Work favors the acquisition of skills in unqualified personnel

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The Bank of Spain has just published an article entitled  "The formation of human capital in the labor market" in which it analyzes how work experience contributes to the acquisition of numerical skills and reading comprehension in thirteen countries that have participated in the Program International for the Assessment of the Competencies of the Adult Population (PIAAC) , paying special attention to the population group with basic education.

waitressIn all the countries analyzed, work experience plays an important role in the formation Email Data of calculation and reading comprehension skills—two factors that predict individuals' employment and salary. Furthermore - the study adds in its conclusions - work experience is especially important for the population with primary education.

These results suggest that in economies with different labor institutions, educational systems or composition of the workforce, participation in the labor market allows the less qualified population to accumulate skills that increase their employability. These results are confirmed when the relationship between the tasks performed in the workplace and the different abilities measured in the evaluation is analyzed in more detail. Specifically, in those interviewed with basic education whose job requires basic numerical tasks, but not reading, the PIAAC detects better results in the test that measures calculation competence than in the one that measures reading ability. Similarly, respondents whose job requires reading tasks but not calculation tasks obtain better results in the part of the test that measures reading comprehension than in the part that measures calculation ability.




The results have implications for the design of active employment policies. Firstly, it is documented that basic tasks performed in the workplace contribute to developing the analytical abilities of individuals with a lower level of training. This conclusion is important, given the uncertainty about the effectiveness of non-work-related training courses aimed at low-skilled unemployed people.

Secondly, the results of tests of numerical ability and reading comprehension of the unemployed can be a useful tool to identify which groups have the most problems entering the labor market. Finally, a description of tasks in different occupations by educational level can also be a useful tool to identify which jobs have the greatest benefits in terms of the human capital of their workers.