PH slips 3 notches on Human Capital Index

The Philippines went down three notches to rank 49th out of 130 countries based on the Human Capital Index 2016 developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The index ranks countries on how well they are developing and deploying their human capital, focusing on education, skills and employment.

Factors considered include 46 indicators, using both publicly available data and a limited set of qualitative survey data from the WEF’s Executive Opinion Survey.

According to a report on the updated index released Monday, the Philippines optimized 71.8 percent of its human capital endowment, declining from 79.7 percent last year when the country ranked 46th.

In terms of age group, the Philippines performs better at nurturing, developing and deploying talents of its people at retirement age or 65 and older, ranking 34th.

The country’s performance progressively declines to rank 42nd in the 55-64 years group; and 49th in the 25-54 years group.

The Philippines ranks 54th in maximizing the talents of those aged 15-24 years, and 75th in the under-15 age group.

“Challenges to address in the key 25-54 group includes improving a poor employment gender gap (100th) and low labor force participation (103rd),” the WEF said in a statement.

Worldwide, the index suggests that the global economy is unable to nurture more than a third of the world’s human capital during all stages of the working life time.

Also, almost two-thirds (65 percent) of the world’s talent is being optimized through education, skills development and deployment during people’s lifetimes.

Holding the top three spots were Finland, Norway and Switzerland—all being able to engage about 85 percent of their human capital throughout the working years.

“Today’s transition to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, combined with a crisis of governance, creates an urgent need for the world’s educators and employers to fundamentally rethink human capital through dialogue and partnerships,” WEF executive chair Klaus Schwab said.

“The adaptation of educational institutions, labor market policy and workplaces are crucial to growth, equality and social stability,” Schwab said.

In East Asia and the Pacific, countries maximize their human capital at an average of 69.8 percent. Best performers are Japan (4th), Singapore (13th), and South Korea (32nd).

Human capital investment and planning can make a difference to a nation’s human capital endowment regardless of where it falls on the global income scale.

Creating a virtuous cycle of this nature should be the aim of all countries, according to the WEF.

That said, there remains a clear correlation between an economy’s income level and its capacity to develop and deploy human capital.

Further, the WEF leveraged professional social platform LinkedIn’s Economic Graph to gain the following insights,  particularly on the “relatively high-skilled, digitally connected” subset of working populations in selected economies.

employers and employees need to start thinking about skill bundles, not job titles

re-skilling may be easier than we thought

countries need to maximize learning at school and at work; and

understanding (huge chunks of) data can help countries manage brain drain and gain.

“While the potential and promise of new technologies for enhancing education and lifelong learning has already been well documented, there remains ambiguity around the role of platform technologies when it comes to enhancing opportunities for the workforce,” WEF said.