[ Vocational Training ]

Awareness of local conditions

[ By Manfred Wallenborn ]

In the past, vocational training cooperation (VTC) focussed on the promotion of system development. The approach was about dependent employment and resulted in the overemphasis of Germany’s dual model with its combination of state and private industry sponsorship. In many countries this model only met with weak interest on the part of businesses.

This led to a subtle paradigm change. The principle of shared public-private responsibility was not dropped, but purely dual approaches in international staff development and in projects of technical cooperation were combined with other forms. This included shorter or more flexible training courses as well as innovative certification methods. In many places, this suited the local conditions better.

Programmes for vocational training thus underwent a learning phase, which will yet have to be tackled in other areas of development cooperation (DC). Accordingly, the experiences from VTC provide knowledge relevant for other sectors. After all, there is a wide spread tendency to over-estimate the possibilities of societal intervention, controllability and resource mobilization through politically influenced reform processes.

The best intentions fail if one tries to implement policies in settings marked by idiosyncratic institutional operations, dense regulatory jungles and the lack of innovative organisational culture. Often, this is exacerbated by a lack of resources and incentives and a great diversity of interests involved. These factors have systemic roots. There is more at stake than correct opinions, bad intentions or “right” or “wrong” DC-paradigms.

So far, the experience with vocational training programmes have been only somewhat satisfactory at best. Moreover, trans-national developments demand a reassessment of our concepts. We are dealing with aspects such as economic globalization, the emergence knowledge-based economies, environmental and resource protection as well as a fundamentally altered global political situation.

A summary of the socio-economic conditions found in the south suggests different approaches for different areas. The first segment includes certain regions of India, Brazil, South Africa and other emerging markets with highly modern knowledge-based service and technology-based production economies. These industries need highly qualified workers and are prepared to purchase market supplies in order to respond to the permanent pressure to improve and modify qualifications.

Conventional trade and industrial production methods and management-oriented services dominate in the next segment. Investment and consumer goods are produced, which do not have the quality to compete on global markets (also due to a lack of professional qualifications). At the same time, the sales potential on the national markets tends to be limited because of tough international competition.

In the third segment, we are gradually sliding into the informal economy. The conditions of scarcity economies imply that production is combined with forms of precarious self-employment. Structural shortfalls in capital and know-how, only a vague concept of rule of law, highly fluctuating demand and high rationalization potential all contribute to the harsh business environment. Poverty-oriented growth strategies should in future start with qualification.

These sectors are ideal types. Examples of inter-related and differently developed sectors can be found almost everywhere. At the same time, it is obvious that, in emerging markets such as Brazil, the conventional industrial sector is stuck in stagnation, while services, industrially oriented agriculture and the informal sector have the higher growth potentials.


Changing qualifications

In all three segments, there is scope for lifelong learning. This is exacerbated by the fact that traditional systems of vocational qualification are being eroded. Consequently, private training providers are emerging in many countries (with growing purchasing power). They are able to meet the demand for changing qualifications more quickly, flexibly and practically. As a result, traditional systems are losing their exclusivity. “Fragmentation of systems” is a new term, which is increasingly used internationally.

Different qualification needs result from this confusion. Not all can benefit from the limited resources of VTC. German cooperation has specific fortes that can be used for development and image purposes. German VTC should continue to give priority to seeking cooperation in its particular strengths. These must rest on areas of qualification which are relevant for the future:
– increased vocational flexibility by emphasis on individual capacities to find and create employment,
– improved general education combined with hands-on technological qualifications and commercial knowledge for self-employed income generation (in particular for the poor),
– distinctive skills for individual and group training (up to 80% of vocational learning takes place at the workplace),
– broader, activity-oriented learning potential and practical skills for solutions to secure a livelihood and foster employment for under-privileged groups, and
– vocational learning (in terms of social-ethical responsibility) in sustained economic processes.

Complex societies do not follow uniform strategies to reach the stated goals. But, generally speaking, the market tends to gain relevance vis-à-vis state systems. Flexible offers for lifelong learning are becoming more important than initial vocational training.

The way in which VTC regards itself continues to be dominated by a functional perspective of vocational training. The first priority of its learning processes is to increase the productive and sustainable potential of (poor) people and businesses. There are fields of action of high priority, which German VTC can serve well:

German know-how is based on a differentiated functional responsibility, which links understanding of the labour market and vocational training with efficient occupational information systems and proficient policy advice. “Neighbouring areas” (labour markets, employment systems) must be taken into consideration. The same goes for the general education system and improving its quality. Vocational training in Germany includes private initiatives and “in-house” training, which are a comparative advantage.

From a German perspective, management of vocational training functions in a way, which is based on cooperation and codetermination of capital and labour. This triggers off dynamics of innovation that purely bureaucratic systems without private participation can only dream of. Post-secondary educational variants such as the German private-public Berufsakademien (College of Advanced Vocational Studies) may become an important alternative for partner countries, which want to emphasise their public education systems.

Nowhere else in the world do we find technological qualifications in combination with a distinctive theory of vocational education and teacher training in vocational schools as is typical of Germany. Nonetheless, this could be of huge importance for economic areas wanting to be connected with global markets. Many countries still do not have their own capacity for self-help.

The outlined fields of action provide a basis to compose detailed programmes for specific countries with respect to the local requirements. Forms of cooperation which are relevant to promote business and/or to fight poverty, and which are adapted to the dynamics of change and social problems, are just as important as systems approaches. However they must be backed by the political elite of the partner countries. If that is the case, they can be integrated into national strategies to combat poverty.