28. How is quality management being applied at vocational training institutions?

Vocational training institutions of the region have, progressively, incorporated quality management as well competency-based training. Both trends complement each other in the sense they affect the ways of working, the elaboration of training programmes and their delivery, and therefore the organisational culture as a whole.

Elaborating competency-based training programmes has meant, for training programme organisations, the adoption of new ways of relating with customers, workers and employers. There prevail dialogue mechanisms such as standardisation committees, sectoral consultation councils or working teams. Their main role is generating inputs for the identification of competencies and their later transformation in relevant training programmes.

This kind of work has caused great changes in the usual practices of institutions and has, in general, modified the traditional mechanisms of relationship as well as their processes and procedures. The actions that foster training opportunities at sectoral and local levels have become more significant and have produced immediate answers due to the generation of employment which requires qualified workers.(1)

This has implied the generation of new processes and procedures and has reinforced the need of a quality policy that facilitates active processes to be as coherent, systematic and effective as required nowadays. Furthermore, the interest to improve quality arises from the need to improve the perception of the institution by customers who expect that the training received matches to the skills and competencies required at a job. Considering the increasing demand for training and the quick changes in its environment, it has become necessary that training providers prove to the society that they have done a well-done job. Besides, the resources allocated to training are so important that it is often necessary to analyse its correct use and, above all, its impact in which the quality management throughout the training process will undoubtedly be of great importance.(2)

Key issues in the quality management of educational processes Customer focused Quality policy Responsibility, authority and communication Provision and management of resources Competent human resources Infrastructure and working environment Planning and making up the product Design and development Purchase process Control of follow-up and measurement devices Customer’s satisfaction Source: Quality management in training, Cinterfor/ILO, 2003.

Many institutions have thus begun to accumulate tacit and explicit knowledge by means of tools such as quality management and certification under ISO 9000 standards. This quality approach, which is focused on processes, seeks to create a full circle of improvement beginning from its analysis, documentation, dissemination and continuing improvement.

Many countries in Latin America have developed versions specifically addressed to training institutions with the purpose of helping to apply the ISO 9000:2000 standard. In Chile, SENCE supported the elaboration of the Norma Chilena (Chilean Standard) NCh2728:2002 for Organismos Técnicos Ejecutores de Capacitación (training supplyingtechnical bodies).(3 )In Argentina, the Instituto Argentino de Normalización IRAM (Argentinian Standardization Institute) designed the Guía de interpretación de la IRAMISO 9001 para la educación (Guide for the interpretation of IRAM-ISO 9001 for education). Peru holds the Guía para la aplicación de la NTP-ISO 9001:2001 en el Sector Educación (Guide for the application of the NTP-ISO 9001:2001 in the Education Sector) which was elaborated by the Comisión de Reglamentos Técnicos y Comerciales –INDECOPI– (Technical and Commercial Regulations Commission).

Any institution interested in ISO certification must follow a process that, in general, has the following stages:

Study the certification standard that is likely to be taken (in ISO family, 9001 is certifiable).

Determine the scope of certification; this may cover a whole institution, one or many training institutions or a particular process (for example, it is possible to exclude administrative processes which are not directly linked with training).

Inform and raise awareness within the institution and among the involved workers.

Develop a certification process. Produce quality manuals and procedures.

Apply ISO requirements in terms of: internal audits, control of documents, revision of management, corrective and preventive actions, registers, etc.

Contact a certification body that verifies the compliance with the standard by means of controls, manuals review and confirms a quality system is being applied.

Nowadays, there have been experiences of quality management certification using ISO standards in SENAI, SENAC and SENAR in Brazil; SENCE in Chile; SENA in Colombia, INA in Costa Rica; INTACAP in Guatemala; CONOCER in Mexico and SENATI in Peru.13 Other training institutions and centres are in their initial stages; in Brazil some have even tried to certify quality laboratories and their environmental management.

 

 

 

 

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1 There is a thorough analysis on this apsect in: Casanova, F., Local development, productive networks and training, Montevideo, Cinterfor/ILO, 2004: http://www.oitcinterfor.org/public/english/region/ampro/cinterfor/publ/loc_dev/index.htm
2 Vargas, F., Quality management ..., op. cit.
3 www.sence.cl/normacalidad
4 The description of these experiences is available at www.oitcinterfor.org/calidad and in Vargas, F., Quality management... op. cit.

 

 

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