BULLETIN 149
Labour competencies in vocational training

May-August 1998

 

(Text available also in Spanish)

 

 

THIS ISSUE

 

 

CONTENTS
Fernando Vargas Zuñiga	De las virtudes laborales a las competencias clave: un nuevo concepto para antiguas demandas
María da Conceição Arruda	Qualificação versus competência
R. McDonald D. Boud J. Francis A. Gonczi	Nuevas perspectivas sobre la evaluación
Héctor Masseilot	Competencias laborales y procesos de certificación ocupacional
Agustín Ibarra Almada	Formación de los recursos humanos y competencia laboral
Mónica G. Sladogna	Una mirada a la construcción de las competencias desde el sistema educativo. La experiencia de Argentina
Fernando Vargas Zuñiga	Aplicación del enfoque de competencia laboral en la Fábrica Nacional de Papel de Uruguay
George Gamerdinger	Vocational Qualifications: Selected Experiences from the Caribbean
Bonifacio Pedraza López	La nueva formación profesional en España. ¿Hacia un Sistema Nacional de Cualificaciones Profesionales?
Ute Laur-Ernst	Flexibility and Standardization – no Contradiction; Innovations in the German Vocational Education and Training System
Marc Tucker Betsy Brown Ruzzi	A System of National Skill Standards and Certificates for the United States: Early Stages of Implementation
DOCUMENTS
Edgar Barrios	Competencias laborales, tema clave para la certificación en el INTECAP
Cinterfor/OIT	La propuesta de un Sistema de Formación y Certificación en el INSAFORP de El Salvador
Raúl Enrique Rozzains Zárate	La competencia laboral desde la perspectiva sindical
ABSTRACTS
CONOCER	Seminario de Formación y Capacitación ante los Retos que plantea la Apertura Económica  y la Reestructuración de las Empresas. México, 15-16 de julio de 1999

 

THIS ISSUE

The labour competence approach has been, at least for the past five years, a key concept in the vocational training scene of Latin America and the Caribbean. Labour competence models and its renewed promises have been increasingly present in the daily actions of institutions. The concepts associated with labour competence have been present, in one way or another, in almost all training experiences. In effect, these concepts have informed, either implicitly or explicitly, training experiences that stretch all the way from Mexico to Argentina, as well as the English-speaking Caribbean.

The competence approach has contributed to the generation of knowledge in the field of vocational training. Many institutions have reconsidered their approach regarding identification of training needs, programme planning and design, teacher training, attainment appraisal and certification.

This issue of the Cinterfor/ILO bulletin intends to be an additional contribution to the already extensive range of experiences and concepts developed in the region about vocational training and labour competence. This publication constitutes another effort to spread new perspectives, experiences and particular aspects of the labour competence approach in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The first article, written by Fernando Vargas Zúñiga, offers an understanding of the development of competence as a concept. The article then analyzes the strong relationship between organizational evolution and labour competencies. The author pays particular attention to information technology. The incorporation of information technology changes competence demands. According to this essay, labour competence goes beyond the individual highlighting its collective dimension.

The next essay by Maria Conceicao Aruda argues that the new model of occupational qualification not only implies a major break from the previous training paradigm but that it also modifies the behavioural requirements imposed on the labour force. She describes how the traditional isolation and fragmentation of tasks were replaced by increasing communication, interaction and group work. On the one hand, the new characteristics of work organization impact on what workers need to know. On the other hand, these new features imply new behaviours at the interaction level among peers.

McDonald, Boud, Francis and Gorzi analyze attainment appraisal. The article examines the following issues: the relations between appraisal and learning, the need for targeting appraisal on competencies, the recognition of nonformal educational competencies, and, the creation of external evaluation systems for vocational training institutions.

Hector Masseilot offers a trade union perspective on the issue of competencies. The author describes different methodologies for the identification and standardization of competencies. He combines this descriptive approach with the assessment of what competence-based training should be according to criteria of functionality for workers and society as a whole.

The paper by Agustín Ibarra-Almada deals firstly with the new demands regarding vocational training caused by technical change and the new forms of work organization. In the second part of his essay Almada presents the functioning, activities and achievements made by the Mexican Council of Standardization and Certification of Labour Competence (CONOCER).

Mónica Sladogna’s essay analyzes the way in which vocational training is present in the structure of the educational system in Argentina. She, then, focuses her study on the system of technical education and the incorporation of the competencies approach in comprehensive schooling (educación polimodal) and in vocational training programmes. An important part of this work is devoted to the National Institute of Technical Education (INET). The author highlights the experience of this institute regarding the links between education and labour as well as the competence based training programmes.

The next essay presents background information, technical features and primary results of the application of the competence-based approach in the Fábrica Nacional de Papel of Uruguay (FANAPEL). The author, Fernando Vargas Zúñiga is a consultant of Cinterfor/ILO in Labour Competence and as such he had a major role inthe restructuring process at FANAPEL.

George Gamerdinger documents, firstly, the challenges that vocational training institutions in the Caribbean face in order to provide adequate technical content to their programmes given present day labour requirements. Secondly, he describes how vocational training programmes of the region have incorporated the competence approach.

The article written by Bonifacio Perdraza López tackles the system of vocational qualifications in Spain. In this article he argues that such a system is a good example of how qualifications can be defined and articulated based on a methodology of functional analysis. Particular attention is given to how the productive sector demands are met as well as to the participation of social actors in vocational training.

Ute Laur-Ernst describes the German system of education and professional training. She highlights the dual character of this system (off the job training and on the job training) and the importance of social actors participation. The author argues that flexibility and standardization are not contradictory features of training systems.

The last article of this bulletin focuses on labour competence and was written by Marc Tucker and Betsy Brown. They analyze the development and implementation of a system of standardization and certification of competencies in the United States. The article describes the foundations on which the system is being built, identifies the obstacles it is confronting and, lastly, presents the achievements made so far.

After these articles there is a second section that presents short descriptive documents. Through them the reader can approach a wide diversity of experiences of competence-based training, which in many cases differ from those that were analyzed in depth in the previous section.

The first document presents INTECAP from Guatemala. The article was written by Edgar Barrios, director of the technical division of INTECAP.

The second article describes actions developed by INSAFORP from Salvador. This institution is now implementing a system of normalization and certification of competencies. This system intends to raise the training levels of the work force in Salvador.

Raúl Enrique Rossainz Zárate, responsible of STRM (Comisión Nacional de Capacitación del Sindicato de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana) and president of the , wrote the last article. The article describes the implementation of the system of identification, standardization and certification of competencies in the telecommunications sector in Mexico.

The bulletin ends with a book review. The book is a collection of presentations of the CONOCER Seminar held in Mexico in1999.

 

 

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