COMPETENCY BASED TRAINING IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Recent developments. Some experiences. January, 2003

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A SUMMARY OF COMPETENCY BASED TRAINING EXPERIENCES IN LATIN AMERICA.

The Latin American organizational ambient, and the rapid transformations that have taken place particularly in the last decade as a consequence of the implementation of adjustment policies, economic opening and industrial restructuring, have made it necessary to transform the content, structure and intensity of training programs. As frequently is the case in these times and in this globalized world, demand does not wait.

This is why there was recognition, a few years ago in some countries and only a few months ago in others, of the need to initiate sweeping reforms in the structure of institutions and models of education for work. In many cases this has led to the development of systems of competency standardization and certification.

For easier understanding, the known experiences3 can be divided into four groups:

i) Experiences promoted by training institutions
ii) Experiences promoted from the business sector
iii) Experiences promoted by Ministries of Labour and Education
iv) Experiences promoted by the unions

1. COMPETENCY BASED TRAINING IN VOCATIONAL TRAINING INSTITUTIONS4

Vocational training institutions in Latin America have begun to modernize their programs using the competencies focus. This has facilitated new approximations in the analysis of work processes, and novel procedures for establishing the knowledge, skills, dexterities and know-how mobilized by workers. This is an unparalleled opportunity to bring up to date both the content of training and the didactic strategies necessary to stimulate competencies that are considered "key", like working in a team, initiative, working in safe conditions, etc.

More recently, thanks to the experience of certain institutions, it has been generally accepted that the competency focus applied to training has opened up a very good opportunity to bring models of institutional management up to date. As will be seen below, the case of INTECAP, for example, is a good illustration of the application of this focus in needs identification processes and the structuring and execution of training responses.

An account of some examples of the application of the competency focus in training institutions is given below.

The National Industrial Training Service (SENAI) in Brazil (www.senai.br) has set in motion the National Strategic Competencies Project: Training and Certification. This involves developing vocational certification methodologies which take the competency focus as a foundation, preparing new work methodologies, training a SENAI technical team, and contributing to the advance of vocational education in Brazil.

In order to develop pilot applications for identification, standardization, training and competency certification, nine regional provinces in nine states (Bahía, the Federal District, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo), have been selected for the project.

The technological fields in which the project works are foodstuffs, automobiles, civil construction, electricity, electronics, telecommunications, textiles and mechanical engineering. Employing a strategy of institutional work which involves the regional provinces mentioned above, groups of directors, professionals and technicians, working with instructors, have taken part in occupational workshops which has led to the preparation of the following methodologies:

• Sectorial technical committees: structure and functioning
• The preparation of vocational profiles
• The preparation of curriculums based on competencies
• The evaluation and certification of competencies

The process of competency identification is based on setting up sectorial technical committees. The existence of a committee facilitates a participative process which tends to make the detection of training needs and the definition of occupational profiles more relevant.

The dialogue experience of the technical committees in the SENAI:

The committees are conceived of as technical organs to support the updating and the operation of the vocational education system. Their objective is to establish vocational profiles based on competencies. They are made up of the manager of the operational unit from SENAI, specialists from the technological sector, representatives from the industrial sector, from the SENAI and from the academic world, specialists in research and in vocational education, union and company representatives, representatives of technical reference associations from the segment studied, and the government. The administrative coordination of the committee is exercised by the manager of the operational reference unit in the technological area studied.

The project is currently in its expansion phase, and the work teams which participated in the definition of the methodological documents will spread this knowledge to ensure that the other regional provinces start work in training by competencies.

The concept of labour competency in the SENAI: "the mobilization of the knowledge, skills and professional attitudes necessary for the performance of typical activities or functions, in line with the standards of quality and productivity required by the nature of the work ".

The SENAI is also working on the design of a certification system which will allow recognition of competencies acquired as a result of work experience, and so facilitate access to training in those areas of performance in which the worker lacks the required competencies. For this, there is a work team which is responsible for analyzing the different possibilities, making contact with other institutions connected to certification, and making progress in the proposal of a model.

The National Training Institute (INA) in Costa Rica (www.ina.ac.cr) is a vocational training body which in 1997 developed a pilot scheme using labour competency methodology, with advice from of the ILO Training Center in Turin. The test was carried out in the hotel and tourism sector because this is important in the national economy, it is one of the sectors which brings in most foreign currency and contributes most to the national product.

The results made it possible to draw up the functional map and the competency areas to be defined in units. There is participation and support from the management sector, which is convinced that this is the way to attain a higher level of competitiveness in this "smokeless" industry.

THE CONCEPT OF CERTIFICATION BY COMPETENCIES IN THE INA: A process by which there is official recognition of the skills, knowledge and attitudes of a worker of either gender, regardless of how these might have been acquired. The certification is done on the basis of the norm of labour competency. Implicit in certification is an evaluation process which precedes it.

 

 

 

 

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3. This is not intended as an exhaustive list; we have only mentioned experiences we have heard of , we do not claim they are the only ones.
4. In spite of the fact that in almost all cases these experiences are governmental, they have been treated separately because of the identity of the training institutions and their autonomy of programs.

The Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (ILO/Cinterfor)
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