Each Member shall adopt and develop comprehensive and co-ordinated policies and
programmes of vocational guidance and vocational training, closely linked with employment,
in particular through public employment services.
These policies and programmes shall take due account of
:
employment needs, opportunities and problems, both regional and national;
the stage and level of economic, social and cultural development; and
the mutual relationships between human resources development and other economic,
social and cultural objectives.
The policies and programmes shall be pursued by methods that are appropriate to
national conditions.
The policies and programmes shall be designed to improve the ability of the
individual to understand and, individually or collectively, to influence the working and
social environment.
The policies and programmes shall encourage and enable all persons, on an equal
basis and without any discrimination whatsoever, to develop and use their capabilities for
work in their own best interests and in accordance with their own aspirations, account
being taken of the needs of society.
Members should adopt and develop comprehensive
and co-ordinated policies and programmes of vocational guidance and vocational
training, closely linked with employment, in particular through public
employment services.
These policies and programmes should take due
account of
employment needs, opportunities and problems,
both regional and national;
the stage and level of economic, social and
cultural development; and
the mutual relationships between human
resources development and other economic, social and cultural objectives.
The policies and programmes should be pursued
by methods that are appropriate to national conditions.
The policies and programmes should encourage
and enable all persons, on an equal basis and without any discrimination
whatsoever, to develop and use their capabilities for work in their own best
interests and in accordance with their own aspirations, account being taken of
the needs of society.
Such policies and programmes should also
encourage undertakings to accept responsibility for training workers in their
employment. Undertakings should co-operate with the representatives of their
workers when planning their training programmes and should ensure, as far as
possible, that these programmes are in line with those of the public training
system.
Such policies and programmes should have as
objectives
to ensure entry into productive employment,
including self-employment, which corresponds to personal aptitudes and
aspirations, and to facilitate occupational mobility;
to promote and develop creativity, dynamism and
initiative with a view to maintaining or increasing work effectiveness;
to protect persons against unemployment or
other loss of income or earning capacity deriving from lack of demand for their
skills as well as against underemployment;
to protect persons against excessive physical
or mental strain in employment;
to protect persons against occupational hazards
by making high standards of teaching occupational safety and health an integral
part of training for each trade or occupation;
to assist persons in their quest for
satisfaction at work, for individual achievement and self-expression, and for
the betterment of their lot in life through their own efforts to improve the
quality or modify the nature of their contribution to the economy;
to achieve social, cultural and economic
advancement and continuing adjustment to change, with the participation of all
concerned in reshaping the work requirements;
to achieve the full participation of all groups
in society in the process of development and in sharing the benefits deriving
from it.
With the above ends in view, Members should
establish and develop open, flexible and complementary systems of general,
technical and vocational education, educational and vocational guidance and
vocational training, whether these activities take place within the system of
formal education or outside it.
Members should aim in particular at
ensuring that all have equal access to
vocational guidance and vocational training;
providing, on a continuing basis, broadly
conceived and realistic vocational guidance for the various groups of the
population in all branches of economic activity;
developing comprehensive systems of vocational
training covering all aspects of productive work in all branches of economic
activity;
facilitating mobility between different lines
of training, within and between the various occupations and sectors of economic
activity and between different levels of responsibility;
co-ordinating vocational training for one
sector of the economy or branch of economic activity with vocational training
for other sectors or branches;
establishing patterns of systematic vocational
training in all branches of economic activity and for all types of work and
levels of skill and responsibility;
providing all workers with real possibilities
for re-entering the educational system, at a level which takes account of their
work experience;
establishing close co-operation and
co-ordination between vocational guidance and vocational training provided
outside the school system, on the one hand, and educational guidance and the
school system, on the other;
establishing conditions permitting workers to
supplement their vocational training by trade union education given by their
representative organisations;
undertaking research and adapting
administrative arrangements and methods as required for implementing the
programmes of vocational guidance and vocational training.
The policies and programmes of vocational
guidance and vocational training should
be co-ordinated with policies and major
programmes of social and economic development such as employment promotion,
social integration, rural development, development of crafts and industry,
adaptation of methods and organisation of work to human requirements and
improvement of working conditions;
take account of international economic and
technological interaction and co-operation;
be reviewed periodically in relation to current
and planned social and economic development;
promote activities which will stimulate workers
to contribute to improved international relations;
contribute to fuller understanding of
technical, scientific, economic, social and cultural matters;
create and develop an appropriate
infrastructure for providing adequate training respecting the essential
standards of occupational health and safety.
