Report of activities Cinterfor/ILO 2001-2002

7. 35th MEETING OF THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

The Thirty Fifth Meeting of the Cinterfor/ILO Technical Committee was convened by the Director General of the International Labour Office and held at the city of Brasilia from 30th August through 1st September 2001, on the invitation of the Government of the Federal Republic of Brazil. It was co-sponsored by the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment through its Public Employment Policies Secretariat. It was attended by 204 participants from 25 countries of the region of the Americas and Spain, among them Labour and Education Ministries or their representatives, directors, high officials and members of vocational training institutions, employers’ and workers’ organizations, officials belonging to the ILO and other international organisations, national and international observers. Several of the national delegations were tripartite.

As usually happens in these Meetings of the Technical Committee, that bring together the highest vocational training authorities, subjects of fundamental importance for the activity of training institutes were approached. Besides analysing the activities implemented in the preceding two-year period, agreeing on lines of action for the 2001-2002 biennium and reviewing administrative and financial aspects of the Centre participants also considered the most important approaches and tendencies in the field of training that member institutions are interested in. Six sub-regional and sectoral groups were set up which issued statements that were included in the Report of the Meeting.

Decent work calls for decent training was the theme chosen for the cycle of presentations given at the Meeting. Opening addresses were made by Agustín Muñoz Vergara, at the time ad interim ILO Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Francisco Dornelles, Minister of Labour and Employment of Brazil during that period. Four panels were held in the course of the event, with presentations by distinguished specialists who referred to the subject chosen.

The presence of national authorities and technicians from participating countries, representatives of governments, employers and workers, national and international observers has awakened general interest in the deliberations and presentations of Cinterfor/ILO Technical Committee Meetings, beyond persons directly involved in the development of human resources and spreading to all levels of public opinion in the countries where they take place. This turns such events into creative and fraternal encounters of the peoples of the region on the themes of decent work and training for work and employment.

8. DISSEMINATION OF APPLIED TRAINING

8.1 The www.cinterfor.org.uy website

Cinterfor/ILO, as centre of research, dissemination and exchange of experiences in the field of vocational training, continues through its website with the task of disseminating and democratising information, experiences, innovations and technologies in the region.

In fact the Centre has been acquiring the profile as a storehouse for knowledge in the region and member countries. It already has a considerable amount of accumulated knowledge and information on crucial debates on issues such as participation of the social actors in training, coordination of public and private agents for structuring information services, training financing, the training of directors of training centers, impact evaluation methodologies for some programmes (young people, small and medium enterprises). This knowledge is available on the Centre’s website and has been of assistance to large numbers of users.

During this two-year period, and following recommendations made by the Cinterfor member countries at the 35th Meeting of the Technical Committee, Cinterfor/ILO continued to consolidate its website as a comprehensive source of vocational training information for the Americas, the Caribbean and Spain.

It has also paid special attention to updating the Vocational Training Map available on the web, to strengthen and consolidate exchanges among Latin American and Caribbean nations, providing guidance on successful VT experiences, disseminating information, experiences and methodologies, teaching materials and media, in particular technologies for mobile and distance instruction.

It has likewise continued to expand the Cinterfor/ILO virtual library by adding its latest publications (the website includes the full text of more than one hundred works that can be downloaded by users).

Efforts have proceeded for utilising the website as a tool to show the possibilities of the new information and communication technologies in VT, upgrading member institutions and offering practical cases for demonstration and applicability. Two distance courses and two virtual seminars were held in that connection.

E-learning courses were offered on Costs Analysis in VT Management, for personnel in the areas of planning, direction, budgeting and control of several VTIs of the region. The first course was given for participants from the Moron Bishopric of Argentina; SENAC, SENAI and SEST/SENAT of Brazil; SENCE of Chile; INA of Costa Rica; INSAFORP of El Salvador; FORCEM of Spain; INTECAP of Guatemala; INATEC of Nicaragua; SNPP of Paraguay; SENATI of Peru; INFOTEP of the Dominican Republic. The second course was delivered for employees of the SENCE of Chile, at the request of that institution.

The two virtual seminars organised in 2002 were as follows: I) Youth and training for employability: Development of key occupational competencies, and II) Impact Evaluation of Experiences in Occupational Training for Young People. The scope and results of these experiences can be found in Point 4 of this Report, Focalised VT Activities.

Several distance training activities via the web have been foreseen for the next biennium, as well as virtual seminar. They will be carried out in the new E-learning section of the website.

The amount of information available on the website had nearly a tenfold increase in the years 2001 and 2002, and the number of requests for information tripled, as did the number of users. According to the statistics of the Centre Server the number of visits in 2001 was 15,039,582. In 2002 it grew by 49% and reached 22,362,519. An average of 61,267 visits is recorded every day.

The following graph shows how the website has been offering users more information every day.

Project for reinforcing the Cinterfor/ILO website
in the English language and technical co-operation
with VT institutions in the English-speaking Caribbean

In January 2003 Cintefor/ILO started implementing a project for reinforcing its website in the English language and technical co-operation with vocational training institutions in the English-speaking Caribbean in the area of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

This project, financed by the Swiss Co-operation for Development (COSUDE) is an offshoot of the constant efforts made by the Centre in the creation, analysis and dissemination of information and knowledge on vocational training, that have led it to devote considerable resources to its publishing activities, and in recent years to developing its website.

The Cinterfor/ILO website (www.cinterfor.org.uy) is one of the most effective instruments the Centre has to reach its objectives. It includes the latest information on state of the art of VT in the region of Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain, and is an essential gateway for those wishing to keep up with events in the area. It would be no exaggeration to say that the site is the fullest interactive compilation of data and knowledge on VT in the Spanish-speaking world, with special emphasis on subjects such as occupational competencies, quality of training, training with a gender perspective, youth, training and employment, social dialogue on training, etc.

With this project, and by means of ongoing translation endeavours, the Centre is trying to make this large repository of information and knowledge available to the English-speaking public world wide, especially in Caribbean countries and their respective TVET bodies. The growing needs and demands of Cinterfor/ILO member states in the English-speaking Caribbean, as well as its numerous contacts in the U.S., Canada, the European Union and other regions of the world call for considerable expansion of the Centre’s website in English, one of the main objectives of the project.

A second important objective is the strengthening of Cinterfor/ILO technical co-operation with vocational training institutes of the English-speaking Caribbean in the use of ICTs.

This scheme is one more step along the road of constant efforts by Cinterfor/ILO to look after the needs of its constituents, in this particular case, member states of the English-speaking Caribbean. But it also affords the Centre the possibility of divulging in all the many regions of the world where English is spoken, the fertile VT experiences of the Latin American and Caribbean region, in that way enhancing the performance of the world training community through the exchange of information and knowledge.

The address of the Cinterfor/ILO website in English is: www.cinterfor.org.uy/english