Recent report compiled by World Economic Forum (WEF) has crowned Singapore in the first place for having most developed human capital in Asia.
As measured by WEF’s Human Capital Index, the city state ranks 11th out 130 countries across the globe, and having developed 73 percent of its human capital. This score makes Singapore the highest among other Asian countries. The only other nation from the region in the top 20 list is Japan, which ranked 17th.
Among the best performing nations on the top of the list are Norway, Finland, and Switzerland, followed by the U.S, Denmark, and Germany.
The Global Human Capital Index 2017 ranks 130 countries based on how well they are developing their human capital across four main dimensions: capacity, deployment, development and know-how. The study is conducted across different age groups as well.
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The official report revealed that the world’s organisations have developed only 62 percent of its human capital. According to this figure, nations are neglecting or even wasting 38 percent of their talent, on average. It suggested that investments in education often find failure owing to inadequate focus on lifelong learning and a skill mismatch that is required for entering and succeeding in particular labour market.
In countries which have been successfully drawing on their people’s knowledge and expertise such as Switzerland and Singapore, most people work in high-skilled and expertise-based occupations situated within complex and diversified economy.
Furthermore, the report also noted how Singapore successfully combines the world’s second-highest proportion of high-skilled employment while demonstrating significant strengths in the quality of its education system and staff training.
Key areas need for improvement include boosting more labour force participation rates among older workers as well as encouraging more women into the workforce. This notion should be addressed as the country ranks 60 or lower for its employment gender gap in all relevant age brackets, Straits Times reports.
Regarding to this matter, the head of the WEF’s education gender and work system initiative, Ms Saadia Zahidi, said, “To break into the global top 10, (Singapore) would benefit from fully realising the human capital boost that would come from addressing the nation’s employment gender gap as well as from further improving the inclusiveness of its education system.”
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