Report of activities Cinterfor/ILO 2001-2002

4. FOCALISED VT ACTIVITIES

The implementation of activities addressed to population groups in disadvantageous situations, offering them an opportunity to improve their productivity and employability, is a natural priority for the Centre. In that respect, it has continued to develop programmes in response to current challenges of competitiveness and employability promotion for young people, low-income women, persons with different abilities, etc. fostering growth with social equity, so that men and women may have better possibilities of avoiding poverty through decent work.

Women and poverty

The growth of the non-structured economy as an almost exclusive source of employment for an increasing majority of the Latin American population – in which women are over-represented -, and the interdependence of the precariousness, lack of protection and low income levels of informal labour, as well as the inequity and social and economic vulnerability that continue to be characteristic of the female population, establish a definite link between women and poverty. For that reason, providing training institutions with an action model, methodologies and strategies validated for dealing with such realities is a sustainable and positive way of contributing to the reduction of poverty and specifically to the fight for attaining a more integrating and efficient model regarding decent work. Two projects have broached this task: the Regional Programme to Strengthen the Technical and Vocational Training of Low-income Women in Latin America –FORMUJER– and the Programme for the Promotion Equal Opportunities in Employment and Training –PROIMUJER. They have both taken as a guideline for action an improvement of the capacity to formulate personal projects, specifically the capabilities of poor women in this direction. To that end they have developed a package of methodologies and strategies that include training in gender, employability and citizenship integrated to the specific training for previously defined profiles according to the potential of target populations, work by occupational projects personalising the learning process, promoting the development of competencies and an ability to “learn to undertake” with the support of NGOs or gender specialists, and coordination with local and community development bodies and complementary strategies. Such strategies imply economic, cultural and organisational measures making up for the current and historic handicaps endured by women. This kind of intervention aims at going beyond mere assistance policies by subsidies, and turning the process of identifying needs and solving them collectively and institutionally into a didactic mechanism to strengthen the self-management and entrepreneurial abilities of women and to diversify their occupational options. It already has a wide repertory of strategies, that have also enriched institutions through coordination and complementation with other bodies.

Through application of these methodologies in training activities, 2500 women affected by poverty and social vulnerability have been trained under the FORMUJER programme, and another 560 in the PROIMUJER scheme, in more than 50 traditional and innovative job profiles. The number of beneficiaries is constantly increasing. Evaluations have shown an increment in the participants’ employability and their having developed occupational projects that enabled them to undertake individual or group productive initiatives, through a diversity of links with municipal and community organisations, other IDB programmes, etc. These strategies are currently being systematised and material is being developed to offer training in specific micro-enterprise management skills, in the framework of occupational projects.

Young people, training and employment

The Centre’s work has been preferentially channelled towards training institutes, ministries and agencies directly involved in the design, planning, implementation and/or evaluation of policies, programmes or projects for the young. It has endeavoured to improve the flow of information generated by Youth Training and Employment Programmes in Latin America by providing a space for communication, exchange and learning and by enhancing the quality, relevance and equity of such programmes from lessons learned in activities implemented in the region. It has promoted exchanges and discussions on the topic of young people, training and employment among the different actors concerned with a view to offering underprivileged young people equal opportunities for access to work. It has contributed to the store of knowledge on the subject through a website for interaction and the exchange of opinions.

In a context characterised by the constant expansion of new technologies into all areas of our societies, Cinterfor/ILO deemed it essential to take full advantage of the enormous potential of those instruments for holding seminars on the topic of Youth and Training. Along the co-operation lines established with the INJUVE (Youth Institute) of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of Spain, through its programme Youth and Training in Iberian America (RLA/02/M02/SPA), the Centre organised two virtual seminars: Youth and training for employability: Development of Key Competencies and Evaluation of the Impact of Occupational Training Experiences for Young People, that made it possible to exchange information and common concerns among the various countries, and disseminate experiences on training of the young, debating such critical aspects as institutional models, their management and development of evaluation research. These were the first experiences of the Centre in virtual seminars. Over 550 persons from 27 countries took part in them. Out of the 347 that had registered for the first seminar, 153 were active participants (about 45%) which shows the dynamic nature of the event. 245 people registered for the second one, and 115 of them participated actively (47%).

