Human Resource Development (HRD) lies at the heart of the nexus: employment-growth-personal and socio-economic development. Therefore, investing in HRD is crucial in the country’s efforts to tackle employment challenges, sustain economic growth and social progress, fulfilling aspirations and better qualify of life. Well-conceived HRD policies supported by appropriate implementation strategies contribute to raising workers’ productivity and increase the employability and capacity to earn better incomes leading to better quality of life. Employability has much to do with how the individual’s health, knowledge, skills and abilities match and keep up with the rapidly changing labour market and production structures. Government, enterprises and individuals all have a stake in HRD because a skilled workforce can improve competitiveness, generate economic growth and improve living standards.

Globalisation and the revolution in information and communication technology have brought about the emergence of the ‘knowledge-driven economy’ – an economic system which has as its core, the value of knowledge capital. This has implications for workforce development, as it puts people at the centre of development. The knowledge-driven economy is set to become reliant on life-long learning of the employees. In the future, individuals will be employed as much for their ability to acquire new knowledge and skills as for what they already know…

The Government of Seychelles remains engaged and committed to a people-centred approach to development whereby it recognises that in the knowledge age, the most important investment is in the human capital – the skills and capabilities of people. The knowledge age underscores the importance of people and the need to invest in people to support competency development, creativity and innovation.

The HRD Policy builds on the major education policies of: enhancing the quality of education, provision of free primary and secondary education, equitable resourced schools, open access for boys and girls to 10 years of compulsory education and relevance of structure and curriculum content to local conditions and needs. A major criterion for HRD policy development is therefore to ensure that HRD interventions should match the existing and potential economic demand and social needs for skills and competitiveness.