Training and innovation, development and transfer of technology processes

The most innovative experiences at the regional level on the subject of training conceive the latter as part of a set of technology transfer actions, both of labour and of production, adaptation and innovation. This marks a turning point, both conceptual and methodological, in the action of institutions, training centres and technological education units.

In conceptual terms, these experiences are characterised by specialising to a certain extent towards specific economic sectors (metal mechanical, pulp and paper, leather and footwear, chemistry, construction, etc.), which allows them, among other benefits, a greater degree of technological updating of machinery, equipment and materials, although also regarding knowledge and techniques applied to production. This updating, supplemented by new strategies of approach to and co-operation with the productive sector, is making it possible to offer a series of services which complement the traditional supply of training.

Either as a conceptualisation prior to these changes, or as a practical result thereof, what is certain is that there is also a change in the notion of who the subjects are to which these units, services and centres cater. If previously the main population catered to consisted basically of individual workers, fundamentally young people, to whom it was sought to transmit systematically a body of knowledge, abilities and skills linked to an occupation, today these new experiences also conceive productive units (firms of various sizes and characteristics), their productive links and organisations, and the economic sectors themselves, as part of their primary audience.

Moreover, there is an effort to cater to this new audience in a more integral manner than in the past. Such are the cases of the National Technology Centres, of the SENAI, and the Federal Technological Education Centres, dependent on the Mid-level and Technological Education Secretariat, of Brazil; the Technological Services Centres of SENA; the Technological Nuclei of INA; as well as the activities offered to firms in Peru by SENCICO and SENATI, so that they may access not only training and skills development services, but also research and development, technical assistance and consulting, or technological information services.

Although this diversification of institutional services includes as a component a search for alternative financing, in many cases this is only an emerging component. Its greater potential lies in the processes of strengthening the updatedness, relevance and quality of the training itself. The dovetailing in an appropriate environment of training and education, labour and technology, enables mechanisms to be structured by means of which there is an acquirement of, besides solid technical and technological knowledge, the values, habits and behaviour inherent to the competencies which present historical circumstances require of workers, technicians and professionals.

A fundamental characteristic of this new conception of training, lies in the incorporation of content and methodologies belonging to what has been called "technological education." Briefly, this involves recording, systematising, understanding and using the technology concept, historically and socially constructed, to make of it an element of teaching, research and extension, in a dimension that exceeds the boundaries of simple technical applications: as an instrument of innovation and transformation of economic activities, to the benefit of man as worker and of the country.

Technology itself has exceeded today the purely technical dimensions of experimental development or laboratory research; it encompasses issues of production engineering, quality, management, marketing, technical assistance, purchases, sales, inter alia, which transform it into a fundamental vector of expression of the culture of societies. It could be said that the technological process itself is, in and of itself, an exercise in learning which modifies the way the world is "seen", marked by theories, methods and applications. It is also knowledge and maintains, therefore, the constant demands of the "spirit of investigation" regarding the facts generated, transmitted and applied. There then arises a need for closing the distance between the conquests of scientific and technical knowledge and the knowledge of those who apply the technologies, be they students, instructors, researchists or workers, in order to inform them of their role in the technical transformation of production and labour.

In the more integral conceptions in this regard that have been implemented in the region, there has been a move away from the notions restricted to skills upgrading, training and preparation of the labour force as a function of the immediate needs of the labour market. On the contrary, they seek to transmit to the worker different dimensions capable of making him or her able to cope with the scientific-technological evolution of the modern world and, in this manner, allow them to contribute their intelligence, creativity and effort inside the productive unit.

A rough survey of what is happening in the region allows us to see, on the one hand, that a goodly part of the training institutions, both public and private, are dealing with the challenge of establishing a closer link between the supply of training and the processes of innovation, development and transfer of technology. However, on the other hand, there is also a tendency for technological institutes and agencies related to sectoral employer bodies to begin to deal simultaneously with the subjects of technology and training and the development of human resources. By way of illustration we present below some of the multiple and rich experiences at present under way in the region which are proof of the approaches we have mentioned.