Youth Training and Employment
Titles published

- Cinterfor Bulletin 150. Capacitación Laboral de Jóvenes. (Occupational Training of Young People).

- Experiencias de Capacitación Laboral de Jóvenes en América Latina (Experiences in Occupational Training of Young People in Latin America) Document drafted for the International Seminar analysing the results of the Programme of Occupational Training for Young People and Workers at Enterprises (PROCAL). La Paz. Bolivia.

- Manual de evaluación de impacto en programas de formación para jóvenes. (Manual of impact evaluation in youth training programmes) CINTERFOR/ILO – INJUVE. Montevideo, 2001.

- Evaluación de impacto: un reto ineludible para los programas de capacitación juvenil. (Impact evaluation: an unavoidable challenge for youth training programmes). Montevideo, 2001.

- Boletín temático Nº 1. “La Juventud en América Latina y el Caribe según Panorama Laboral 2001-2002” (Young People in Latin America and the Caribbean according to Labour Review 2001-2002). Montevideo, 2002.

- Boletín temático Nº 2. “Trabajo decente y formación para jóvenes” (Decent work and training for young people). Montevideo, 2002.

- Alicia Naranjo Silva, Capacitación y formación profesional para jóvenes en Uruguay. (Training and vocational education for young people in Uruguay) Joint publication with the UNDP, 2002.

Youth and Training
Electronic publications

- CD ROM “Virtual seminars: I. Juventud y formación para la empleabilidad. Desarrollo de Competencias Laborales Claves (I. Youth and training for employability. Development of Key Occupational Competencies) II Evaluación de impacto en las Experiencias de Capacitación Laboral para jóvenes (II. Impact evaluation in Experiences of Occupational Training for Young People).

- Re-issue of CD ROM: “Juventud en el umbral del Siglo XXI” (Young People on the threshold of the 21st Century) in collaboration with the INFOJUVE-UNESCO youth information network.

- Re-issue of CD ROM Jóvenes formación y empleo (Young people, raining and employment).

Noteworthy among publications on the subject is the book “Youth and Employement in the Nineties” published in the series Tools for Transformation and the Manual for Impact Evaluation in Youth Training Programmes, prepared with the financial support of INJUVE and currently being printed. This has been the document in greatest demand
at the Cinterfor website. The Trade Union Guide on Youth and Employment issued
by the Centre is also being widely utilised as teaching aid in national seminars and workshops.

The sub-site on Young People, Training and Employment has 4,750 pages and an average of 8,900 daily visits. It includes a specific section on youth and gender with documents, experiences etc. Drawing attention to gender inequities may help in redressing the imbalance of opportunities and needs between young men and women.

A Cinterfor/ILO Youth Network operates in the Centre’s website whose News Bulletin has 9000 male and female subscribers. The site Interest List is a space for exchange and debate for users who wish to go deeper into subjects and can access specialised documents there. Through it, the Centre establishes close collaboration with similar mechanisms of other Iberian American organisations.

All the activities and results of Cinterfor/ILO in the youth area are a contribution to the ILO objectives in this field, particularly those of the high-level network established by the UN Secretary-General, the World Bank and the International Labour Office (ILO). The Centre also makes contributions to IFP/SKILLS in this area. In particular, it has provided it with information on impacts and results on the beneficiaries of ten successful experiences in youth training and employment in countries of the region, that were included in the database prepared by IFP/SKILLS as support material for the debates on new Recommendation 150, analysed by the 91st International Labour Conference in June 2003.

Cinterfor is currently making arrangements for the operation of an observatory of occupational training experiences for young people, for consultation via the Internet. This initiative has been taken in response to the need for a database of “best practices” implemented by vocational training institutions, ministries of labour and other official or civil society bodies in Iberian American countries for the training and employment of the young. It will include concrete cases utilising novel methodologies and showing positive results in the employment of young persons after training courses. The observatory will mainly provide feedback for experiences to enrich and adjust future programmes, improve the flow of institutional information and systematise lessons learned from Youth Training and Employment Projects in Latin America.

Youth Training and Employment
Participation in events

- International Seminar: “A proposal for the evaluation of youth training programmes”. Medellín, July 2001.

- 2nd International Youth Festival. Panama, July 2001.

