For three days from November 19 (Wed) to 21 (Fri), 2008, the APEC Forum was held at the International HRD Support Center in Makuhari, Chiba, Japan under the theme of the "Role of TVET Providers in Training for Employees," with 24 participants from a total of 15 economies in the APEC region, namely, the U.S.A., Canada, New Zealand, Brunei, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The APEC Forum was organized as a SELF-FUNDED project for APEC HRD which is proposed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan and operated by Overseas Vocational Training Association(OVTA).

The forum started with the opening addresses of Mr. Masaharu Tanaka, Director, Overseas Cooperation Div., Human Resources Development Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and Mr. Isao Aoki, President of Overseas Vocational Training Association. Coordinated by Prof. Tatehito Shimoda of Reitaku University, the forum proceeded by a tactful combination of a keynote speech, case study presentations by resource persons, presentations by individual economies, observation of TVET providers, and discussions.

The keynote speech was given on the opening day by Mr. Yoichi Kimura. In his speech entitled "Workforce and TVET in Japan," Mr. Kimura spoke on the roles of the Japan's TVET providers as categorized into private provides, public providers, and schools, while covering the circumstances and differences of individual TVET providers and referring to specific values or names as to the number of TVET providers in each category, the fields of TVET provided by them, the goal levels of TVET, the number of target people, the fields of courses provided, and so on.

The case study presentation was given by one resource person each day, totaling three resource persons in three days. On the first day, Ms. Tammy Bloors Cavers of Canada made a presentation on the review and ongoing roles of the TVET providers in Saskatchewan, Canada. On the second day, Ms. Patricia Anne Colgate and Mr. Jermy William Baker of New Zealand outlined the TVET focused on Industry Training Organizations (ITOs), the bodies with primary responsibility for TVET in New Zealand. And on the final day, Mr. Thomas M. Dowd from the U.S. made a presentation on the necessity of improvement of workers' skills, the supportive fund for it, information on access to TVET providers, the TVET undertaken by TVET providers, and so on.

The presentations by participating economies were also held in three days each, and a report was presented on the current situation of TVET, the roles of TVET providers, etc. in each economy.

The observation of TVET providers was carried out on the afternoon of the second day and consisted of two visits: one to a public TVET provider who provides education and training for industrial vocational skills such as machining and electronics; and the other to a private TVET provider who provides education and training for improvement of customer service skills or language skills. The visits were well received by the participants as a valuable opportunity to know the reality of TVET providers in Japan through observing the scenes of education and training or joining trial lessons.

On the afternoon of the final day, a summary discussion was held based on the presentations and visits made, and the importance of the role of TVET providers was reaffirmed before the forum was closed.

The specific contents of discussions etc. in this forum will be compiled into a report and shared at the focal points of APEC HRD in each economy and at the APEC HRDWG scheduled to be held in Chicago in June next year.