REPORT OF ACTIVITIES CINTERFOR/ILO
2001-2002

 

3. DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL VT SYSTEMS AND FRAMEWORKS

The importance of vocational training in the economic and social life of countries is made evident by its extraordinary capacity for development and renewal. The Report for the previous two-year period already bore witness to how most countries of the region had shown a keen interest in exploring and incorporating new models to make training more relevant.

Cinterfor/ILO has continued its task of storing and disseminating information that may facilitate the institutional development of training. New demands by workers and enterprises have resulted in a tendency towards the modernisation of systems for identifying training needs, designing training programmes and implementing training activities. New teaching approaches take into account the competencies required for a successful occupational life, and efforts are being made in practically all the region to adapt programmes to such realities.

Vocational training and the process of lifelong learning

One of the most interesting current tendencies in the field of training is offering training options within a philosophy of lifelong education. During the present biennium Cinterfor/ILO has been keeping track of efforts in this direction made by different countries in areas such as basic occupational competencies, levelling studies, the recognition of skills acquired at work, the coordination of education with labour, etc. i.e. all aspects contributing to an occupational career in the life of persons.

The VTIs of some countries have instruments facilitating such purposes, although many of them might be better channelled towards a goal of lifelong education. In some cases the existing training legislation grants training graduates a similar level to that of secondary school leavers of formal education. In other countries efforts are being made to give consistent recognition to competencies acquired at work.

Experiences like that of the programme “Chile califica” (www.chilecalifica.cl) (see box) are becoming widespread. This scheme is being developed since 2002 with participation by the Ministry of Labour, SENCE, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Education. It includes several components in a search for coordination between the realm of education and that of labour, favouring the standardisation of knowledge in adult workers, the recognition of skills acquired at work and the implementation of technical education and training by competencies. On the invitation of the World Bank, a Cinterfor/ILO consultant joined the follow-up and evaluation team of this programme in April 2003.

The “Chile califica” (Chile qualifies) programme A system of lifelong education This programme is a joint initiative by the Chilean Ministries of Education, Economy and Labour, co-financed by the Government of Chile and the World Bank, to implement a system of ongoing education and training in the country. Its components are as follows and illustrate the systemic nature of its design: Levelling studies: opportunities for standardising the basic and intermediate educational level of adults. Occupational training: improving workers’ possibilities of access to a job by means of modern instruments like tax exemptions and e-learning. Upgrading technical training: coordinating technical training with the demands of the productive sector through networks linking the world of training with that of production in specific territorial and subject areas. Establishing technical itineraries marking a progressive route among different training levels. Providing further training and updating for technical instructors. Certifying occupational competencies: developing the competencies required for accessing jobs and making occupational progress in them. In summary, coordinating legal frameworks, work itself and other components to achieve results that would be inaccessible for isolated individuals.

 

In Mexico, a National Council of Education for Life and Work has been created (Spanish acronym, CONEVYT), (www.conevyt.org.mx), aimed at coordinating the efforts of different institutions to bring about an environment conducive to lifelong training.

Cinterfor/ILO has been storing and circulating information on such efforts and other complementary activities like the production of distance training programmes by means of the new information technologies, or the recognition and certification of competencies, all of them in connection with ongoing training options.

CONEVyT and ongoing training in Mexico - CONEVYT submits study plans and programmes for continuing education for life and work to the Public Education Secretariat. - It coordinates and harmonises the policies and mechanisms of the different public institutions dispensing non-school education and occupational training to young people and adults in the country. -It brings together, promotes and fosters additional sources of financing with public, social and private sectors, as well as with international education organisations. - It evaluates the quality, efficiency and impact of educational programmes and models, on the basis of information and indicators provided by qualified third parties. - It encourages research on the improvement of educational processes. - It promotes dissemination and expansion of a culture of open-ended, flexible and distance educational systems. - It favours the establishment and implementation of flexible structures for accreditation, certification, equivalence and revaluing of studies and occupational competencies.

 

Strengthening of training based on competencies

The Centre offers VTIs of the region a broad base for information and consultation on the organisation of training and new methodological prospects for the design of programmes, as well as promotion and support in schemes in which it is participating directly, like FORMUJER and PROMUJER.

