TIRANA, Sept. 25 – How nations develop their human capital can be a more important determinant of their long-term success than virtually any other factor, says the 2017 Global Human Capital Report published by Switzerland-based World Economic Forum.
The annual report measuring how well countries around the world are developing their human capital shows Albania has been losing considerable ground in the past couple of years, with its ranking deteriorating by about 20 places and lagging behind regional competitors covered in the report.
Albania ranked 85th out of 130 countries in the 2017 Global Human Capital Index, compared to 70th in 2016 and 66th out of 124 countries in 2015.
“Most countries in the Eastern Europe region are close to having achieved near universal basic education enrolment. The bottom-ranked countries in the region, Macedonia (67) and Albania (85), are also held back by the persistence of high unemployment and underemployment rates across all age groups, resulting in low scores across the Deployment subindex,” says the report.
The Global Human Capital Index 2017 ranks 130 countries on how well they are developing their human capital across four thematic dimensions—capacity, deployment, development and know-how—and five distinct age groups or generations. “Human capital” is described as knowledge and skills people possess enabling them to create value in the global economic system and is treated as a dynamic rather than fixed concept which can be enhanced across people’s lifetimes.
Albania ranked better in the development subindex measuring the countries’ current success in building the human capital of their next-generation workforce as well as in continual upgrading the human capital of those people already in the workforce through lifelong learning. The report ranks Albania 42nd out of 130 countries in this subindex with the quality of education system and enrolment rates as the best indicators.
Albania ranked 82nd in the capacity subindex measuring the human capital built through past education investments such as literacy and numeracy and primary, secondary and tertiary attainment rates.
The country ranks poorer when it comes to know-how and deployment.
In the know-how index, capturing the current quality and skill-intensity of employment in a country and the extent to which its workplace environment is likely to create additional learning opportunities, Albania ranked 92nd out of 130 countries with the availability of skilled employees and economic complexity measuring the sophistication of a country’s ‘productive knowledge’ poorly performing.
Albania’s worst performance was in the deployment subindex ranking the country 120th due to poor labour force participation rates and high unemployment rates. The subindex measures the extent to which countries are developing human capital through deployment in the labour market.
Albania spends only 3.5 percent of its GDP on education while youth unemployment rates are at about 30 percent, leading to massive migration and brain drain. High unemployment rates, especially among newly graduates, reconfirm the mismatch between skills acquired at universities and labour market needs, with thousands of university graduates ending up doing call center jobs, where foreign language and negotiation skills are the key requirements.
