In Honduras, the Programme of
Education for Labour (POCET) is a Central American example of this alignment between the
regular educational systems, and especially adult education and training as life-long
education. It is one of the first and richest experiences of integration between
traditions among which historically there was little linkage and, at the same time, an
experience of dialogue of those traditions with the new debates and paradigms that have
involved cross-sectionally the spheres of education and vocational training, in which the
new ideas regarding life-long education and training should be specially highlighted. In
this case the Ministry of Public Education of Honduras and the National Vocational
Training Institute (INFOP) have acted in an integrated manner, at the same time
incorporating methodological approaches which are usually only to be found among
nongovernmental organisations.
In this regard, the POCET programme is a central
reference point for a whole tradition established around the principles of adult
education, with its assistance-providing cast and its orientation towards literacy. POCET
signalled the way towards integration of the contributions made at the time by all those
linked to various forms of popular education with other currents -such as vocational
training- with long experience in the field of education for productive labour. The latter
currents are also deeply involved in profound debates arising both from the emergence of
new production and labour paradigms and the employment market changes and from the
persistence of groups and sectors that are left out.