Members should gradually extend their systems
of vocational guidance, including continuing employment information, with a view
to ensuring that comprehensive information and the broadest possible guidance
are available to all children, young persons and adults, including appropriate
programmes for all handicapped and disabled persons.
Such information and guidance should cover the
choice of an occupation, vocational training and related educational
opportunities, the employment situation and employment prospects, promotion
prospects, conditions of work, safety and hygiene at work, and other aspects of
working life in the various sectors of economic, social and cultural activity
and at all levels of responsibility.
The information and guidance should be
supplemented by information on general aspects of collective agreements and of
the rights and obligations of all concerned under labour law; this information
should be provided in accordance with national law and practice, taking into
account the respective functions and tasks of the workers' and employers'
organisations concerned.
The main objectives of vocational guidance
programmes should be to:
provide children and young persons not yet in
the labour force with the basis for choosing a line of education or vocational
training in the light of their aptitudes, abilities and interests and of
employment opportunities;
assist persons in programmes of education and
vocational training to derive the maximum benefit from them and to prepare
themselves either for supplementary education or vocational training or for
entry into an occupation and for continuing education and training as and when
required during their working lives;
assist persons who are entering the labour
force, who seek to change their work activities, or who are unemployed, to
choose an occupation and to plan related education and vocational training;
inform employed persons of opportunities for
improving their occupational development potential, their level of performance,
their earnings and their position, of the educational and vocational training
requirements and of the facilities available for this purpose;
promote general awareness of the contributions
which are and can be made by the various sectors of the economy and branches of
economic activity, including those which have traditionally enjoyed little
prestige, to general development and to expanding employment;
assist co-operating institutions to provide
information and feedback on the effectiveness of particular training programmes
as an integral part of vocational guidance.
Members should ensure that such programmes are
compatible with the right to freedom of choice in selecting an occupation and to
fair promotion opportunities as well as the right to education.
In extending the scope of their systems of
vocational guidance, Members should pay special attention to
helping children and young persons at school to
gain an appreciation of the value and importance of work and an understanding of
the world of work as well as to familiarise themselves with the conditions of
work in as broad a range of occupations as possible:taking account of the
employment and career opportunities that may be open to them:and with
requirements for taking advantage of these opportunities;
giving children and young persons who have
never been to school, or who left school early, information on as broad a range
of occupations as possible and on employment opportunities in these occupations,
as well as guidance on how they may gain access to them;
giving adults in employment, including
self-employment, information on trends and objectives in development which
concern them and in particular on the implications of social, technical and
economic change for their field of work;
giving unemployed and underemployed persons all
the necessary information and guidance on possibilities of finding employment or
improving their employment situation and on means available for achieving this
purpose;
giving persons who meet special problems in
relation to education, vocational training or employment, assistance in
overcoming them within over-all measures aiming at social progress.
Both group vocational guidance programmes:
namely
the dissemination of factual material and counselling for groups of persons who
have similar vocational needs: and individual counselling should be made
available.
Individual counselling should be available, in
particular, to young persons and adults requiring specialised assistance in
identifying their occupational aptitudes, abilities and interests, in assessing
the educational, vocational training and employment opportunities which are
likely to be available to them, and in choosing a line of education, vocational
training or employment.
Individual counselling: and, as appropriate,
group vocational guidance activities: should take into account the individual's
specific need of information and support, with particular attention to the
physically and mentally handicapped and disabled as well as to socially and
educationally disadvantaged persons. They may include exercises in seeking and
evaluating information and in decision making, as well as exposure to expanded
career choices and goals, in order to develop the capacity to make an informed
choice. They should always take into account the individual's right to make his
own choice on the basis of comprehensive relevant information.
Individual counselling should, whenever
required, be supplemented by advice for remedial action and such other help as
may be useful for the purposes of vocational adjustment.
Members whose vocational guidance programmes
are in the early stages of development should, in the first instance, aim at
drawing the attention of young persons to the
importance of choosing general and vocational education taking full account of
existing employment prospects and of trends in economic and social development,
as well as of their personal aptitudes and interests;
assisting those groups of the population which
require help in overcoming traditional restrictions on their free choice of
education, vocational training or occupation;
meeting the needs of those with special
potential in fields of work which are of major importance.
Members should make full use, in their
vocational guidance programmes, of all available facilities and media through
which the various groups of the population concerned can be reached most
effectively.
Wherever practicable, appropriate tests of
capacity and aptitude:including both physiological and psychological
characteristics: and other methods of examination should be made available for
use in vocational guidance as appropriate to the needs of individual cases.