The pages of the Cinterfor/ILO website devoted to training by occupational competencies include 1159 files and recorded over one hundred and fifty thousand visits during the two-year period.

Support activities through training action included a wide range of activities, comprising more than twenty seminars and workshops on occupational competencies. In some of them the Centre acted in coordination with the ILO International Training Centre at Turin.

The use of information technologies is also noteworthy among Cinterfor activities in this area. For example, the subject of competencies was widely discussed in the two virtual forums on Youth, Vocational Training and Employment held at the Cinterfor/ILO website in 2002. Videoconferencing on occupational competencies was established on various occasions from Cinterfor Headquarters to cities like Turin, Lima and Brasilia.

Training by competencies Teaching material - El enfoque de competencia laboral (The occupational training approach). Training manual. 2001. - Competencia laboral: Manual de conceptos, métodos y aplicaciones en el sector salud. (Occupational competency. Manual of concepts, methods and applications in the Health Sector). 2002. - Género y formación por competencias: aportes conceptuales, herramientas y aplicaciones. (Gender and training by competencies. Conceptual contributions, tools and applications) Formujer Programme, 2003.

The Centre’s publications have lent support to the subject in two main ways: through research and analysis articles, and through several manuals on the competency approach and its applications.

Development of national VT frameworks

This area has shown greater vitality insofar as reforms have become consolidated strengthening competencies-based training, the recognition of skills and competencies and the approchement of education and training systems. The countries that have started defining national VT frameworks have undertaken an arduous task, systematically adding further components to the discussion of the scope of training by competencies.

Subjects like analysis of the National Classification of Occupations and its role as reference for competencies in countries, or the equivalences between academic careers and certificates in a consistent frame of reference, are currently being discussed. For instance, the INFOCAL Foundation of Bolivia has adopted a classifier based on competency levels and areas of performance incorporating a gender perspective; the SENAI of Brazil is working on a project for updating the Brazilian Classification of Occupations with the Ministry of Labour; the SENA of Colombia has adopted a National classification and is endeavouring to extend it to statistical areas and especially as a reference for its training offer; in Chile, in the framework of the “Chile califica” programme, and together with the Ministry of Labour and the Project Executing Unit, SENCE is studying different possibilities for updating the National Classification of Occupations and associating it with the national system of competencies. In the English-speaking Caribbean, the HEART/NTA of Jamaica has a national framework with five levels of qualification that is widely accepted and utilised by the CARICOM(1) to promote manpower mobility and recognition of competencies.

Seminars and training in occupational competencies - International seminar: Occupational Competency, Training and Employment. Ministry of Labour. Panama, June 2001. - Workshop: Definition of training and certification methodologies by competencies. SENAI. Rio de Janeiro, December 2001. - Workshop: Training based on competencies and quality in training. Asociación de Entidades de Capacitación. (Association of Training Bodies). Montevideo, December 2001. - Competencies management in the context of health reform. Santiago, Chile, October 2002. - International seminar: Training and Certification based on Occupational Competencies. SENA. Medellín, October 2002. - Vocational Certification. A differential factor on the labour market. SENAI. Belo Horizonte, March 2003. - SENA Seminar on Quality, Flexibility and Efficiency. Medellín. April, 2003. - International Seminar: Librarians and their occupational competencies. ILO Buenos Aires Office. April, 2003. With the International Training Centre, Turin. - Standardisation, Training and Certification by occupational competencies. INSAFORP. El Salvador. May, 2001. - Labour market information and management of training systems. Turin. June, 2001. - Standardisation and certification of competencies. SENAI. Belo Horizonte, October, 2001. - Training Course on Competence based curriculum development. Barbados, November 2001. In co-operation with IFP/SKILLS and ILO sub-regional Office for the Caribbean. - Standardisation, Training and Certification of Occupational Competencies. Tegucigalpa and Mexico City. April, 2002. - Human resources’ management by competencies. Torreón. July, 2002. - Management of training and certification systems by competencies. Turin. September, 2002. - Competencies in the public sector. Mexico City. April 2002. - Management of human resources by competencies. Saltillo, Mexico. May 2003.

Cinterfor has been documenting these experiences and making them available to VTIs, that are increasingly interested in availing themselves of this instrument for modernising labour markets.

