Reference paper 1: Cinterfor/ILO

TRAINING FOR DECENT WORK

85.  With increasing frequency, vocational training is mentioned as an essential component of strategies to improve competitiveness. In a literal sense, the term competitiveness refers to the capacity of an enterprise, sector or country to compete in an economic framework. Although that meaning has always been accepted, it is of particular importance in these times of economic globalisation, when trade opening processes make the strengths and weaknesses of economic players even more evident.

86.  In any case, there are different notions as to which strategies are the most adequate, and above all, what combination of measures can be most effective. On the one hand, there are examples of strategies based fundamentally on macro-economic measures that tend to abate production costs, such as decisions regarding exchange rate policies, tax exemptions or reduction of labour costs (wages, lay-offs, etc.). On the other hand, (and not necessarily in contradiction with other measures), efforts are made pointing to a broader horizon, to what has been called "systemic competitiveness".

87.  One of the main differences between these two approaches lies in the time scope of their policies. The first approach is usually adopted in order to get more or less immediate results, in adverse circumstances. The typical and most usual example is to resort to a devaluation of the national currency in order to inject dynamics into the export sector, either unilaterally or in response to similar measures by other States. Such decisions have an almost immediate effect, for which reason they are the most frequent strategy to increase competitiveness.

88.  The systemic competitiveness version is aimed instead at long-term results. It does not depend on a limited and relatively straightforward series of measures, but on a wide variety of policies that will jointly result in a more competitive overall situation for the economy. Policies for investing in public and private infrastructures, technological innovation and development, integration of sectors and productive chains, investing in the development of human capital (education and training) are some of the typical instruments proposed by this approach.

89. It is precisely in this second approach that vocational training has a more clear-cut and central role. On the basis that investing to upgrade people’s qualifications is of itself an action that favours competitiveness, it in turn reinforces other lines of complementary policy. Although vocational training is a useful option in any context, its beneficial contributions to society and the economy are most evident in long-term strategic approaches.

90. It is also evident that insofar as vocational training may take a prominent position in long-term strategies, it has to face the challenge of rethinking itself and in its relation with other fields of activity in strategic terms. In that respect, two generalised over-simplifications are on their way out in the Region.

91.  The first of them is the concept that vocational training was a limited period in people’s existence, that usually preceded their active life. Although this issue is analysed in greater detail in the following section, we may point out here that at present, and in line what is happening in other parts of the world, in Latin America and the Caribbean vocational training is seen as more of a permanent process, necessary all along people’s life, and not just a preparatory stage for filling in a specific work post.

92.  Secondly, the idea of vocational training as a specialised and in a way self-sufficient field of activity, is also losing ground to the concept that it is an inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional jurisdiction and must, as such, be viewed in the framework of integral strategies that attend to the economy, productive sectors and chains, enterprises and the community at large.

93.  Consequently, vocational training is aiming at two kinds of integration: in a vertical (or diachronic) sense, insofar as it tries to provide answers not just for specific situations, but to the transformation thereof (lifelong training); and in a transversal (or synchronous) sense, where it looks for co-ordination with other fields of social and economic policy, with other institutional spheres and disciplines.

94.  Those are, in sum, the two fundamental dimensions of a process of transformation of vocational training, that is shifting it towards the bounds of a strategic and functional horizon, in search of -among other things- systemic competitiveness.

95.  Concerns about quality are as old in the production of goods and services as in training activities. Ensuring the quality of training has been an age-old consideration of Latin American and Caribbean vocational training institutions. At present, the role of quality has evolved in the same way as the role and expectations of the institutions themselves.

96.  In a decent work approach, people are not trained to pass an exam, but for their whole work in life. The quality of the training lies in recognising participants for the personal individuals they are. Hence that stress is laid on incorporating abilities for communication, participation, teamwork, negotiation and the exchange of ideas, all of which are associated with a wide range of labour and social participation possibilities

97.  Rather than just ensuring the achievement of certain academic goals -usually scored by theoretical/practical assessments- the concept of quality in training has been built around the effectiveness it may have to instil into participants serviceable abilities for their labour ad social life. The UNESCO "Delors Report" (1996) spelled out the four main pillars, or tasks, of learning: learning to learn; learning to do, learning to live with others, and learning to be. Quality thus becomes a complex, diverse and holistic concept that that cannot be gauged by traditional evaluation tests.

