Costa Rica: INA's Training and Technical Services Nuclei

The INA, of Costa Rica, has taken on the duties of advising and supporting producers of different sectors, whose tasks have been organised in the mould of Training and Technical Services Nuclei. The approach of these nuclei is sectoral and their aim is to strengthen the sectors producing goods and services, providing the firms with options regarding training, transfer of technology, technical assistance, technological information, project and prototype development, inter alia, in order to contribute to increasing their quality, productivity and competitiveness levels. These are units that are not technically concentrated; they bring about the convergence of different players and resources, facilitating dialogue and co-operation, at the same time as they make possible a deeper and more systematic awareness of the reality which is to be affected.

SENCICO, in Peru, besides rendering training services in the construction area, takes on other tasks:

• in research, seeking new construction technologies and to upgrade native technologies, and undertaking studies related to building, urban development and improvement of the habitat in general;

• in standardisation, working out and updating, through Specialised Technical Committees, standards for design and construction, which are incorporated into the National Building Regulations. The Committees are made up of representatives of various research institutions, universities and other institutions related to housing and construction.

• The aim of the Materials Testing Laboratory is to provide academic support to some careers linked to the construction sector, and it also renders services to users in the execution of materials quality control tests and soil studies for civil construction.

• Research is also carried out in the field of construction materials and soil technology.

SENATI, also in Peru, has adopted a strategy of diversification of its services towards the technological area which is methodologically different from that of other institutions. Although it does not possess technological centres per se, it provides advisory and technological information services, the former through forming ad hoc advisory teams upon the demands submitted by firms or groups of firms, and which are made up by the instructors of the institution as well as by external consultants, of which it has an updated and screened register. Technological information has been provided by holding events, one of the most important of which is the recently created "International Industrial Technology Congress,"where employers, professionals, technicians, workers, students and instructors are introduced to the main technological innovations which have arisen for the different productive sectors.

INCE, in Venezuela, has implemented recently an institutional innovation to establish Vocational Training and Technological Services Centres. The Centres are seen as "variability reducers" of productive sector technological demand, establishing the Institute’s position for its internal and external audiences, for which purpose it takes account of the demands of the regional universe of firms, as well as the intensive utilisation of installed capacity. In terms of research and development, the INCE has planned the following activities for its Centres: applied research; experimental development; adaptation-adjustment; design; simulation; unbundling of packaged technology; and technological studies or diagnoses. In the line of rendering technological services, it offers: technical assistance; consulting services; information, documentation and dissemination services; laboratory tests and essays; design and standardisation of methods of analysis and sampling; specification, selection, testing and start-up of equipment; and mediation.