Certification systems

The recognition of qualifications acquired at work has become a challenge for VTIs. As early as the nineteen seventies, several training bodies developed mechanisms for validating skills learned through experience. The need to recognise such competences is nowadays connected with various aspects of public employment and training policies, such as the transparency of degrees, equity and access to educational programmes, as well as acknowledgement of the know-how derived from work.

The emergence in various countries of environments for ongoing learning is pressuring towards the establishment of systems for certifying competencies. It is also necessary to improve mechanisms for ensuring quality and obtaining reliable certifications, valued by workers and employers alike.

In the last couple of years, action for defining and/or improving competence-based training and certification systems has taken place in a significant number of countries, led by national VTIs. Without making a comprehensive enumeration, we may mention in Central America activities by the INFOP of Honduras, INSAFORP of El Salvador, INA of Costa Rica, INAFORP in Panama. In South America, SENAC and SENAI in Brazil, SENA in Colombia, INCE in Venezuela. In other cases, the leadership of the State has occurred through Ministries of Labour and Education, as with the SENCE of Chile through a project in which the private sector is also taking part (Chile califica); or in Argentina, where the Ministry of Labour is supporting a project that involves four sectors of the economy (food industry, automotive industry, metal mechanics and graphic arts).

There have also been instances in which the private sector has promoted the establishment of certification systems, like the Paraguayan Construction Chamber (CAPACO), the Technological Development Centre of the Paper Industry (CENPAPEL) of Colombia, or the Hospitality Institute of the hotels and tourism sector of Brazil. The trade-union sector of Brazil, through CUT and Força Sindical, is also constantly analysing conceptual progress in this area and offers a favourable environment for social dialogue on training and the valuing of learning.

Competencies certification Titles published - Bulletin Cinterfor Nº 149. Occupational competencies in vocational training. 2001. - Observatory of experiences in training and certification by competencies. (www.cinterfor.org.uy/ competencias/observatorio) - Bulletin Cinterfor Nº 152. 2002. “Occupational competence and valuing of learning” Includes articles on the subject; covering the region, the United States and Europe. - Four assertions on certification, all of them false. In: Training, Productivity and Decent Work, Cinterfor Nº 153 Bulletin, 2002. - Tendencies in the recognition of skills and certification. Competence based training frameworks in the perspective of the English-speaking Caribbean. In : Training, Productivity and Decent Work, Cinterfor Nº 153 Bulletin, 2002. - Some comments on proposals for the creation of national vocational training systems. May 2003. (Electronic version in website)

In the course of the two-year period under review, Cinterfor/ILO has supported efforts for the design and improvement of certification systems in practically all countries of the region that have embarked upon such undertakings.

In the last five years and within the framework of a Programme for the Modernisation of Technical Education and Training (Spanish acronym: PMETyC), the CONOCER programme was established in Mexico (www.conocer.org.mx). The programme has considerably promoted the recognition of competencies and certification systems by means of verification and quality assurance. Processes of standardisation and certification of competencies, as well as the creation of a variety of certifying and evaluating centres bear witness to the scope of the effort made in this direction. CONOCER has leaned toward the management of human resources on the basis of competencies; for example it has instituted a diploma for the public sector facilitating adoption of this approach in occupational careers.

As indicated earlier, in the English-speaking Caribbean the Certification System developed by the HEART/NTA of Jamaica on the basis of competencies has been conceptually and operationally adopted as a reference by countries that are beginning with similar schemes, like Barbados, St. Lucia or Trinidad & Tobago. This sub-region has a clear idea of the importance of labour mobility for the trade integration process promoted by the CARICOM and in the perpective of ALCA.

The participation of Cinterfor/ILO in different seminars and its undeniable involvement of this subject with those of competency-based training and national training frameworks, have boosted the Centre’s work regarding labour competencies. Nowadays, its observatory of training experiences and training chart enable users to get information on the structure and activities of Training Institutions and Systems in the region and in several European countries.

Qualitative and quantitative progress in national discussions on certification systems has considerably enlarged the critical mass of accumulated knowledge and has clearly shown the value of institutional arrangements -eg. Training Institutions- for generating and storing knowledge.

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1 English acronym of the Caribbean Common Market.

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