In order to promote institutional arrangements capable of raising the quality of training, on the basis of the genuine demands of productive sectors of local economies, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Argentina started in 1995 to lend support to lines of action at local, provincial or regional level, through associations of actors on the labour scene with other interested parties.

Such is the case of the Occupational Workshops’ Programme, which promotes the creation of associative groups, made up by the social players in the form of non-profit civil societies. They are small units with a simple structure, that encourage and disseminate new training approaches. With that end in view they promote an ongoing education that may develop people’s productive potential through the use of technological resources. They also endeavour to foster leadership and a spirit of co-operation among employers and workers to introduce training proposals in keeping with the productive requirements of each region.

The social actors that make up the governing boards of these Workshops are in charge of supervising the management and quality of the training activities they dispense. They must also ensure an inflow of resources to identify training needs, formulate projects and implement activities. There are at present 13 Occupational Workshops distributed in 12 Argentine provinces. The sphere of influence of each Workshop is usually confined to the localities surrounding their venues. Although most of them were set up to provide technical training for just one branch of activity, some have expanded their training offer across the board. In particular, they have aimed at the management and administration of small or micro-enterprises, or they have ventured into other economic sectors.