Modernization in Vocational Education and Training in the Latin American and the Caribbean Region

II. Training: an occupational, technological and educational issue

The relevance of training, within the labour relations systems of Latin America and the Caribbean, is today an indisputable fact. It suffices to consider the background of tripartite sectoral or national pacts or contracts on employment, productivity and labour relations that introduce training proposals; the growing number of collective agreements that explicitly incorporate training and skills development within their clauses; the development of labour laws referring both to the right to training and its implementation, or the appearance of various instances of dialogue and arrangements -bipartite and tripartite- in this field. The links of training with subjects such as productivity, competition, wages, occupational health, working conditions and environment, social security, employment and social equity, makes it increasingly a key element in present labour systems in the region.

Something similar can be said about the importance of training as a central and strategic component of innovation, development and technology transfer processes. Many vocational training institutions, as well as other fora arising more recently and operating in this field, are not restricted to providing a supply of training alone. Throughout the region it is already frequent to find diverse experiences of technological centres and services which these same bodies establish to offer a broader and more integral range of services, both to firms and to the community at large: laboratories for testing materials, product and process certification services, technology spreading events, specialised publications, data banks for technological resources and consultants in various areas, technical assistance and advisory services, inter alia. Likewise, some technological institutes have gone from focusing on the problem of research -development and adaptation of "hard" technology, such as materials, tools and equipment; and "soft" technology, such as information and computer programmes- to consider also everything regarding the management, development and training of human resources. This convergence is in no way a question of chance. It is already a part of common sense in the productive sphere that "human capital" is a central and defining component within the productivity and competitive strategies of firms and economic sectors. Training, therefore, appears on this scene as a fundamental tool both to develop this new technology and to take advantage of and use efficiently any other.

When we observe the present activities of various training bodies in the region we can see, among other aspects, that a broad and flexible supply of training has developed. One can find, within the curricula of these institutions, from initial training courses, through middle and upper courses, to offers of updating which could even interest university graduates. And, as though this were not enough, there arise countless examples of co-operation with other public bodies, such as Ministries of Education in the fields of middle level technical education, non-university technological education and adult education, with firms and co-operating bodies, with unions, with nongovernmental organisations, and so many other variations which it is impossible to record exhaustively in this document. It can thus be said that training has progressively reinforced an educational component which was always part of it, both through the supply itself of specialised institutions and through a greater interlocking and co-operation with other bodies, agencies and teaching methods at work in this area.

Therefore, labour relations, technology and education are fundamental dimensions of the present reality of training and, furthermore, areas in which the latter plays a decisive role. To analyse these dimensions and fields of action of training in greater depth, each one of them shall be dealt with below: training and labour relations; training and innovation, development and technology transfer processes; training and education throughout life.

 

 

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