98.  The ever greater number and diversity of actors on the supply side of training, the new forms of financing and the necessary relevance demanded of training programmes are, among others, some of the factors that have sparked off processes of modernisation and transformation in training bodies. Such procedures have nowadays high priority on their agendas.

99.  On the other hand, training users want to know about the best offers, those that guarantee the greatest efficiency. Both employers and workers are on the lookout for signs of efficiency. Providers of funds are also interested in the best possible use of the resources they have invested. Institutions with a quality management constitute a social guarantee to the efficiency of public expenditure in training. The same reasoning applies to funds from the private sector: they should be handed to bodies capable of accounting for relevant, efficient and effective training processes. Vocational training institutions are therefore interested in improving the efficiency and relevance of their activities, which has been recently reflected in their adoption of management mechanisms to ensure quality.

100.  Some institutions take part in national evaluation and quality control mechanisms in their centres and other operating units, and participate in surveys implemented in their countries. Such is the case of the Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje, INA (National Training Institute) which recently was awarded top marks in an evaluation procedure conducted by the Sistema Nacional de Evaluación, SINE (National Evaluation System) among 29 public institutions in Costa Rica.

101. Others adopt mechanisms, define indicators or devise systems for grading results that may ensure the quality of their response. Such is the case of the evaluation system utilised by SENAI of Brazil, that grants Gold, Silver and Bronze awards to its Model Centres of Vocational Education and National Technology Centres. Along similar lines, and within a modernisation process, the INTECAP of Guatemala has adopted the 5 "S" system to promote a quality culture.

102.  There are also institutes that take part in national quality drives and work in association with national standardisation and accreditation bodies. This joint work is evidenced by the accreditation of those institutes’ Technological Centres to offer metrology or testing services for compliance with quality standards by a number of products in national and international markets. Such is the case of the SENAI National Technology Centres (Brazil) and of the SENA Technological Development Centres (Colombia). Along similar lines are training and enterprise counselling activities for the implementation of quality systems, an increasingly frequent service supplied by training institutions, as happens in the Service Centres for Small and Medium Enterprises of the SENATI (Peru), that stress quality enhancement.

103.  At the same time, training institutions have looked for an external quality stamp and have resorted to quality certification, that is usually audited and verified by an external organisation under the ISO-9000 family of standards.

104.  New experiences of certified quality management in vocational training are to be found from Central America to the Southern Cone. The following are some examples:

• The Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje Industrial, SENAI (National Training Institute) of Brazil accounts for one of the first experiences in the Region, that started in the State of Santa Catarina with the application of the 5 "S" programme and subsequent ISO-9000 certification in 1997 by the German firm TUV RHEINLAND. The SENAI regional departments of Paraná, Espíritu Santo and Pernambuco have also ISO 9000 certifications. The Service’s National Direction at Brasilia has recently adopted a quality guarantee system with the following coverage: Planning, Development and Co-ordination of Strategic Projects and Operational Improvement Projects.

• SENAI also has an internal system for quality acknowledgement of its Training Centres that through an evaluation process grants them the title of "Model Centres of Vocational Education" or "National Technology Centres". The system is based on the criteria of the National Quality Programme, that includes: Process Management, Persons’ Management, Leadership, Strategic Management, Focusing on clients and markets, Information Results and Management. It has three successive levels of compliance, in ascending order: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

• In Peru, the Servicio Nacional de Adiestramiento Técnico Industrial, SENATI (Industrial and Technical Training Service) was awarded the ISO 9001 quality certification. After a widespread national effort, this institution obtained that certification for the following Vocational Training Programmes: Dual Apprenticeship, Qualification of Workers in Service, Industrial Technicians, Industrial Managers, Industrial Masters, Engineering Technician, Ongoing Training, Multimedia Training, Information Science and Labour Grants. In practically all SENATI zone centres, Technical Fabrication Services, Non-destructive Testing and Counselling for Small and Medium Enterprises have also been certified.

