Employers’ organisations and vocational training

At present, in all countries of the region employers are being encouraged to play a leading role in various spheres, vocational training among them.

Historically, the move to create vocational training institutions started in the region with the birth in Brazil of two bodies associated to employers’ organisations: the National Industrial Training Service –SENAI– in 1942, and the National Commercial Training Service –SENAC- in 1946. These institutions that, as pioneering experiences, left a deep mark in the region, were since their inception attached to the respective employers’ federations of the industrial and commercial sectors, and remain so to this day.

Along subsequent decades, the corporate sector continued to have great influence on vocational training, and although most of the institutions created later did not adopt the management pattern of their Brazilian forerunners, they did opt for tripartite mechanisms wherein employers lent permanent support and co-operation.

The changes described earlier concerning the way in which regional economies became internationalised through open trade strategies, brought about new imperatives and challenges. Significant among them were those relating to the speed of technological innovation and the requirements for updating occupational skills and qualifications. Training then appeared as a central element in strategies to raise the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises. This led enterprises and their organisations to become increasingly involved in aspects like the management, financing and methodologies of training, and to participate more actively in vocational training institutions. They also took the lead in processes whereby the management of former public institutions was taken over by employers’ organisations, or in some cases training bodies issued forth from those organisations.

In any event, and whatever the nature of training institutions (public or private), those that have most successfully adapted to the current productive, labour and technological context invariably owe their success to a permanent dialogue and interaction with enterprises, that have become priority objects of their attention.

Apart from these corporate initiatives and efforts, training practices implemented by enterprises have expanded. Sometimes, services are outsourced, but on other occasions in-house training is developed. This is a growing trend, empirically associated to the most successful competitive strategies.

On the other hand, the interest of employers in training goes beyond the concept of a tool solely devoted to improving workers’ skills. Quite the contrary, it is seen as an instrument that can also upgrade middle managers, executives and even employers themselves.

But the influence of corporate players covers more aspects than those directly related to management, financing and implementation. Employers’ organisations have also introduced their own concepts and notions of training in the diverse spheres where the subject is discussed, whether they be national tripartite or bipartite agreements, sectoral arrangements or bargaining at enterprise level. It is probably in this respect that there is the greatest asymmetry between employers’ and workers’ organisations. This disparity has only been lessened in the last few years, owing to the new measures taken by trade unions, as we saw above.

The following can be mentioned among the many examples of employers’ participation in the field of training in Latin America and the Caribbean:

Employers’ participation in vocational training

• The management of some vocational training institutions has been directly taken over by entrepreneurial chambers. This was already the case of SENAI and SENAC, in Brazil, but in recent years they have been joined by ICIC (Mexico), INACAP (Chile), INFOCAL (Bolivia), SENATI (Peru), SENAT (Brazil), CIED (Venezuela), and others. This has given corporate organisations an extremely powerful instrument regarding both infrastructure and coverage, as well as in the prior accumulation of human capital, methodologies, teaching material and knowledge.

• Various sectoral chambers have been enlarging the repertory of services they offer to their members. For instance, they have entered the areas of research and development, and technical education and training. By way of example, we can mention: In Chile, the services offered by the Chilean Construction Chamber, through three corporations (Construction Research Corporation; Construction Educational Corporation and Construction Training Corporation); action by employers of the agricultural sector under the National Agricultural Society, that through its Social Development Corporation for the Rural Sector (CODESSER) and just in the area of education lends support to formal schooling, training, teachers’ further training and technological transfer; and the far reaching activities of the Production and Commerce Confederation, through INACAP. In Venezuela, the above mentioned initiative of the companies of the SIVENSA Group, through the FUNDAMETAL Foundation and the International Centre for Education and Development (CIED) dependent on the State enterprise Petróleos de Venezuela. In Mexico the National Chamber of the Textile Industry (CANAINTEX) through the Textile Training Centre (CATEX), which besides training services has technological and quality management services; as well as ICIC, dependent on the National Chamber of the Construction Industry. In Argentina, the companies under the Graphic Arts Chamber of Buenos Aires have provided strong support to training in their sector through the Gutenberg Foundation. In Colombia, there are entrepreneurial initiatives in the graphic arts, plastics and rubber sectors, with their Technological Development Centres IFTAG and ICPC, respectively, that promote training, among other activities.

• Besides initiatives directly related to employers’ organisations, there is a great number of experiences of in-house training programmes, particularly in the larger enterprises.

• Experiences in bipartite management are beginning to be known, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, in sectors like construction and pulp and paper (Uruguay); or new management formulas at enterprise level (Chile, Bipartite Training Committees).

• Finally, the tripartite arrangements at the level of Labour Ministries where employers take active part: JUNAE (Uruguay), CODEFAT (Brazil) and Naional Training Council (Chile), among others.

The main conclusion that can be drawn from this brief outline of entrepreneurial participation in vocational training, is that employers have assumed a leading role and are the players that have increased their influence to the largest extent, whether in terms of infrastructure, knowledge, conceptualisation or political influence.

Having said this, however, we must not overlook two great problems that underlie this strong entrepreneurial sway in training. The first one is that, from the point of view of the general interests of society, it is advisable that the other players involved should also have a solid presence, that can be felt in the various decisions regarding training, in order to reserve its dual role of contributing both to the competitiveness and productivity of enterprises, and to social integration, cohesion and equity.

The second problem lies in the very diversity of the entrepreneurial universe of the region. In that respect, there is undeniable evidence that very large entrepreneurial sectors are still barred from access to technology, credit and training. Considering that those sectors, made up by formal or informal small and micro enterprises, not only give employment to the majority of our countries’ populations, but are the only ones where employment grows to a certain extent (though not much), it is clear that they should be the object of active modernisation policies. Many of the corporate organisations mentioned above are implementing action for their benefit, but it seems obvious that in order to overcome these situations, a combination of efforts, resources and experience is required that must also come from the State, workers’ organisations and civil society.