In the case of Mexico, an experience was begun in 1995 by the Occupational Competency Standardisation and Certification Council (CONOCER), the most important initiative with the greatest scope in the field of occupational competencies in the region. It was an answer to interest on the part of the Government in achieving the participation, among other mechanisms, of the players, by stimulating demand with the aim of supporting the design and development of training based on competency standards and their certification.

The occupational competency system which has been applied includes the following main components:

• To define technical occupational competency standards by branch of activity or occupational group, to be implemented by the social partners with governmental support.

• To establish mechanisms for evaluation, verification and certification of knowledge, abilities and skills of individuals, regardless of the way in which they have been acquired, providing they meet technical competency standards.

• To transform the supply of training into a flexible modular system based on competency standards in order that individuals may move among the modules according to their needs.

• To create stimuli to demand, in order to promote the new system among the population and firms, seeking an equitable distribution of training and certification opportunities, and also catering to the needs of the disadvantaged population.

Following the creation of a system of national coverage, greater stress is laid on the definition of standards for the more general functions in the different economic branches, technological languages and occupational areas.

Finally, this initiative is conceived from the standpoint of finding a valid alternative to link the different types of education and training with the country’s employment demands. The challenge is to approach the modernisation of educational and training -for- labour systems, not only so that they respond to the exigencies of adaptation to the new conditions of the economy and technology, but particularly to cater to the need to make education and training available to all sectors of the population, with suitable and relevant content and with the quality required by the labour market. At present there are 45 Labour Competency Standardisation Committees operating in Mexico, 57 pilot projects are being carried out in firms of different sectors of economic activity to foster skill development and training of individuals, and seven certifying bodies and nine Evaluation Centres have been accredited. On 13 December last, the first 120 Labour Competency Certificates were distributed.

The Directing Board of the INA of Costa Rica decided in 1997 to include the standardisation and certification of occupational skills in its institutional policy. To that end, its started a project for applying the competencies approach in the Tourism sector, with technical assistance provided by the ILO International Training Centre at Turin.

Upon completion of the scheme the INA has modular vocational training programmes in the catering and lodging subsectors for the following occupations: Hotel Cook’s Assistant, Hotel Cook, Receptionist, Waiter and Bartender. The INA devised a methodological process for the development of the relevant skills’ standards.

To apply the modular system, the following criteria were followed: flexibility, by offering several certifiable occupational outlets; adaptability, multi-functionality, integrity, dynamism and compliance with the paradigm "Education/training for Productive work".

The INA has also laid down methodological procedures for the development of skills standards in general and the modularisation of such standards; for the curricular design of modular units and training modules. It has also established a procedure for labour certification on the basis of occupational skills.

The Costa Rican Institute has further implemented a Teachers’ Training Project based on occupational competency standards.

This scheme had the following aim: "Formulating modular training programmes for the training of instructors, on the basis of occupational competencies, for use at the INA itself and at the National Vocational Education System (Spanish acronym: SNFP)".

For that purpose, an educators’ job profile was defined and validated; relevant occupational standards were established and modular programmes were devised for the training of teachers for the INA and the SNFP.

Some of the reasons for this initiative were:

a) There is a present a great shortage of instructors trained in the design and delivery of Vocational Training programmes.

b) There is no institution in the country to train educators with the job profile required.

c) The INA, governing body of the National Vocational Education System, is in charge of training instructors in accordance with current demands and requirements of the labour market.

d) ‘Instructors’ training programmes have to take into account current changes in educational technology, in particular those regarding training based on occupational skills.

e) Experience has shown that the teaching-learning process requires educators with the necessary skills to ensure adequate training.

In Uruguay, the National Employment Bureau (DINAE), with the co-operation of the IDB, is carrying out a project to study, design and prepare the implementation of a standardisation, training and certification system in occupational competencies. To do so, the project is planning to establish a single register of training bodies and is working on four large areas: a comparative survey of competency systems developed in other countries in order to determine whether they can be implemented in Uruguay; information and training activities involving all the players in society; development of pilot experiences of competency standardisation in different economic sectors; design of a technical proposal and possible strategies for the implementation of a National Competencies System.

