Inter-American Tripartite Seminar on Training, Productivity and Decent Work
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 15 – 17 May 2002

Fourth statement: certification systems solve the problems that vocational training institutions traditionally suffer

It is often assumed that a certification system by itself will improve the quality of a vocational training institution, neutralizing the problems that it suffers.

This is not so. Even if the institutional frames that are designed for certification systems, especially those of third part, contains verifying mechanisms that include assurance of quality tools, competence standards, which are the base of certification, this does not grant the improvement of the intrinsic quality of vocational training.

We understand as ‘intrinsic quality of vocational training’ all attributes a training process achieves by the set of tools applied, as teaching materials, teaching abilities and educative environment.

An activity as vocational training has a high educational and pedagogic content that cannot be confused with mere training leading to the development of a certain skill.

If the enterprise is not a good place of apprenticeship, the competences acquired do quickly deteriorate and lose their asset. A certification programme for workers that do not enjoy good opportunities of training in their jobs will have little success. The process of certifying acts as a good way of detecting and channel the training efforts, as well as a tool for supporting the professional career of the candidate.

A certificate is an excellent indicator of the outcome of a good vocational training process inside an institution or an enterprise. The attention in Latin America regarding these programs, will require to focalize on the need to improve the deficiencies of basic education and the definition of the standards that produce good curricula, instead on the emphasis usually put on the need to develop new institutional arrangements dedicated to certification.

In a recent survey on competence standards in the United Kingdom, many of the people interviewed remarked the excessive emphasis put on standards, alluding to their detailed description of the ‘occupational must’ without an efficient training support and the lack of interest of workers to certify themselves.(13)

When designing a certification system, assumptions should be carefully considered and contrasted with the realities that are found along the way. We can assume, consequently, that all stakeholders, public and private, will give a better vocational training if they are called in to define the proper standards to be used in the programs. In this way we can say that certification will stimulate the improvements in training quality, increase training offer variety and facilitate its access to new trainees.

Experience, however, has shown that improvement in quality and attraction of workers towards a certificate are not authomatic. Certification seems not to be a clear answer to all sectors and occupations(14). It seems to be more successful when guided by the initial impetus given by employers and workers and it is closely attached to the reality of work and human resources management. In the United States, for instance, the strategy is to begin the process of building a certification system with a voluntary partnership that ensures the support and compromise of representatives enterprises of the sector that are interested in certification. In English-speaking Caribbean, qualifications have been promoted with a regional and sectoral emphasis, eg. at CARICOM level or at the Caribbean Hotel Association in a sectoral basis. Mexico has been successful when implementing certification that solve directly the training and management needs of the workforce inside the enterprises.

It is nearly impossible that an offerent of vocational training would be in conditions to improve the quality of teachers, as well as generate and accumulate the knowledge applied to training (curricular design, pedagogic materials, assessmente techniques and new technologies), without a stable institutional frame that is not oriented to the generation of knowledge applied to vocational training. It is unprobable to enhance the quality of training when the offer is atomized, with prices subject to auctions, and often depending on external sporadic funding.

On the contrary, when training and certification programs are institutionalized, there is usually methodological supports in areas such as the elaboration of curricula and the training of teachers. Thus, a quality improvement can be reached, including the institutional effort to achieve it.(15)

In certification systems the emphasis on certificates should not make us lose sight of the certification process. A good exam is the outcome of a good training process, independently of the way this process was carried (in the enterprise or in a vocational training centre). Thus, a certificate is a good indicator of the outcome. Its qualities are remarked by the reliability and validity that possesses. Good training practices, updating of programs, availability of good trainers and teachers, the frequent update in contents and the provision of adequate didactic materials are essential in pursuing the objective of reaching a good performance level and, therefore, a certificate with assured quality.

12. GAMERDINGER, George. Calificaciones profesionales. Experiencias del Caribe. Cinterfor/OIT. Boletín 149. Montevideo. 2000.
13. QCA. Op. cit.
14. In the English system, most certifications concentrate in the low and middle levels of competence. In Mexico there is a high demand on occupations related to informatics. In both cases, a percentage of the offer of standards is not used in certification.
15. There are many cases where VTI work with private collaborators centres, share the curricula, support the teachers capacitation and the training methodologies, integrating them as part of their work relationship.