• After adopting a number of measures for institutional modernisation -which among other things opened up the Institute for accreditation by other public and private training bodies, the INA of Costa Rica started a quality management process, and in January 1999 obtained the certification of its Accreditation Unit by INTECO and AENOR (Spanish Standardisation and Certification Association) according to ISO 9002 Standard.

• The Consejo de Normalización y Certificación de Competencia Laboral, CONOCER (Labour Competencies Standardisation and Certification Council), of Mexico, was awarded an ISO quality certification standard in February 2000, for the adoption of efficient systems to ensure the quality of its processes in the design, development production and distribution of its products, and in ancillary services.

• The SENCE of Chile was the first public service in that country to obtain a quality certification of the ISO 9000 family. In January of this year it was awarded a certificate accrediting that "the process of Constitution of Technical Training Institutes in the Metropolitan Region "complies with the requirements of ISO 9002 quality standards".

• In line with its modernisation programme, the Instituto Técnico de Capacitación y Productividad, INTECAP (Technical Institute for Training and Productivity) of Guatemala has taken a number of measures to develop a "culture of overall quality" in the Institute. They include a clear definition of the institution’s vision and mission, and adoption of the programme known as 5 "S", a management philosophy that lies at the base of overall quality.

105.  Nowadays, the educational nature of vocational training is emphasised in accepting that it comes together with other teaching modes and branches to meet the challenge of fulfilling people’s need for a lifelong education.

106.  The barriers between manual and non-manual tasks and between thought and action have been modified. What gives persons a general knowledge that they can transfer to work is a balanced combination of fundamental know-how, technical skills and social aptitudes. Consequently, it is possible to start contributing to the mastery of the basic codes of modernity from elementary school on, and it is essential to turn the teaching-learning process into a continuum.

107.  This continuum in turn gives rise to another one between formal education, vocational and technical training, and informal learning, making up a vertical axis around which a person’s whole life revolves. Additionally, there is a horizontal axis wherein all living spaces become educational environments.

108.  The lifelong education approach rests upon the following: firstly on the need to keep up competitiveness in a world of constantly changing products and technologies; secondly, on the rapid obsolescence of knowledge and the demystification of professions (entailing the loss of power and prestige of diplomas and the revaluation of real competencies), and thirdly, on the need to struggle against unemployment, as a way of reducing the exclusion or marginalisation that stem from social stratification and/or segregation for reasons of age, culture, region, ethics or gender, that characterise vulnerable populations.

109.  It is therefore a priority to give people the means to manage their own labour and occupational development, find their first job, look for a new one, start up a business, retrain through courses, and instruct themselves permanently, whether employed or unemployed, at home or in their place of work. This changeover in training, that is both conceptual and practical, implies a number of consequences that have to be underlined:

