36th Technical Committee Meeting

Preliminary Report

REPORT OF THE CENTRAL AMERICA, PANAMA, CUBA AND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC GROUP

The group was integrated by representatives of the Ministries of Labor and Education and the Vocational Training Institutions of Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic; the names are listed at the end of the present report. The group discussions permitted to visualize a set of related topics that came forth during the interventions of each of the participants.

The group pointed out amongst various issues, some key ideas that are summarized in the following paragraph:

" The growing centralism presents the need to continue intensifying the efforts of horizontal cooperation among the institutions of this sub-region; not only because of their high degree of homogeneity reflected in the similarity of the problems they face but also because the features of the external environment impose it. As an example, the case of the commercial integration efforts of this zone can be mentioned with the resulting need to turn into a more competitive and productive region.

" Another topic was the acknowledgement of the impressive speed of changing taking place in the environment where the VTIs works, which requires new formulas to obtain knowledge and stay updated.

" The need to intensify the work in each country directed to improve the articulation between the institutions and other organizations and initiatives that perform in the field of vocational training and that usually does not integrate into a single concept causing a redundancy of efforts and duplication of expenditures.

" The high number of actions that institutions develop in the social context and that many times are not recognized by the national authorities or the international organizations involved in financing of vocational training projects.

" The growing integration between definition of employment and vocational training policies and the role of such institutions. Tools like observatories of employment and analysis of labor intermediation statistics were mentioned in this context.

" The influence that a diversity of wide scope topics exert on vocational training so institutions can be more dynamic in the analysis of their context and design appropriate responses.

Based on the exchange of opinions and initiatives, the work group rotated around three axis of knowledge:

" The topics to which the participants confer importance because they represent a topic that is challenging the institutions that are represented in the group.

" The role that participants wish to obtain as well as the demands for support that the group expects from Cinterfor/ILO.

" The structure of a proposal that addresses in a joint manner and with the support of Cinterfor/ILO, the challenges that have been identified.

The more important topics discussed were:

Following, without any purpose of being hierarchical or discriminative, the group analyzed the challenges to Vocational Training that demand answers from the Institutions and Ministries of Labor and Education:

1. Vocational Training and Regional Integration (around topics such as FTT and the expectations in other regions like MERCOSUR, CAN, CARICOM).
2. Quality Management in vocational training.
3. Vocational Training and Productivity (particularly the importance that employers acknowledge the impact of vocational training upon productivity).
4. Vocational Training and Local Development (including management of Micro and S&ME and the support to local productive chains).
5. Vocational Training and Employment Policies (disadvantaged groups, young people and women).
6. The use of Information and Communication Technologies in vocational training.
7. Vocational training in the rural sector or "new rurality".
8. Integration of education-vocational training in a perspective of a lifelong process.

The role of Cinterfor/ILO in support of the vocational training institutions.

The members of the group recognized the role achieved by the Centre as a facilitator for the exchange and divulgation of knowledge; throughout the deliberations they quoted various examples. Likewise they expressed their conviction on the necessity to commit to a jointly work as structured networks in connection with Cinterfor/ILO and the support given by means of their resources of information broadcasting.

The group agreed unanimously to ask Cinterfor/ILO to continue its support aimed at intensifying the dissemination of information that propitiates the functioning and communication of the network. This leadership of the Center is vital so that the different institutions initiate and maintain the efforts for integration and the exchange of experiences and innovations. The Center could act as a technical secretariat to facilitate the initiation of the information exchange on products that have been developed, experiences, strengths and capabilities that can be shared by the Institutions in the region.

Likewise the Center can continue to act as a facilitator for the development of new initiatives and the divulgation of experiences in the region that can be accessible to the institutions of the group.

The proposal for strengthening the institutional exchange of vocational training

There are many good antecedents of the work that has been facilitated at the level of this sub-region acting together with the vocational training institutions and Cinterfor; also their integration with cooperation offers from other countries has been received; nevertheless, it was deemed necessary for the institutions in this group to define the work areas for which the information and exchange of experiences is a priority.

This proposal aims to articulate a type of multi nodal network where the institutions in some cases will be the nodes of origin for information and support and in other instances will become the receptors of cooperation. Cinterfor will encourage the exchange and will make available its information channels and will support the web page, consulting and technical assistance.

Each institution will name a responsible person to gather and update the information that is required for this process. This responsibility comprises a greater commitment for the analysis of the information, the channels of information and the available knowledge required for institutional improvement.

A first trial will be undertaken to create a matrix based on the thematic areas that have been identified with the purpose of describing the institutions that can contribute and those that are interested in learning.

Such matrix will be proposed by Cinterfor/ILO and sent to the institutions.

The Center will draft the final matrix based on the responses and will send it back to the institutions.

Based on this, a first workshop on strategic planning will be held with the fundamental purpose of refining the results and defining concrete actions. The possibilities of actions that were mentioned include: realization of training workshops, technical visits, exchange of information and documentation, publications of technical products in the Internet.

The group accepted the offer of the Director of INFOP of Honduras to host this workshop in Tegucigalpa. The tentative date for the workshop is the first week of November 2003.

The General Director of INFOTEP also offered to invite the institutions of the group for the Vocational Training and Productivity Workshop to be held the last week of January 2004. The invitations follow the system usually utilized in the activities sponsored by the Center, according to which the host institution assumes the costs for boarding and lodging and the participants pay for air or land transportation.

This dynamic will generate a frequent exchange that, with the support of Cinterfor/ILO, will allow that national experiences and the products and achievements of each institution be shared and in doing so the spirit of horizontal cooperation that animated the group throughout the meeting will be perpetuated.

The group was integrated by the following participants:

Jorge Córdoba. INA. Costa Rica.
Anny Fuentes. INA Costa Rica.
Roger Carvajal. INA. Costa Rica.
Nestor Iglesias. Ministry of Labor and Social Security. Cuba.
Walter Palacios. Ministry of Labor. El Salvador.
Abigail Castro de Pérez. OEI. El Salvador.
Jorge Gallardo. INTECAP. Guatemala.
Edgar Alvarado. Ministry of Labor. Guatemala.
Ledvia Berganza. INTECAP. Guatemala.
Erwin Sosa. Ministry of Labor. Guatemala.
Sandra de Arevalo. Ministry of Labor. Guatemala.
Sayda Burgos. INFOP. Honduras.
Jorge Mejía Ortega. INFOP. Honduras.
José Efrén Castillo. Secretariat of Public Education. México.
Juan Cerna. INATEC. Nicaragua.
Cesar Membreño. INATEC. Nicaragua.
Anel Rodríguez. INAFORP. Panamá
Carlos Aquino. INFOTEP. Dominican Republic.
Nelson José Florentino. INFOTEP. Dominican Republic.
Fernando Vargas. CINTERFOR/ILO.

 

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