2. How was the competency-based training approach first applied?

To facilitate an answer, several national cases are introduced in order to explain the characteristics and the objectives sought when structuring their training systems with the labour competency approach. The experiences refer to the emergence of the systems of standardisation, training or certification of labour competencies and not to the theoretical background of the competencies approach.

The National Qualifications and Vocational Training System of Spain, created by Organic Law 5/2002, is the result of the work done in the field of training and it begins with the signing of the economic and social agreement between the government, workers and employers in 1984. Subsequently, Spain has had two great national vocational training programmes; the first one in 1993 and the second one in 1998. After these experiences the need for the creation of a National Qualifications System was defined. The national training programmes, especially the second one, aimed at increasing the quality of training, improving the qualifications of the active population, promoting transparency in the labour market and a better structural adjustment between labour supply and demand. A distinctive factor of these programmes is the extensive participation of employers and workers in their design.

This task is particularly important in view of the need to create coordination links between the three main training modalities in Spain, namely:

Initial vocational training, within the educational cycle and reaching the top intermediate or higher technical level of any profession.
Occupational vocational training which focuses on unemployed workers with the aim of developing the necessary qualifications for them to return to work.
Continuing training, directed to employed workers with the aim of updating and requalifying them.

In 1986 the National Qualifications System was created with the main objective of promoting and developing the proposals of integration of vocational training offers, as well as the assessment and certification of the corresponding professional competencies. Then it was amended by the laws of 1997 and 2000. As part of the System, the National Council of Vocational Training is the body that through the participation of social partners provides counselling to the government regarding vocational training.

The System has sought to favour principles such as personal development and the free choice of a profession, equal access to training, tripartite participation (employers, workers and government) and the promotion of economic development.

In 1999 the National Institute of Qualifications (INCUAL (1), Instituto Nacional de las Cualificaciones) was created as a body of technical support to the National Council of Vocational Training (Consejo Nacional de Formación Profesional) in charge of defining and keeping the National Qualifications Catalogue (Catálogo Nacional de Cualificaciones) updated together with the corresponding Modular Catalogue of Vocational Training (Catálogo Modular de la Formación Profesional).

Some of the main functions of INCUAL are:

Define, prepare and keep the National Catalogue of Professional Qualifications
updated together with the corresponding training, which is
organised in its Modular Catalogue of Training.
Establish a reference framework of the overall scheduling of all the subsystems.
Develop technical activities to support vocational training.
Run a Professional Observatory that may act in a network with other
sectoral observatories.

The National Qualifications Catalogue is a core instrument of the System and it is a shared point of reference for those in charge of the design of training programmes. The model of vocational qualification of the System that was suggested by INCUAL has the following characteristics, among others:(2)

• It is an addition to the appropriate competencies for production and employment.
• Its content will reflect the real needs of the systems of goods and services production.
• It will determine those abilities and knowledge that may favour workers’ adaptation.
• It will have a modular internal structure.
• It will have an associated level of qualification.
• It will have elements to assess individuals’ competencies regardless of the manner in which they were acquired, as well as assessment criteria that may ensure the validity, reliability and technical accuracy of such assessment.
• Experts from the different sectors and social partners will take part in its design.

The programme on Continuing Education and Training Chile Califica (Chile Qualifies) has been working since the end of 2002. Its main objective is to set the bases of a system of continuing learning and training, with the participation of the private sector (employers and workers). The programme has four components: a) creating new opportunities of continuing education and training; b) improving the quality and increasing the coverage of technical and vocational education; c) establishing the instruments that support the provision of continuing training services; and d) a component of institutional strengthening.(3)

A key component of the system’s development is the articulation between the different educational levels, not only to facilitate upwards mobility and the entrance and re-entrance of participants but also to provide a relevant response to the training needs of the entrepreneurial sector by means of training.(4)

It is precisely component c) that includes the development of a national framework of competencies. And to that effect the programme works on the identification of standards, the design and the execution of programmes concerning training, the assessment and certification of labour competencies in nine sectors where pilot experiences are carried out in areas such as gastronomy, gas and electricity, mining, hotel, incoming tourism, information technology, fruit production, metal-mechanic industry and viticulture industry.

This component takes advantage of the results obtained by means of a project geared to the development of the competencies approach that was financed by the IDB and that finished in 2000. Such project achieved the identification of competencies and the application of assessment and certification methodologies in sectors such as mining and gastronomy. The programme Chile Califica has benefited from those results.

The vision on the foreseeable situation by the end of the project in the year 2008 describes the Chilean educational scenario with a technical secondary education in articulation with higher education in terms of the competencies that are acquired and recognised at each level. Likewise, mechanisms to identify competencies will be tested and used. In addition, the bodies that provide training will have developed their ability to design and implement competency-based training that is highly relevant to cater for the needs of target sectors. There will be procedures through which competencies acquired outside educational centres can be recognised, thus enabling those who are assessed and obtain certificates to go on with their studies. As a consequence of the programme the schooling level of adults who have not yet completed their compulsory basic education (eight years nowadays) and/or their secondary education will increase. There will even be a chance to level up basic or secondary education at the same time labour competencies are being acquired.

The impacts on productivity will be felt with the availability of workers with better qualifications and the required competencies. These workers will appreciate the benefits of the project since they will have access to better job positions, their development paths will be defined and there will be an improvement in their wages.

When these impacts are taken into account it becomes necessary to review the reasons that triggered the implementation of this project. Such reasons may be summarised as follows:

The educational system may not be contributing to the development of the skills and abilities required by the challenges posed by trends such as globalisation, technological change and the organisation of work. After the application of the International Adult Literacy Survey(5) in the year 2000, it became clear that there was a significant gap; nearly a third of the adults who had completed secondary school achieved a level of performance 1 in the quantitative area of the survey.(6)
The estimates obtained through the International Adult Literacy Survey show higher probability of unemployment at lower levels of competency.
The need to reduce the social deficit suffered by 4.5 million adults who have not completed the eight years of basic education and by at least 2 million who have not completed their twelve years of secondary education.
Different degrees of quality and relevance among bodies which provide training. This has triggered the appearance of support mechanisms to devise training programmes geared to quality management, among other issues.
The absence of mechanisms that may allow to recognise and value the competencies acquired by workers throughout their experience prevent the labour market from handling signals of transparency different from the academic credentials and facilitate the appearance of distortions that may affect negatively the access to employment and equal opportunities.

 

 

 

 

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1 INCUAL, Sistema Nacional de Cualificaciones y Formación Profesional, 2003
2 INCUAL, op. cit.
3 World Bank, Lifelong learning and training Project, Chile, 2002.
4 OECD, Revisión de políticas nacionales de educación, Chile, 2004
5 Such survey, conducted by OECD, was applied in Chile in 1998.
6 Level 1 is the lowest level and it barely comprises functional literacy: in terms of writing, this level tells that the person can read the alphabet and knows how to read but cannot process the most straightforward instructions in a written text.

 

 

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