• In the first place, as opposed to what happened a few decades ago, when the trend was towards specialisation, now it seems increasingly necessary for persons to master a number of basic and general skills, enabling them both to perform in less controlled work environments with unforeseen situations that must be solved as they go along, and to "surf" in a difficult and competitive labour market. Specific training, which is still required, is obtained on the job, and enterprises prefer to take charge of it. Training bodies, and many training programmes, are gradually getting nearer to general or regular education, regarding both contents and institutions. As regular education is also undergoing a reform process, it benefits from this rapprochement, insofar as vocational training furnishes it with experience in relating to the productive sector. In other words, this is a profitable synergy for both traditions and institutions.
• Secondly, the responsibility for training is now beginning to be shared, and necessarily provides an opportunity for agreement and co-operation. If people are no longer learning exclusively in educational centres, but also at home and at work, the responsibility for training is shared by training bodies, employers, governments and the individuals themselves (and the organisations that represent them). Tripartite management is revitalised, and the emergence of new forms of training management is favoured. These new approaches do not adhere to singe models: for instance, they may be social or political accords allowing for the development of dual (alternating) training models, or training / production centres managed jointly with entrepreneurial chambers or trade unions. There are foundations run by trade unions and financed by employers, as well as national training systems managed on a tripartite basis. But whatever shape they may adopt, the general trend is towards alliances to take advantage of the resources provided by the various actors, to use them more efficiently in the service of the ongoing and overall training of citizens.
• Thirdly, the very nature of lifelong training dictates that in order to exist, it requires a very flexile and dynamic offer. As a result of the gradual blurring of borderlines between productive branches in regard of basic skills, there are infinite possibilities in the paths followed by individuals to get the same type of job. The different training demands of those persons can hardly be standardised. The best option is to offer them a sort of "help yourself" menu, where each one can pick to meet their training needs in different circumstances and deadlines, with varying degrees of depth and different contents. On the other hand, training demands have also expanded and diversified under the influence of aspects such as: the greater relative weight of the knowledge factor in production; the entry of large contingents into active life (specially in the less industrialised countries); the shrinking of public employment; the number of displaced workers from companies that are being revamped or have disappeared; or the emergence of new forms of employment and self-employment. Looking after all the employed or unemployed active population of the modern sector and of the other more backward sectors, whether formal or informal, young or adult, is not a task that can be tackled efficiently by a single agent, even with large financial resources (which is not a frequent situation). Here again, there is nothing for it but to co-ordinate efforts through the concerted action of different actors who, with their own resources, may help to build up a sufficiently broad, flexible and diverse training system to deal with an increasingly heterogeneous demand for lifelong training.

110.  In Argentina, a reform of technical education started in 1996 that has resulted in the implementation of "Trayectos Técnicos Profesionales", TTP ("Technical Occupational Itineraries"), optional training offers for all students or graduates of the so-called "polymodal" education. The purpose of TTPs is to train technicians in specific occupational areas requiring the mastery of competencies that can only be developed through long, systematic training processes. The very design of these Itineraries is an interesting and current example of the endeavours to bring different educational and training systems together:

• Polymodal education, because it is a combination of training alternatives covering wide areas of knowledge and social and productive activities (a total of five modalities) the choice of which enables students to consolidate fundamental skills on the basis of problems linked to their interests and motivations. TTPs offer the possibility of occupational induction in areas calling for specific technological and vocational competencies.
• Vocational training, because TTPs supplement a training offer that in Argentina appears aimed at the development of skills that are required for performing in certain jobs and/or constitute components of active employment policies intended to promote the access to labour of groups with specific needs.
• Permanent and higher education and training, since the objective of TTPs is to launch students on an occupational course, ensuring their access to a base of knowledge and abilities that may equip them to start off with a first job in a given area, and to continue learning throughout their active life. The idea is that the training imparted through TTPs should supplement other educational alternatives, in order to allow for subsequent stages of evolution, specificity, retraining and -possibly- changing over to another occupation.

111. In Brazil, the Plano Nacional de Qualificação do Trabalhador, PLANFOR (National Plan for Workers’ Qualification) that is being implemented since 1995 by the Secretaría de Formación y Desarrollo Profesional, SEFOR (Secretariat for Training and Occupational Development) of the Ministry of Labour, has appeared as a proposal to inject new dynamics into the training programmes financed by the Fund for the Protection of Workers -FAT-. It also pursues the explicit objective of dealing with vocational training as a public policy, recognising and mobilising new training actors and building up a new institutionality for the country’s occupational education.

PLANFOR is structured along three main guidelines:

• Conceptual advancement. This implies the development and consolidation of a new methodological and operational approach to vocational education envisaging the following dimensions:

Focus on the demand of the labour market and the productive profile of the target population, oriented by the effective demand of the productive sector and gathering together the interests and needs of workers, employers, communities.

Rights of the productive citizen, considered on a permanent, continuous basis, complementary in nature (never a substitute) to elementary education (of first and second degree) that is a constitutional right of citizens.

Overall development of basic, specific and/or management abilities in workers, by means of courses, counselling, and other presential or distance activities.

Consideration of the social, economic and regional diversity of the economically active population (EAP), by promoting equal opportunities in training programmes and in access to the labour market.

