Skilled workers are needed in developing countries to facilitate economic development and to respond to a changing economy. Training is often provided by private employers, but governments must continue to play a role to help train workers in companies too small to provide training, and because training benefits society in ways too remote for employers and employees to pay for. Public training policies in developing countries can be designed to create strategies ensuring that the skills needed by the economy are developed and that equity objectives for the poor and socially disadvantaged are effectively addressed. The key elements of this approach include strengthening primary and secondary education, encouraging private sector training, improving effectiveness and efficiency in public training, and using training as a complement to equity strategies. The World Bank has been the largest single source of international financial support for skills training. Five actions will improve the quality of World Bank support for skills training: (1) analysis of the economic context of training, including labor market training, should be improved and used in formulating national strategies; (2) lending for prevocational courses should be replaced by programs to strengthen quality and access in academic secondary education; (3) lending should address the policy changes needed to create a favorable economic climate for private training; (4) lending should improve the efficiency of public training; and (5) training should require development of long-term strategies for the evolution of governments' role in training and should encourage broad-based coordination of donor support. (177 references) (KC)