Such tests and other methods of examination
should be used only in agreement with the person seeking guidance and in
conjunction with other methods of exploring personal characteristics; they
should be carried out only by specialists.
The results obtained in the application of such
tests and other methods of examination should not be communicated to a third
person without the express agreement of the person examined.
Where tests and other methods of examination
are employed in vocational guidance, they should be standardised for the age
groups, populations and cultures concerned and should be validated for the
particular purposes for which they are intended.
There should be a continuing programme for the
development and restandardisation, at regular intervals, of such tests and other
methods of examination in order to take account of changing conditions and life
styles.
Part III. Action at the National
Level for the Development of Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Services
for Disabled Persons
Article 7
The competent authorities shall take measures with a view to
providing and evaluating vocational guidance, vocational training, placement,
employment and other related services to enable disabled persons to secure,
retain and advance in employment; existing services for workers generally shall,
wherever possible and appropriate, be used with necessary adaptations.
Article 9
Each Member shall aim at ensuring the training and
availability of rehabilitation counsellors and other suitably qualified staff
responsible for the vocational guidance, vocational training, placement and
employment of disabled persons.
In planning and providing services for the vocational
rehabilitation and employment of disabled persons, existing vocational
guidance, vocational training, placement, employment and related services
for workers generally should, wherever possible, be used with any necessary
adaptations.
Persons engaged in vocational guidance, vocational
training and placement of workers generally should have an adequate
knowledge of disabilities and their limiting effects, as well as a knowledge
of the support services available to facilitate a disabled person's
integration into active economic and social life. Opportunities should be
provided for such persons to update their knowledge and extend their
experience in these fields.
Staff engaged in vocational guidance, vocational
training, placement and employment support of disabled persons should have
appropriate training and experience to recognise the motivational problems
and difficulties that disabled persons may experience and, within their
competence, deal with the resulting needs.
All necessary and practicable measures should be taken to
establish or develop specialised vocational guidance services for disabled
persons requiring aid in choosing or changing their occupations.
The process of vocational guidance should include, as far
as practicable in the national circumstances and as appropriate in
individual cases:
interview with a vocational guidance officer;
examination of record of work experience;
examination of scholastic or other records relating
to education or training received;
medical examination for vocational guidance purposes;
appropriate tests of capacity and aptitude, and,
where desirable, other psychological tests;
ascertainment of personal and family circumstances;
ascertainment of aptitudes and the development of
abilities by appropriate work experiences and trial, and by other
similar means;
technical trade tests, either verbal or otherwise, in
all cases where such seem necessary;
analysis of physical capacity in relation to
occupational requirements and the possibility of improving that
capacity;
provision of information concerning employment and
training opportunities relating to the qualifications, physical
capacities, aptitudes, preferences and experience of the person
concerned and to the needs of the employment market.
The principles, measures and methods of vocational
training generally applied in the training of non-disabled persons should
apply to disabled persons in so far as medical and educational conditions
permit.
The training of disabled persons should, wherever
possible, enable them to carry on an economic activity in which they can
use their vocational qualifications or aptitudes in the light of
employment prospects.
For this purpose, such training should be:
co-ordinated with selective placement, after
medical advice, in occupations in which the performance of the work
involved is affected by, or affects, the disability to the least
possible degree;
provided, wherever possible and appropriate, in
the occupation in which the disabled person was previously employed
or in a related occupation; and
continued until the disabled person has acquired
the skill necessary for working normally on an equal basis with
non-disabled workers if he is capable of doing so.
Wherever possible, disabled persons should receive
training with and under the same conditions as non-disabled persons.
Special services should be set up or developed for
training disabled persons who, particularly by reason of the nature or
the severity of their disability, cannot be trained in company with
non-disabled persons.
Wherever possible and appropriate, these services
should include, inter alia:
schools and training centres, residential or
otherwise;
special short-term and long-term training courses
for specific occupations;
courses to increase the skills of disabled
persons.
Measures should be taken to encourage employers to
provide training for disabled persons; such measures should include, as
appropriate, financial, technical, medical or vocational assistance.
Measures should be taken to develop special
arrangements for the placement of disabled persons.
These arrangements should ensure effective placement
by means of:
registration of applicants for employment;
recording their occupational qualifications,
experience and desires;
interviewing them for employment;
evaluating, if necessary, their physical and
vocational capacity;
encouraging employers to notify job vacancies to
the competent authority;
contacting employers, when necessary, to
demonstrate the employment capacities of disabled persons, and to
secure employment for them;
assisting them to obtain such vocational
guidance, vocational training, medical and social services as may be
necessary.
