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

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INSAFORP in El Salvador designed and put forward a National Training and Certification System.

As part of its five-year plan for 2000-2004, the Salvadorian Vocational Training Institute (INSAFORP) (www.insaforp.org.sv) has introduced an organisational development plan that focuses on competency-based training and the design and promotion of a National Training and Certification System.

One of INSAFORP's most important functions is to organize, develop and coordinate the system of training and updating human resources, and to this end it has proposed a "Standardization and Competency Certification System" which has the following general characteristics:

• A system focused on demand and based on results.
• A system that would make greater institutional coordination possible in the middle term, and also allow greater permeability between companies and training services.
• A system of standardization and competency certification which would provide the market with reliable and appropriate information about what individuals know how to do in the field of work.
• A system which would provide better quality flexible programs, relevant to the needs of the population and of industry.
• A system more amenable to updating and adaptation.
• A system which sees training as a long term process which embraces the entire productive life of the individual, and would facilitate the development of competencies so as to give workers more chance of making personal and professional progress
• The implementation of pilot programs in different sectors of the national economy aimed at defining norms and processes. These are then fed back into the design of the system for subsequent implementation at national level, and then for implementation progressively in all sectors of the economy

The main guidelines of the proposal consist of:

• The definition and integration of technical norms of labour competency
• The establishment of a competency certification system which would enjoy social credibility and wide acceptance in the work market

In 1999, in order to structure the proposal, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security signed an agreement with the INSAFORP in which they underlined their common thinking on the country's need to have human resources that are properly qualified and certified.
Conceived of in this way, the project is oriented as a tripartite body whose mission will be to raise the levels of competency of human resources in the context of criteria of human and technical performance, so as to generate better conditions of competitiveness in industry and worker employment in a scenario of regional integration, economic opening and the globalization of the economy.

DACUM and SCID are being applied as tools for identifying competencies and for designing training programs. The results that have been obtained through the application of these methodologies include the following:

• 11 competency profiles in the automobile mechanics sector
• 4 competency profiles in the plastics sector
• 2 competency profiles in the construction industry
• 1 competency profile for the commerce sector
• 1 competency profile for the electricity sector
• 1 competency profile in the crafts sector

The design of the system includes the development of five sub-processes, which are standardization, training, evaluation, certification, and the study, research and monitoring of the labour market. This last sub-process will be concerned, among other things, with giving follow up and evaluating the results of vocational training.

"The technical norms of labour competency give workers reference points so they are able to measure their intellectual capital in terms of what industry expects, in the efficient, quality performance of a productive function; on meeting the standard, the worker guarantees to employers that his performance is efficient and of good quality, and that he is better able to understand the change and adaptation processes which modern organizations require of him." Raymundo Soto, consultant.

A number of pilot projects are being set up to get the system going in companies or groups of companies that are representative of a sector or area of competency. Initially it will involve the services sector and the occupational areas of electricity and automobile mechanics. The pilot plan covers four sectors of production; textiles, mechanical engineering, electricity and automotive, and from these 4 functional maps and 2 competency norms should be obtained for each sector, to finally give a total of 8 norms and 8 labour competency evaluation instruments.

In December 1999, the INSAFORP subscribed to an agreement to cooperate with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in the design and implementation if a system of standardization and competency certification, whose mission is to improve the competency of human resources so as to attain productivity and competitiveness in the economy and enable it to meet the challenges of globalization.

Mexican consultants are advising the INSAFORP on the preparation of operating rules under which the competency standardization and certification system will be implemented.

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