The Peruvian Labour and Employment Minister, Alfonso Grados, gave the opening speech at the Symposium on Strategies for Strengthening Soft Skills in the APEC Forum

The Minister of Labour and Employment Promotion, Alfonso Grados, established the urge to improve the workforce’s employability and productivity (particularly among young people) in the member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), by developing soft skills.

“According to the World Bank, Peru ranks among 35 countries with higher soft skills development gaps, a reality evidenced in at least 70% of APEC economies. This situation must be reversed,” he pointed out.

Most economies nowadays face the challenge of having a workforce whose skills are consistent with the market’s needs, but employers still struggle to find optimal personnel, the government official noted.

The minister added the lack of soft skills’ development translates into market access and permanence restrictions. This is particularly a concern among youngsters, whose first work experiences have a strong impact on their careers.

Remarks were made during the opening of the International Symposium on Strategies for Strengthening Employability (Soft) Skills as part of the 6th APEC Education Ministerial Meeting taking place in Lima until October 6th.

The minister of Labor and Employment Promotion also informed Peru seeks to create a knowledge network on better practices to develop soft skills towards employability. Such efforts will benefit the Asia-Pacific region and are expected to constitute a global benchmark.

“We seek to institutionalize good practices and experts’ synergy in order to formulate and implement policies and strategies to strengthen soft skills in APEC,” he stressed.

About APEC

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), founded in November of 1989, is a forum of 21 economies in the Asia-Pacific region, which seeks to promote the liberalization of trade and investment, facilitate business and promote economic cooperation, achieve prosperity among member economies: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People’s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; the Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Korea; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States and Viet Nam.