Follow-up measures should be taken:
to ascertain whether placement in a job or recourse
to vocational training or retraining services has proved to be
satisfactory and to evaluate employment counselling policy and methods;
to remove as far as possible obstacles which would
prevent a disabled person from being satisfactorily settled in work.
The competent authorities should ensure that the various
agencies and institutions responsible for the dissemination of information on
training and employment opportunities, such as primary and secondary schools,
vocational guidance and employment counselling services, public employment
services, vocational and technical training institutions and fishing vessel
owners' and fishermen's organisations, are supplied with complete information on
public and private training schemes for fishermen and on conditions of entry
into fishing.
The competent authorities and bodies, in co-operation
with shipowners' and seafarers' organisations, should ensure that full
information on public and private training schemes for seafarers and on
conditions of entry into the shipping industry is available to those providing
vocational guidance and employment counselling services, to public employment
services and to vocational and technical training institutions.
Each Member shall declare as a priority objective a policy
designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment by all
appropriate means, including social security. Such means should include, inter
alia, employment services, vocational training and vocational guidance.
The promotion of full, productive and freely chosen
employment by all appropriate means, including through social security, should
be a priority objective of national policy. Such means should include, inter
alia, employment services, vocational training and vocational guidance.
Members should, as a major priority, seek to meet the
conditions set out in subparagraph (1) above by promoting a sufficiently high
level of stable employment offering adequate wages and working conditions, in
particular through necessary and appropriate measures, such as vocational
guidance and training, to facilitate voluntary matching of skills on the labour
market to available job vacancies.
Each Member should recognise the importance of
building up the means of production and developing human capacities
fully, for example through education, vocational guidance and training,
health services and housing, and should seek and maintain an appropriate
balance in expenditure for these different purposes.
III. Employment of Youth and
Disadvantaged Groups and Persons
While taking account of national conditions and in
accordance with national law and practice, the measures referred to in
Paragraph 15 of this Recommendation might include, inter alia:
general education accessible to all and vocational
guidance and training programmes to assist these persons to find work
and to improve their employment opportunities and their income;
the creation of a training system linked with both
the educational system and the world of work;
counselling and employment services to assist
individuals to enter the labour market and to help them to find
employment which corresponds to their skills and aptitudes;
All measures compatible with national conditions
and possibilities, including measures in the field of vocational guidance and
training, shall be taken to enable workers with family responsibilities to
become and remain integrated in the labour force, as well as to re-enter the
labour force after an absence due to those responsibilities.
Such services as may be necessary to enable workers with
family responsibilities to enter or re-enter employment should be available,
within the framework of existing services for all workers or, in default
thereof, along lines appropriate to national conditions; they should
include, free of charge to the workers, vocational guidance, counselling,
information and placement services which are staffed by suitably trained
personnel and are able to respond adequately to the special needs of workers
with family responsibilities.
Each Member should formulate a national policy for the
prevention of discrimination in employment and occupation. This policy
should be applied by means of legislative measures, collective agreements
between representative employers' and workers' organisations or in any other
manner consistent with national conditions and practice, and should have
regard to the following principles:
all persons should, without discrimination, enjoy
equality of opportunity and treatment in respect of:
access to vocational guidance and placement
services;
Each Member should:
ensure application of the principles of
non-discrimination:
in the activities of vocational guidance,
vocational training and placement services under the direction of a
national authority;
promote their observance, where practicable and
necessary, in respect of other employment and other vocational guidance,
vocational training and placement services by such methods as:
encouraging state, provincial or local government
departments or agencies and industries and undertakings operated
under public ownership or control to ensure the application of the
principles;
making eligibility for contracts involving the
expenditure of public funds dependent on observance of the
principles;
making eligibility for grants to training
establishments and for a licence to operate a private employment
agency or a private vocational guidance office dependent on
observance of the principles.
All appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that
guidance, training and placement services provide older workers with the
facilities, advice and assistance they may need to enable them to take full
advantage of equality of opportunity and treatment.
III. Protection
Every effort should be made to meet the difficulties
encountered by older workers through guidance and training measures such as
those provided for in Paragraph 50 of the Human Resources Development
Recommendation, 1975.
Appropriate measures should be taken with a view to
informing the public and, more particularly, those responsible for guidance,
training, placement and the social services concerned, as well as employers,
workers and their respective organisations, of the problems which older workers
may encounter in respect, in particular, of the matters dealt with in Paragraph
5 of this Recommendation and of the desirability of helping them to overcome
such problems.