Moreover, in the same country, an exhaustive educational reform has been under way since 1995, structured on the coordinates of a search for equity and quality upgrading. In vocational-technical education, the reform proposes to achieve coherent interconnected and high quality technical and technological education, which, as well as attending to its specific tasks (to provide efficient and multivalent training to co-operate with the transformation of productive structures and improve the living conditions of workers), dovetails with and complements Secondary Education in an effort to provide the population with thourough basic and mid-level education. With this aim, the Technical-Vocational Education Council (CETP-UTU) is restructuring and re-formulating the education it supplies, the main novelties being the implementation of the Basic Technological Cycle and the Technological Secondary School Certificate. The former is divided into two areas: agricultural and technical, and it proposes to internalise technological culture in adolescents and develop competencies on which a later and complementary, broader and more modern, vocational option may be based. The technological secondary school curricula, three years in duration, with the double aim of being an instance of final mid-level education and granting a Technical Assistant certificate, are designed to be the intellectual, technical and manual ability base providing interdisciplinary and cross-sectional content and approaches, around an organising core or nucleus responding to the main fields of development of the national economy and structured around occupational families. Thus, in 1997, the following disciplines were implemented: Industrial and Basic Chemistry, Thermodynamics, Data Processing and Maintenance, Administration and Services, and Agricultural Technology. The secondary school certificates make possible either entry into university or continuation of technical specialisation studies, in the CETP itself, seeking thus to attend to the training of mid-level and higher technicians according to the training demands of the productive sectors.

The aims of this reform are very explicit regarding developing in young people a solid general education, well grounded in science and technology and with the knowledge, abilities and skills which will allow them to be flexible and adapt quickly to change and to life-long learning. The starting point is a conception of Uruguay as a small country in the process of development and inserted in a world subject to constant economic, scientific and technological change. The belief is that the educational challenge involves preparing its human resources and its economy for a life of uncertainty. It is thus believed that the symbolic languages to be grasped thouroughly go beyond the capacity to express oneself and communicate orally and in writing, and include computer science, telematics, foreign languages and critical evaluation of audiovisual messages. Also indispensable are a mastery of scientific methods and knowledge in order to understand, interpret and handle natural and social phenomena; acquirement of mathematical competencies to acquire methodology and mastery of strategies for identifying problems and solving them; and a change in socio-historical competencies from the standpoint that cultural boundaries and world geography are becoming imprecise and satellite communications modify information-handling radically. And, last but not least, it is necessary to acquire a technological culture that facilitates the integration of youth into the world of production and labour and their understanding of its technical and social dimensions.

Taking as a basis SENAI’s Mission, i.e. "Contributing to the strengthening of industry and to the full and sustainable development of the country, promoting education for work and civic responsibility, technical and technological assistance, production and the dissemination of knowledge, adaptation and circulation of technology", and the Institute’s Vision of its own future, namely that "by 2010 SENAI is destined to play a leading role as internationally recognised. technologically renewed occupational training body, managed according to results" its Strategic Plan for the 2000-2010 period establishes the following guidelines:

• Systemic action
• Action upon productive chains
• Improved management
• Market oriented
• Social responsibility
• Sustainability

The Action Plan that accompanies and enlarges upon the previous document consists of 34 processes and 49 projects that aim at the following objectives, among others:

Among activities foreseen in connection with this objective are: reviewing and updating curricula and programmes; promoting 25 new CEMEP certifications; training 150 technicians to evaluate 1,500 students in a "Knowledge Olympiad", setting up an occupational information service; implementing a national distance education programme with 13 courses running up till late 2002; introducing a follow-up system of SENAI graduates, and monitoring of former trainees at two Regional Departments.

Activities contemplated under this rubric include: developing an integral system of market information based on a survey of 20,000 firms and enterprises; training 30 market agents in Regional Departments; introducing a comprehensive system for the exchange of information through "Infovía", with the participation of 15 Regional Departments; promoting personnel development in enterprises of national scope.

Disseminating and supporting the APPCC system in the different segments of the food production chain among 3,000 firms, 300 of which are in the export business; drafting 4 small thesauri and 4 glossaries a year to facilitate data retrieval from productive chains; preparing a half-yearly report on the evaluation of focal scenarios for previously studied productive chains; developing 3 business plans for productive chains; supporting the implementation of 3 projects of overall attention to productive chains every year; sponsoring the conclusion of 3 co-operation agreements a year for technological development, favouring technologically updated services.

Forging links with IEL and SEBRAE to look after firms of this kind; developing SENAI action strategies for the different types of incubators and technical development schemes; helping 200 small industrial firms to modernise their management models.