• Institutional co-ordination. Implies singling out, co-ordinating and developing the main important actors in a public policy for work and income generation. Consolidation of a national vocational training network for the ongoing training of the EAP, on a participative and decentralised basis. The Vocational Education Network to be made up by the effective or potential offer of public or private entities of a national or international kind, governmental or non-governmental, including at least the following institutions: universities, federal, state and municipal technical schools, employers’ foundations and organisations, the "S System" in particular, trade unions and workers’ organisations; independent vocational schools, community societies and other lay or religious organisations.

• Support of civil society. Full scale promotion of workers’ training activities, including not only training courses but also counselling, extension services, research and studies. Although such action is addressed to the EAP, it guarantees priority for vulnerable groups (insofar as FAT funds are concerned). Vulnerability is defined as a combination of factors such as poverty, low schooling, gender, race and colour, special needs and other conditions hampering access to, or permanence, in the labour market and other alternatives of occupational training.

113.  Also in Brazil there is another example of integration of the vocational training and higher education systems through the offer of tertiary level courses by SENAI. Some of them are higher courses on the following subjects: Environmental Technology, Graphic Technology, Mecatronics Technology, Clothing Technology, Industrial Automation Technology, and Textile Industrial Engineering.

114.  In Chile, the Programa de Educación y Capacitación Permanente (Permanent Education and Training Programme) depends on the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. It is intended to expand ongoing education and training opportunities in support of the country’s economic and social transformation, to help achieve greater economic competitiveness and social equity (integration and promotion), and to meet the growing need of people to learn and get trained throughout life. All this to be done through offering new opportunities for ongoing education and training, improving technical education and facilitating access and re-entry into the labour market for young persons and adults, and creating instruments for a lifelong learning process.

115.  The Programme seeks to benefit the poorer sectors of the active population, who are already employed or looking for a job, and wish to upgrade their occupational skills and their literacy and schooling levels through education and training. Regarding those excluded from the training system, the Programme will give special support to efforts for the incorporation and use of new information and communication technologies in small and micro enterprises.

Another line of action points to bolstering the development of technical training by promoting co-operation between secondary and higher education and training, the training of teachers and instructors, support of curricular changes in secondary-level technical vocational schools, and access of Programme graduates into the labour market.

The Programme likewise intends to develop mechanisms enabling persons to certify progress itineraries in their technical careers (regardless of where and how they have acquired their competencies); systems guaranteeing the quality of training offers; and a scheme of information and guidance on the labour market and training opportunities.

116.  In Mexico, the Consejo Nacional de Educación para la Vida y el Trabajo (National Council of Education for Life and Work) was created in the year 2000 as part of the action suggested in the document Basic Considerations for the 2001-2006 Sectoral Education Programme. The long-term objective of this project is devising a new scheme for the educational attention of young people and adults. The fundamental purpose is that all Mexican men and women over the age of 15 may have -along their lives- the capacity and opportunity of embarking upon ascending spirals of learning, in order to acquire new knowledge, abilities, attitudes and values enabling them to face the decisions that affect the conditions of their daily life... This will also improve their labour performance and civic participation, and it will lead to a fuller existence.

The gist of the proposal is a new educational conception. The proposition is based, on the one hand, not only on the economic but also political, social and cultural challenges and requirements faced by mankind in general and Mexico in particular, as a result of the stunning changes in technology, information science and communication, and on the other hand on the evolution of thinking in that connection.

This conception implies retrieving and integrating multiple educational dimensions, some of them with a long history of systematic action and national scope, others offered in a scattered and incipient way (literacy campaigns, compulsory elementary education, occupational training). It also has explicit educational goals, such as the acquisition of basic learning skills, which include a new and much needed "technological and digital literacy"; ongoing occupational training along life, civic instruction, particularly regarding human rights and democratic procedures; education for improving daily life conditions in such important aspects as health and reproduction, the prevention of addictions, emotional relations within the family, self esteem and self knowledge, or more immediate topics like improvement of home economics, personal realisation and affluence.

