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BULLETIN 151
Decent work and vocational training

January-April 2001

 

(Full text available only in Spanish)

 

THIS ISSUE

Number 151 of the Inter-American Technical Boletín on Vocational Training is devoted to the close relationship that exists between the concepts of decent work and vocational training.

The notion of decent work, launched by the ILO Director General in 1999, has proved to be a useful tool to bring together various strategies and objectives, revaluing the ethical component of the world of labour, in times when old paradigms are being questioned. The fact that the new concept is essentially fertile is shown by the enthusiasm with which it has been welcomed by those involved in the debate and development of ideas in the realm of labour, who have analysed it from many different angles. Proposing decent work as a fundamental objective does not mean graciously granting a free gift but, quite the contrary, proclaiming it as the only valid way for societies to develop, for reincorporating into them excluded and underprivileged sectors, and boosting productivity and wealth. What the different articles of the present Boletín look into is precisely the kinship of vocational training with this concept. None of these papers is definitive, as they deal with a concept under construction, that no one can yet fully encompass and will no doubt bear new fruit in the near future. This number of the Boletín is but another contribution by Cinterfor/ILO to the task already initiated with the publication of the book Training for decent work. Many other actors will no doubt join in this effort.

By way of introduction, this Boletín starts with a succinct but weighty communication by Oscar Ermida Uriarte. He points to the implications of defining decent work and introduces vocational training as a fundamental human right, but also a strategy for economic growth, in that way bridging the false dichotomy between the interests of workers and those of employers. He likewise underlines the role played by vocational training in achieving the goal of decent work; in fact, training is an essential component of it. This is illustrated by the contribution of training as such in combating child labour, discrimination, the rolling back of social security services in the world, the problem of unwanted migrations. It is also a privileged way of increasing productivity and adding value to products, investing in knowledge and making it universal, as unavoidable corollary to the globalising paradigm.

The paper submitted by Philippe Egger and Werner Sengenberger, Decent work issues and policies, could very well be subtitled "the theory of links". The authors steer clear of generalising the theoretical pronouncements of constitutional texts, international conventions and treaties, although they take them as a basis to provide a political framework for the agenda of decent work. They reject the excessive universalisation of a concept they feel must be attuned to national and local realities, lest it be devoid of content. Along these lines, they build a multidimensional model resulting from the ten vectors that make up decent work (access to employment, fair and equal treatment, decent remuneration, fair labour conditions, safe work environment, social security, job and training opportunities, participation and motivation and a voice in collective bargaining) which they call "the people’s aspirations" (that figure in most textbooks on labour rights). They add the objectives pursued (decent work is one of them) and the political frame required to turn aspirations and goals into results. For that purpose, the authors propose a single road: the institutional one. Only institutions (public and private, national, local or international, belonging to employers or workers) are capable of overcoming the obstacles in the way. Only institutions can set themselves the right goals, make the necessary measurements and be properly monitored.

Madhuri Supersad, of the Ministry of Labour, Development of Human Potential and Industrial Relations of Trinidad & Tobago, points out that although the term "decent work" is not much used, it has many possibilities and is already embodied with different names in the objectives of the National Training Agency of T.&T.: support of underprivileged sectors, lessening of segregation, promotion of competence and quality principles and standardisation thereof in the Caribbean, endorsement of lifelong education, etc.

The contribution by Javier Ferrer Dufol conveys the employers’ viewpoint in that respect. Some differences can be detected in the vocabulary itself: the author prefers the adjective dignified to decent: "The expression decent work is not favoured by the employers’ sector", he explains, and further on he explains that no job can be considered undignified per se, "…despite the fact that there may exist social, cultural or economic structures that perpetuate undignified working conditions". In the second place, he vindicates globalisation, that he sees as irreversible, although not its consequences "that depend on the political responsibility of governments, on investments in education and infrastructures" He also ascribes great importance to training ("More than ever before, knowledge nowadays counters exploitation") as a positive factor in social and personal development and in the struggle against poverty and informality.

It is encouraging that from a union point of view, José Olivio Miranda Oliveira should gloss over the terminological differences of the preceding article and uses the terms decent work and dignified work as synonyms. Quite naturally, his presentation lays stress on freedom, representativeness and trade-union responsibility in the management of vocational training systems.

Regarding concrete results, Enrique Brú and Mario Hugo Rosal propose an operational framework to appraise decent work, of use not only for the Central American region but easily adaptable to other realities. It is a stride in the direction of measuring outcomes.

The "youth paradox", (i.e. the fact that never has a young generation been so well trained as the present one, in spite of which it accounts for a high percentage of the unemployed in the world) is the subject of Pekka Aro’s article. In such circumstances, the concept of decent work blends with the idea of a Youth Employment Network, on the understanding that vocational training has to play a fundamental role, but not an exclusive one, in the incorporation of young people into the societies whose future they represent.

In the following presentation Sara Silveira and Ana Clara Matosas focus on gender discriminations, that still persist although women workers are already 40% of the economically active population of our planet. Torn by the conflicts between family life and self-realisation (perhaps more than any other social group), women workers are driven towards informality and low remunerations, while the best educated among them try to break through the "glass ceiling" with which an age-old segregation is preventing them access to the executive jobs they are entitled to by rights. In that respect, vocational training must not only ensure them equal access to training, but also do away with the occupational segmentation by gender that discriminates them even before they reach the labour market.

The role of safety and hygiene in vocational training as promoters of decent work is analysed in the two following articles. Carlos Aníbal Rodríguez makes a persuasive analysis that goes beyond the usual economic and probabilistic considerations in that field He vindicates workers’ bodies as "subjects of feelings and intellectual creation" and not mere working tools, pointing to the shortcomings of vocational training in that respect, and suggests ways for managing and revaluing that kind of knowledge. Héctor Babace offers a detailed analysis of safety and hygiene hazards at work, and of the legal regulations adopted by different countries to prevent them. He then recounts what the SENA of Colombia is doing in connection with curricular training on the subject.

A study by Hugo Barreto Ghione centres on basic social protection and the rights of workers in firms and enterprises, as the real expression of the notion of decent work. Additionally, the author rejects the difference made between wage-earning workers and workers "driven", so to speak, into informality and out-sourcing by the new modes of production resulting form labour deregulation. He maintains that the aims of decent work include them all without exception, and should guarantee their rights.

Finally, there is an account of the intervention by María Carmen Ferreira at the closing session of the 35^th Meeting of the Cinterfor /ILO Technical Committee, held at Brassilia on 30^th August and 1^st and 2^nd September 2001, one of whose main topics was the relationship between decent work and vocational training. Also appended are two articles by Juan Somavía, ILO Director General: Reducing the deficit of decent work: a global challenge, that summarises the ILO General Conference of 2001, and Promoting decent work in times of uncertainty, a speech given at the Global Employment Forum in September the same year.

Together with Training for decent work, the contents of this Boletín are aimed at fleshing out the concept of decent work and underlining the role of vocational training in attaining it.

We hope it will help along in the debate of a subject that is by no means closed, and will serve as a signpost: "Men at work. Decent work: a concept under construction".

 

 

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