-life relevance, and flexible scheduling.

Digital and mobile-based learning platforms are highlighted as promising tools for expanding access and increasing practice frequency. Programs in Niger and Los Angeles have successfully used SMS and audio modules to improve literacy outcomes. Similarly, mobile-based entrepreneurship training in Guatemala demonstrated positive impacts on profits and business practices. These approaches are particularly valuable for reaching remote populations and women with limited time.

Career guidance services are also found to be effective, especially when personalized and combined with job search support. Innovations such as the SkillCraft app in South Africa, which uses gamified skill assessments and tailored recommendations, show how digital tools can make guidance more accessible. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) programs, like those in Bangladesh and India, help adults without formal qualifications gain access to better jobs and further training.

Financing and Policy Innovations that Deliver Results

Effective financing strategies are key to scaling these systems. Training levies, as seen in Brazil’s SENAI, can sustainably fund employer-led programs. Individual learning accounts, such as France’s CPF and Singapore’s SkillsFuture Credit, empower individuals to choose their training pathways while ensuring resources follow the learner. However, these systems must be user-friendly and informed by reliable labor market data to avoid misuse and ensure career-relevant learning.

Results-based financing (RBF) is another powerful tool. By tying provider payments to outcomes like job placement or retention, RBF incentivizes quality and demand alignment. Colombia’s Jóvenes en Acción and Nepal’s Employment Fund used this approach effectively. Yet the design of such contracts requires care to prevent perverse incentives or exclusion of vulnerable groups. Where feasible, RBF should be combined with support for providers, such as training for instructors or subsidies for disadvantaged trainees, to enhance implementation capacity and equity.

From Fragmentation to Systemic Reform

A major theme throughout the note is the danger of fragmented, one-off programs that fail to build durable capacity. Many LMICs run ad-hoc training initiatives that are disconnected from labor market trends or lack sustained financing. The authors advocate for integrating skills development into national development plans with unified governance, reliable funding, and responsive data systems.

Advanced economies offer valuable models. Singapore’s centralized, entitlement-based SkillsFuture platform ensures all adults have access to government-accredited training, while Germany’s decentralized system enables tailored regional solutions through strong employer engagement. Though LMICs may not be able to replicate these models entirely, they can adapt components incrementally, such as adopting skill taxonomies or piloting digital LMIS tools, to build toward integrated systems.

Ultimately, the report calls for a transformative shift: from seeing adult training as a reactive social service to embedding it as a permanent pillar of economic policy. By fostering collaboration between public and private actors, enabling data-driven decision-making, and promoting equitable access to learning throughout the lifecycle, countries can equip their populations to navigate future labor markets with confidence, resilience, and upward mobility.