Brazil: SENAI and the National Technology Centres

The SENAI, in Brazil, is diversifying significantly its institutional mission, broadening the boundaries of its role as a vocational education institution and getting to be acknowledged, also, as an instrument for the generation and dissemination of technology. Technological incubators, islands of technology of production integration and digital information transportation systems are, inter alia, some of the institutional initiatives designed to consolidate this function. The incubator projects are considered means to accelerate modernisation, not only by creating new firms, technological or not, but also to rapidly surmount present structures that find it difficult to introduce concepts imposed by present paradigms of the society of knowledge. The basic proposal is to facilitate the long and expensive voyage between the laboratory prototype and the head of the industrial run. Thus the importance of a strengthened infrastructure and of the activities associated with the support provided by orchestration, marketing, trading and disclosure. An incubator makes available to emerging firms physical space, support services - telephone, fax, graphic reproduction, secretarial services, administration, accounting support, computer support - human resources, specialised services, training, technological support, etc. The mechanisms of orchestration, training and technological support developed by the SENAI serve to provide a basis and training for employers so that they may be able to face with greater security the obstacles which arise between the world of research and entrepreneurial reality, where competition -quality, productivity and price- is the factor that determines success.

But perhaps one of the main strategies of the SENAI is the model of the National Technology Centres. Conceived on the basis of the certainty that an increase in productivity and competitiveness on the part of industrial firms is conditioned by investments in technology, these Centres become poles for the generation, absorption, adaptation and transfer of technology, and they work on adding value to the information.

The evaluation system to obtain the National Technology Centre (Cenatec) Award was conceived on the basis of the National Quality Award (PNQ), the structure of which, in turn, is based on the "Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award." The Cenatec evaluation systems includes three different versions:

i) A version used to grant the Award in the Bronze Category, which is the simplified version of the PNQ, the result of the reduction in the scope of the items included in each of the seven evaluation categories: leadership, information and analysis, strategic planning, development and management of human resources, process management, business results, focus on the client and the latter’s satisfaction.

ii) The evaluation system of the version used to award the Silver Category is more complex and more extensive since, besides increasing the level of requirements regarding Quality Management, it also introduces Cenatec’s items of evaluation referring to Technological Content and its results, with a minimum standard of points which must be achieved, as well as the "Support Services" and "Facilitator Effort" items.

iii) Finally, for the third version, the award in the Gold Category, the PNQ Excellence Criteria are used, in their present version, supplemented by the item referring to Technological Content.

An attempt was therefore made to institute a system for the evaluation of increasing complexity and demands, with the aim of introducing in the SENAI units constant effort to improve quality standards, without establishing, despite this, schedules or obligatory participation in the three categories.

The National Technology Centres (Cenatec), reciprocally with the productive sector, with the universitites and with research institutions, exercise simultaneously the functions of education, technical and technological assistance and applied research. The SENAI includes today 45 Centres which have already been certified, located in 11 states of the Federation, in the southern, south-eastern and north-eastern regions of the country, which perform in more than 20 technological areas.

The Centres train mid-level industrial technicians at the same time as they provide practical technological extension courses, consulting services to firms, dissemination of technological information, quality certification and certification of experimental development of products and processes, addressed to a sector of industrial activity in their area of competence. However, there are already pioneer activities where, through some Centres, the SENAI makes inroads in higher education, as is the case of its course in Textile Industrial Engineering.

The basic philosophy of action of the Cenatec’s contemplates a cross-section of disciplines, speed in the circulation of technological information -with a strong presence of easy accessible information systems- and flexibility in the use of pedagogical instruments, programme contents and curricula, thought out in terms of the constant interaction between technological practices of firms and training activities.

On the basis of experience accumulated through the Cenatec’s quality evaluation and accreditation system, the SENAI is also promoting a strategy of expansion to all its operational units of the adoption of management excellence models. In 1997, the certificate of "Vocational Education Model Centre" (CEMEP) was created, conferred in the three categories referring to SENAI units which stand out due to the quality of their services. The expectation is that this system may become an efficient instrument for improving quality standards and operational performance in the majority of the units of the institution. Their main aim is to develop programmes with innovative teaching-learning methodologies and flexible curriculum organisation suitable for the demands of life-long education, stressing the integral training of the individual. But the CEMEP process, besides being an innovation in vocational education, also seeks to improve the quality of the technical and technological assistance provided by the unit to its clients. Together with the International Centre for Education, Labour and Transfer of Technology (SENAI/CIET) and the National Technology Centres, the CEMEP’s constitute the National Technology Network of the SENAI.