Mapping and optimising procedures, systematising the management model of the National Department; maintaining ISO 9001:94 standard for the National Department and making ready for ISO 9001:2000; introducing a system of strategic indicators of SENAI performance; adopting State SGPE in all Regional Departments by December 2002 and training 250 new users; consolidating and expanding occupational certification by setting up at least one sectoral committee in every Regional Department.

In Brazil, with the opening up of the international market, the demands for higher product quality levels have increased and, therefore, for worker qualifications. The Vocational Training and Development Secretariat (SEFOR) of the Ministry of Labour, jointly with the ILO, implement a project for the design of a certification system. The variety of the supply of training and the interaction of multiple players on a stage in which training is being carried out not only within the framework of an "S system" (SENAC, SENAI, SENAR, SENAT) institutional base but also through a large amount of other private institutions linked to communities or sectors, generate an environment in which occupational certification can provide transparency and facilitate the mobility of workers and the improvement of the quality of training.

The proposal for the system is considering the multiple experiences in the area of vocational training which exist and are operating from nongovernmental organisations, unions and the "S system." The introduction of the occupational competency approach is one of the critical aspects of the possible proposal; in that regard different international models have been analysed and experiences in Brazilian firms have also been identified and publicised.

The project has its base in a consulting group in which representatives of the Government (SEFOR and the Technological Mid-level Education Secretariat - SEMTEC), of workers (CUT, Fuerza Sindical, CGT), of the SENAI and of the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) participate.

This group, supported by external consultants and through the organisation of various workshops to analyse national and international experiences, is already studying a proposed certification scheme. It is expected that the proposal will be completed this year and, at the same time, some pilot experiences will be developed and other existing experiences will be documented before formulating a final design.

A special feature of this experience arises from the participation of SEMTEC, in an approach to the mid-level technical education and vocational education proposals. The framework created by the new Law on Basic Guidelines for Education enabled SEMTEC to initiate work regarding certification and the introduction of the competencies approach. The aims from the standpoint of education and of labour have much in common and joint action is making possible their alignment.

Another example of integration between the vocational training system and the higher education system is to be found in Brazil, with the creation, in 1997, of the Textile Industrial Engineering Course, through the Chemical and Textile Industry Technology Centre (CETIQT) of the SENAI of Rio de Janeiro. This innovative offer aims to train professionals specialised and skilled for the rapid development of knowledge, for working in multidisciplinary teams and for exercising leadership focused as enterprising and management action, as well as for perceiving the importance of environmental control and for understanding organizations and business.

The course added to its curriculum some novel aspects: management, environment, quality, humanities, technical standards, safety, sociology, politics and legislation. Its creation seeks to meet the aspirations of textile line employers: from the rural producer to the manufacturers and distributors, who seek to modernise and increase productivity and competitiveness in the sector in the internal and external markets.

A Graphics Technology course was added, in 1998, to the Textile Industrial Engineering Course. Through the SENAI "Theobaldo de Nigris" School, in Sao Paulo, this course, also a pioneer endeavour in Brazil, is to train professionals by solid development of their scientific and technological skills which will allow them to take part in the management of production, administration and business in the graphics area. Lasting three years and with a workload of 3,200 hours, the project was based on European and North American models for training graphics engineers. Along these same lines, the SENAI is preparing to launch new higher courses in the footwear, paper and food areas.

In Honduras, the Programme of Education for Labour (POCET) is a Central American example of this alignment between the regular educational systems, and especially adult education and training as life-long education. It is one of the first and richest experiences of integration between traditions among which historically there was little linkage and, at the same time, an experience of dialogue of those traditions with the new debates and paradigms that have involved cross-sectionally the spheres of education and vocational training, in which the new ideas regarding life-long education and training should be specially highlighted. In this case the Ministry of Public Education of Honduras and the National Vocational Training Institute (INFOP) have acted in an integrated manner, at the same time incorporating methodological approaches which are usually only to be found among nongovernmental organisations.

In this regard, the POCET programme is a central reference point for a whole tradition established around the principles of adult education, with its assistance-providing cast and its orientation towards literacy. POCET signalled the way towards integration of the contributions made at the time by all those linked to various forms of popular education with other currents -such as vocational training- with long experience in the field of education for productive labour. The latter currents are also deeply involved in profound debates arising both from the emergence of new production and labour paradigms and the employment market changes and from the persistence of groups and sectors that are left out.