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A changing world of work brings the importance of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to the forefront, as it has the ability to develop the skills that are needed in today’s labour markets and societies. At the same time, structural changes highlight the need to re-engineer certain parts of VET systems in some countries to make them more resilient and ensure they can make the most of the opportunities ongoing changes present.

This report zooms in on four key dimensions of future-ready VET systems: i) responsiveness to changing skill needs; ii) the flexibility to make VET work for all; iii) the ability to support transitions into a changing labour market and further learning; iv) the potential of digital technology to innovate VET design and delivery. For each of these dimensions, the report presents a set of key questions that policymakers and other VET stakeholders should consider when re-engineering VET to make it more future-ready, as well as insights from data and international examples of policies and practices.

This report presents an in-depth cross-country analysis of how long-term care workers fare along the different dimensions of job quality. In the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the applause for care workers was a clear expression of the strong recognition of their hard work and exposure to risks in their job. However, as the applause faded after the peak of the crisis, questions have re-emerged about how to improve the working conditions of long-term care workers in a sustainable way. Over the coming decades, the demand for these workers will increase substantially. Several countries are already facing shortages as the large baby-boom generation joins the older population.

To go Beyond Applause, a comprehensive policy strategy is needed to tackle poor working conditions and insufficient social recognition of long-term care work, attract workers in the sector and avoid labour shortages reaching unacceptable levels. Such a strategy should cover several dimensions, with different priorities across countries depending on their specific context, including: direct interventions to raise wages and increase staff requirements; increasing public financing and fostering the leading role by governments; supporting collective bargaining and social dialogue; strengthening training; increasing use of new technologies; and, strengthening health prevention policies.

Protecting people, rather than specific jobs, plays a key role in promoting labour-market inclusiveness and dynamism. Effective unemployment benefits reduce inequality, and raise productivity by facilitating a good match between workers’ skills and job requirements. They are a crucial policy lever for adapting to the major societal, technological and environmental transitions of our time.

This report is the first of a number of OECD country reviews of income support policies. Each report analyses key policy challenges, discusses recent reform initiatives, and identifies good practices from other OECD countries.

This report on Korea focuses on avenues for strengthening benefit coverage, income security and re-employment in the context of a “dual” labour market with large parts of the workforce in short-duration, non-standard or informal employment. It welcomes Korea’s recent reforms towards more accessible jobseeker support, and points to priorities for additional policy action to make income and employment support more effective and inclusive.

Protecting people, rather than specific jobs, plays a key role in promoting labour-market inclusiveness and dynamism. Effective unemployment benefits reduce inequality, and facilitate a good match between workers’ skills and job requirements. They are a crucial policy lever for adapting to the major societal, technological and environmental transitions of our time. This report on the United States is the second of a number of OECD country reviews of income support policies. Each report analyses key policy challenges, discusses recent reform initiatives, and identifies good practices from other OECD countries.

The report examines the reach and generosity of unemployment insurance and other income support for working age households, with a special focus on disadvantaged labour market groups. What are key gaps in benefit receipt between wage- and salaried employees and non-standard workers (part-time workers, those on temporary contracts, and self-employed workers including own-account workers)? What factors, including race/ethnicity and gender, drive non-entitlement to unemployment compensation? The report examines these questions, considers the impact of recent extensions to the unemployment insurance programme in response to the COVID pandemic, and outlines policy directions for strengthening out-of-work support.

Việt Nam đã đạt được tiến bộ kinh tế đáng kể trong những thập niên vừa qua, duy trì tốc độ tăng trưởng kinh tế cao. Nền kinh tế cũng chứng tỏ khả năng chống chịu trước các cú sốc, gồm cả đại dịch COVID-19. Những cải cách sâu rộng và liên tục kể từ cuối thập niên 1980 đóng vai trò then chốt trong thành tựu kinh tế này. Tuy nhiên, với những thách thức to lớn phía trước, Việt Nam cần nỗ lực hơn nữa để thúc đẩy những cải cách cơ cấu giúp tăng cường mạnh mẽ các lực lượng thị trường. Dân số đang già hóa nhanh, nên tăng năng suất là một ưu tiên cấp thiết. Điều này sẽ đòi hỏi cải cách nhiều hơn để giảm sự can thiệp của nhà nước, đặc biệt trong những lĩnh vực mạng lưới như viễn thông, và bảo đảm một sân chơi bình đẳng giữa tất cả các doanh nghiệp. Hội nhập thương mại sâu sắc hơn cũng hết sức quan trọng để tăng cường các chuỗi cung ứng trong bối cảnh kinh tế toàn cầu đang thay đổi. Dù đã tăng cường áp dụng kỹ thuật số, Việt Nam cần nâng cao kỹ năng của người lao động thông qua đào tạo nghề và giáo dục cho người trưởng thành. Cam kết đạt mức phát thải ròng bằng không vào năm 2050 đòi hỏi những thay đổi mạnh mẽ trong hệ thống kinh tế. Để giảm phụ thuộc vào nhiên liệu hóa thạch, cần phải chấm dứt đầu tư mới cho các nhà máy nhiệt điện than và đẩy nhanh việc thiết lập thị trường các-bon. Do những cải cách này sẽ đòi hỏi thêm nguồn lực tài khóa, cần mở rộng cơ sở thuế để tăng nguồn thu cho chính phủ.