As potential target group, the project has identified all the Mexican population over the age of 15. It acknowledges the fact that it is a heterogeneous group requiring focalised solutions incorporating knowledge into various daily procedures.

117.  In Honduras, the Programa de Educación para el Trabajo, POCET (Programme of Education for Work) is a Central American example of this process of rapprochement between regular education systems (specially adults’ education) and training, in a framework of lifelong learning. It is one of the first and most fruitful examples in the country of integration between traditions that historically had few common links, and lacked experience in the recent debates about the interconnections across the board and other paradigms, particularly education throughout life. Joint action has been taken by the Honduran Secretariat for Public Education, and the Instituto Nacional de Formación Profesional, INFOP (National Vocational Training Institute), with methodological approaches that are usually only possible for non-governmental organisations.

The POCET Programme constitutes the pivot of a whole tradition built around the principles of adults’ education, with an emphasis on assistance and literacy. It led the way in bringing together the contributions made by all those involved in the people’s education, with other streams -like vocational training- that had a long experience in the field of education for productive work, and were all very much concerned about the advent of new paradigms of production and labour and changes in the employment market, and the continued existence of groups and sectors afflicted by exclusion situations.

118.  In the Dominican Republic, the Instituto Nacional de Formación Técnico Profesional, INFOTEP (National Institute for Technical-Vocational Training), in its recently adopted strategic plan INFOTEP ACCION 2005, embarks upon the implementation of an innovative and flexible curricular system, that may be assimilated with other educational sub-systems, to meet the current needs of the labour market. An initial strategy in that respect, is to promote the creation of inter-institutional working committees, forums and discussion groups to make curricular standardisation viable, and favour the horizontal and vertical inter-connection among the various sub-systems and for skills’ certification purposes. As a second strategy, INFOTEP intends to develop training methodologies on the basis of occupational competencies’ standards and non-traditional systems, in order to respond in a more dynamic and flexible manner to the changes and demands of the national and international labour markets.

119.  In Uruguay, an overall educational reform was started in 1995 whose main guidelines are the attainment of equity and the improvement of quality. In the technical-vocational field, the reform aims at a consistent technical and technological education. It should be well co-ordinated and of high quality, looking after its own specific objectives (i.e. providing an efficient and polyvalent training that may help in the transformation of productive structures and improve the living conditions of workers) and also complementing regular secondary schools, in order to offer people an integral intermediate education. For that purpose, the Consejo de Educación Técnico Profesional, CETP-UTU (Technical-Vocational Education Council), has restructured and reformulated its educational offer. Main novelties are a Basic Technological Cycle and a Technology Bachelor. The first one resorts to various methods to make adolescents internalise a technological culture and develop the competencies that will serve them as a basis for subsequent broader and modern vocational options. The Technological Bachelors’ courses, of three years’ duration, have a twofold goal. They can be a terminal stage in secondary studies, leading to the certificate of Technical Assistant, but they are also supposed to equip students with a repertory of intellectual, technical and manual abilities. Their contents are interdisciplinary, organised round a central core, covering the main areas of development of the national economy and built upon job clusters. Graduates can go into the University or continue further specialised studies in the CETP itself, an organisation that trains middle and high technicians to meet the demands of the productive sectors.

The objectives of this reform have been very explicit. It is intended to provide young people with a sound general education, a good scientific and technological grounding, and the knowledge, abilities and skills needed for flexibility, swift adaptation to change and continuous learning. Uruguay is a small developing country in a world of constant economic, scientific and technological change. Its educational challenge is to prepare its human resources and its economy to live in a state of uncertainty. Consequently, the symbolic languages its people need to master go beyond a capacity for oral and written communication: they include computerisation, telecommunications, foreign languages and the critical interpretation of audio-visual messages. Also essential is the mastery of scientific methods and knowledge in order to comprehend, interpret and manage natural and social phenomena; of mathematical skills, to acquire methodologies for identifying problems and solving them. Social and historical notions have to be modified, as cultural borders and global geography become imprecise, and satellite communications radically alter the management of information. Last but not least, the young must acquire a technological culture that may facilitate their integration into the world of production and labour and to understand its technical and social dimensions.

Index