Decent work & vocational training

11. Vocational training is currently considered to be a fundamental right of workers – recognised as such in numerous Pacts and Declarations of human rights, as well as by an increasing number of Constitutions. At the same time it is an economic instrument that is part of employment policies and of the productivity and competitiveness strategies of enterprises. All this, combined with the fact that in the society of knowledge the role of education, training and lifelong learning is essential, makes it evident that nowadays it is impossible to aim at decent work without vocational training.

Additionally, vocational training is closely related to the features or elements that the ILO deems to be essential components of decent work:

• equality or non-discrimination increasingly depends on access to education and vocational training, as well as to ongoing training, (25)
• the importance of training for the employability of workers , as well as for their adaptability and possibilities of retaining a job, hardly needs justification,(26)
• the link of training to social protection has been underscored by European trade unions and reflected in ILO documents as "the need to promote ongoing education for those who risk exclusion, in view of the growth of the society of information, as well as for older workers",(27)
• the ever closer tie between social dialogue and training has been highlighted and turned into an ILO mandate, in the Resolution on the development of human resources adopted by the International Labour Conference of 2000.(28)

In some of the documents quoted above vocational training has been included – sometimes under the guise of "development of human resources"- in the notion of decent work.(29)

 

II.1  Vocational training as a fundamental right.

12. If decent work is that in which the rights of workers are respected, it seems clear that to achieve it those claims have to be met, in particular the ones that are part of human rights or fundamental rights.

In that connection, Amartya Sen has pointed out that introduction of the notion of decent work and its promotion as an objective or purpose, underline the importance of working conditions and labour rights at a time when they were perhaps losing influence or might be questioned, in view of widespread unemployment and the consequent inducement to create jobs, whatever their quality. The ‘decent work’ proposal prevents "unemployment solutions from being used as an excuse for depriving employed persons of reasonable work conditions".(30)

But Sen goes further. In his opinion, the second conceptual characteristic of the ILO initiative in favour of decent work is that it insists on the recognition of rights, (not just compliance with those embodied in current labour legislation, or the introduction of new rights) but acknowledgement of the existence of fundamental rights that must be recognised although they may not be proclaimed by the legislation, but lie at the root of all decent societies.(31)

13.Indeed, the right to vocational training has been recognised not only in comparative legislation, in Constitutions and international standards, but is part of that repertory of human rights or fundamental rights.

In fact, it is beyond argument that nowadays "education and training are the right of everybody", as categorically stated in paragraph 8 of the Resolution on the development of human resources of the 88^th Meeting (2000) of the International Labour Conference.

The right to vocational training has been recognised and institutionalised within the system of fundamental human rights through universal, international, regional or local international standards on human rights, as well as through international labour standards and national Constitutions.(32)

In consequence, the right to vocational training is embodied in the text of many of the most outstanding universal and regional Declarations and Agreements on human rights. Among others, the following:

1. ILO Constitution (Preamble, 1919, and Philadelphia Declaration, 1944);
2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNO, 1948);
3. American Declaration of Human Rights and duties (OAS, 1948):
4. OAS Charter (1948, modified several times since 1967):
5. European Social Charter (Council of Europe, 1961):
6. International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNO, 1966):
7. Convention of the Americas on Human Rights (OAS, 1978);
8. Protocol to the Convention of the Americas on Human Rights, or "San Salvador Protocol (OAS, 1988);
9. Community Charter of Fundamental Rights of Workers (European Union, 1989);
10. European Union Treaty (latest version: Amsterdam Treaty, 1997);
11. Social and Labour Declaration of the Mercosur (1998);
12. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000).

Likewise, the Constitutions of many countries include the right to training in the repertory of fundamental rights: among others, those of Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Uruguay and Venezuela.(33)

Vocational training has therefore been accepted as a fundamental human right in the main international Agreements and Declarations, and in the Constitutions of a considerable number of countries of the Americas and Europe (34) and is then a principle that decent work has to abide by.

14. But besides being a basic human right – which is by itself sufficient reason to maintain that a job that does not provide training opportunities cannot be considered decent – vocational training has close links with other fundamental labour rights, and may condition the effectiveness of some of them.

In effect, as we shall see below, the very right to work is increasingly dependent on vocational training. The same can be said about the right to proper working conditions and to just remuneration. To a great extent, the right to non-discrimination in employment is more likely to be attained by adequately trained workers. Vocational training also has close ties with social dialogue and with collective bargaining.

In other words, vocational training is a fundamental human right and must be considered as such, along with other rights that have to be respected in decent work; but at the same time it is an instrument that facilitates and sometimes conditions the attainment of other rights that are also part and parcel of decent work.

15. On the other hand, the right to vocational training does not only contribute to the shaping of decent work – as we have just explained – but it is educationally a formative element in people’s lives, an instrument for the enrichment, self-fulfilment and development of individuals, and through them, of society at large. In the world of labour vocational training – just as education in the global society – is a prerequisite for citizenship, the enjoyment of rights and self fulfilment.(35)

This higher –truly superior – dimension of training is expressed in paragraph 4 of article 1 of International Labour Convention 142 (1975) on the Development of human rights, which states that vocational training and guidance policies and programmes "shall be aimed at upgrading individuals’ aptitudes to understand their working and social environments and effectively influence them, individually and collectively". It has in fact been highlighted that Convention 142 sets forth the anthropocentric nature of vocational training, insofar as it proclaims the right of workers to promote their personal development.(36)

So that vocational training is not only an integral part of the concept of decent work, but it surrounds it, helping to form an envelope that makes it viable. There will be no decent work without democracy, social justice and citizenship. And there will be none of those without education, vocational training included.

 

24. STAN DING, Guy, Op. cit. p. 39.
25. ILO, Decent work for women... cit. p.14.
26. ILO, Globalising Europe... cit. p. 28.
27. Ditto, p. 27.
28. Resolution on the Development of human resources, adopted at the 88^th Meeting (2000) of the International Labour Conference, paras. 18 to 20.
29. SOMAVIA, Juan, Decent jobs for all in a globalised economy.... cit. para 30; ILO, Proposal for a decent work programme.... cit. p.p. 38 to 40, 42 and 68.
30. SEN, Amartya, Work and rights, International Labour Review, Geneva 2000, vol. 119 Nº2, p. 131.
31. This concept coincides with the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Labour Principles and Rights, adopted at the International Labour Conference of 1998.
32. BARBAGELATA, Héctor-Hugo, (ed.) BARRETO GHIONE, Hugo and HENDERSON, Humberto, El derecho a la formación profesional en las normas internacioales, Cinterfor/OIT, Montevideo 2000, p.11.
33. Ditto, pp. 35-36 and 161 and ff. pp.
34. Dito, p. 43.
35. In Law, a person is the subject of rights, the holder of rights, he who knows them and can exercise them.
36. GARMENDIA ARIGÓN, Mario, Legislación comparada sobre formación profesiona. Una visión desde los convenios de la OIT, Cinterfor/OIT, Montevideo 2000, pp.20-22.

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