ĐẶC ĐIỂM NỔI BẬT: QUY ĐỊNH THỊ TRƯỜNG SẢN PHẨM; SỐ HÓA; TĂNG TRƯỞNG XANH

Power markets are an instrument used globally to ensure electricity security while maintaining affordability and incentivising decarbonisation. The People’s Republic of China (hereafter, “China”) has been making big steps towards implementing markets, and the goals announced in 2020 of carbon dioxide emissions peaking before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060 have added momentum to expand their footprint. Provinces have taken a leading role in designing and implementing markets. To improve sharing of resources, the guidance to implement a unified national market system pushes for more co-ordination between provinces.

This report examines the role of power markets in China and the pathways to develop a national market. The analysis focuses on short-term markets because they have the potential to unlock flexibility the system needs in light of renewables growth and changing weather patterns. The report provides recommendations to improve markets’ co-ordination across the country as well as within the provinces.

Countries around the world are facing an energy security and affordability crisis affecting households, businesses and public budgets. In Latin America, household expenditure on energy services is second only to food. On average, the share of household budget for energy ranges between 7% and 9% of income – and up to more than 24% for the poorest households. As governments urgently implement measures to protect citizens and secure their economies, it is important to consider short- and long- term solutions to ease existing pain and reduce risks over time. While much attention focuses on securing energy supplies, it is equally important to take a hard look at the role of more efficient and flexible demand in securing affordable, reliable energy.Decades of policies and programmes have delivered energy savings around the world. As a result, energy systems are more resilient, bills are lower, and public budgets feel less pressure than they would have without these efforts.

This report looks at energy efficiency and demand management policies and programmes across Latin America. It presents evidence of the results of these efforts on improving living standards, public budgets, energy security and employment, and provides a view on the opportunities to expand these benefits and support just energy transitions.

Governments are facing significant climate-related risks from the expected increase in frequency and intensity of cyclones, floods, fires, and other climate-related extreme events. The report Building Financial Resilience to Climate Impacts: A Framework for Governments to Manage the Risks of Losses and Damages provides a strategic framework to help governments, particularly those in emerging market and developing economies, strengthen their capacity to manage the financial implications of climate-related risks. The goal of the framework is to support sound public financial management strategies that take into account budgetary and financing constraints, and to foster broader actions at the national and international levels.

The report examines the role of governments in identifying and assessing climate-related physical risks and their impacts on public finances, and reporting climate-related fiscal risks to promote transparency in public financial management. It discusses how to mitigate those risks through protecting households and businesses, and developing integrated multipronged financial strategies to fund government expenditure needs. Finally, it calls for promoting integrated strategies to strengthen financial resilience at the country and regional levels, and for mobilising development co-operation to strengthen global climate financial resilience.

Nuclear energy is an important source of low-carbon electricity and thus plays a significant role in avoiding carbon emissions. It has the potential to decarbonise the global energy sector even further by also providing heat for industrial applications and residential heating, which both continue to run mainly on fossil fuels. More than 65 nuclear reactors around the world (about 15% of the total) with decades of experience demonstrate on a daily basis the feasibility of providing non-electric applications of nuclear energy such as district heating, desalination or other forms of process heat.

In order to further reduce carbon emissions, the share of nuclear reactors used for cogeneration needs to be expanded. However, until recently the economic competitiveness of thermal energy produced by nuclear power plants has been a challenge. Not accounting for climate change impacts, heat produced by gas- or coal-fired power plants has frequently been cheaper. Yet, as fossil fuel prices rise and carbon costs are increasingly accounted for, the economics of nuclear cogeneration begin to look more favourable. A good understanding of the technical realities and economics of nuclear cogeneration, including its implications for electricity and energy systems, is essential to take advantage of this changed environment. This NEA report provides a thorough overview of nuclear cogeneration, with a view to helping energy decisionmakers and interested experts in assessing the costs and benefits of having nuclear energy provide both low-carbon electricity and low-carbon heat.