- Working Group: Employment opportunities and challenges for youth training in the information and communication technology sector. Brasilia, August 2001 .

- International Encounter: “Youth Employment: Innovations versus Challenges”. La Antigua, September, 2001.

- International Youth Encounter CABUEÑES 2001. Gijón, Spain, September 2001.

- International Seminar: “Young people, unemployment and local development. Models and ideas for training and employment”. Montevideo, October 2001.

- Workshop on evaluation methodologies of results and impacts of VT. Montevideo, November 2001.

- Workshop on youth policies in Uruguay. Montevideo, December 2001.

- 1st Europe - Latin America Forum on Youth Studies. Barcelona, Spain, May 2002.

- Academic Meeting in the framework of project “Occupational training of non-university young people for Mexican regional development”. León, México, June 2002.

- International Seminar: “Training and employment of young people. Strengthening offer – Public policies – Institutional development”. Bogotá, July 2002.

- 1st Rural youth seminar in Latin America and the Caribbean and 2nd Latin American Youth Dialogue, Iretema, Paraná, Brazil, July 2002.

- Seminar–workshop on formulation of cooperation projects for strengthening employability competencies in young people. La Antigua. November 2002.

- National Seminar: “Trade-union strategies for the young”. Montevideo, November 2002.

- Seminar-workshop on Youth unemployment and employment policies. Montevideo, December 2002.

Finally, Cinterfor/ILO will publish a document on the role of training in local economic development processes, with special emphasis on the generation of opportunities for qualification and decent work for young people. On the one hand, this study deals with the conceptual and theoretical aspects of local economic development strategies, their characteristics and components, the role played by training in such strategies and the prospects and alternatives they offer the young regarding quality training and decent work. On the other hand, the document includes the preliminary results of case studies in local economic development in Latin America and Spain, focusing empirically on the following aspects: examples of good practices in the management of such processes; new institutional arrangements for training; methodological alternatives for training in general, and youth training in particular. The cases studied are: Agency for Technical and Vocational Education Development in the State of Paraná (PARANATEC), Brazil; Don Bosco Industrial Area, San Salvador, El Salvador; development of Community Tourism in Costa Rica; agribusiness and technological industries run by young people in Colombia; and Technological City of the Nalón Valley (VALNALON), Asturias, Spain.

In the 2001-2002 period the Centre took part in a number of youth events organised by different agencies, programmes and projects. All member institutions of Cinterfor/ILO collaborated in this connection.

During the period under review, three interns – two of them through a co-operation agreement with the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Québec and the third one from the ORT University of Uruguay – carried out studies at the Centre’s headquarters in the framework of Cinterfor/ILO youth activities. Periods of internship were six months each.

Population sectors with disabilities

The attention of population groups with disabilities is one of the Centre’s permanent concerns. In spite of not having specific funds for activities promoting the training and integration of those persons into labour markets, Cinterfor/ILO has made efforts and allocated resources for such purposes.

In that connection, it has supported events in Brazil and Uruguay about the integration of handicapped persons. Cinterfor has offered its logistic support and ensured the presence of foreign speakers on various aspects of training and disability. It has also prepared a CD including the thirteen modules of the series Standardised Integration into Occupational Training, a Process of Social Inclusion, published in the framework of Project RLA/94/M05/SPA (Standardised Integration of Persons with Disabilities into Latin American Vocational Training Institutions), with Cinterfor implementation.

Integration of persons with special needs
Events supported by the Centre

- Round Table on Integral rehabilitation of persons with disabilities, organised by the Inter-social Committee on Disability, Employment and Social Security (OMINT) and the National Honorary Committee for the Support of the Handicapped, (CNHD). Montevideo, 2002.

- Plenadi 2002 Regional Meeting. “Believing that you can make it possible, the impossible can be achieved”. Organised by the National Plenary of Associations of Disabled Persons (PLENADI). Rivera. Uruguay, 2002.

- 15th Meeting of Handicapped Persons and 8th Meeting of Handicapped Young Persons, Montevideo, 2002.

- Meeting of the Multidisciplinary Multisectoral Group on Mental Health and Work. Montevideo, March 2002.

- National seminar on The subject of disability and the world of labour. Brasilia, April 2003.