2.2.2 The concept of training: Contributory factors

The general failure to clarify precisely what activities should be included in "training to overcome EVSE" has resulted in considerable confusion and vagueness. The conventional dictionary definition of training is "to prepare for a performance or a task(s) by instruction". Generally, this involves a trainer instructing trainees in a formal classroom or workshop setting. The traditional concept of 'vocational education and training' is very much in accordance with this view of training. The main objective of VET is to furnish the technical and management skills and help develop appropriate attitudes for specific occupations and jobs: It is the "ordered and systematic transmission of skills and dexterities and of technical know how for workers in skilled and semi-skilled occupations" (CINTERFOR, 1997).

Governments in developing countries have established networks of VET institutions in order to supply the high and middle level 'manpower' needed to meet ambitious objectives laid out in development plans and elsewhere. In particular, national manpower development has been inextricably linked with state-led import industrialisation strategies. Consequently, public sector VET has come to be closely associated with the widespread failure of this particular development model. Moreover, as formal qualifications have been increasingly used by employers to screen potential job applicants, chronic credentialism has become pervasive as the supply of job seekers has far exceeded the jobs that are available. There is a strong feeling, therefore, that public sector VET provision is increasingly socially wasteful and, ultimately, dysfunctional.

It is clear, however, that training can embrace any instruction, advice or other type of purposeful activity that seeks to enhance the capabilities of targeted individuals and/or groups through the provision of relevant knowledge and/or development of specific skills. Income generating projects, for example, that enable groups of EVSE to learn new social and technical skills may not include any formal training courses, but assistance provided by an NGO or other provider can facilitate the development of these skills. The problem with broadening the definition of training in this way is that it may become too all-inclusive as a concept and the notion of a 'national training system' could lose any operational meaning since all learning modalities are included.

The conventional concept of training is, in many ways, being superseded by a much wider definition which focuses on activities that promote learning and skill acquisition through empowerment and capacity building but which are not considered to be training per se. In other words, the training function is itself becoming invisible, not so much because it is being ignored or excluded (hence the 'training crisis'), but because it is being more closely integrated or 'embedded' in a range of financial and non-financial interventions that seek to achieve sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of the poor. Many organisations are reluctant to describe what they do as 'training' because, with the growing emphasis on individual and community empowerment, the notion that poverty reduction entails a simple transfer of a discrete body of knowledge and skills from the 'haves' to the 'have nots' is politically and intellectually objectionable. Traditional training approaches are, therefore, being fundamentally questioned, to the extent that there is a denial that training is taking place at all!

In particular, with the advent of the New Poverty Agenda in the early 1990s, supporting microenterprises has become a major focus of governments, donor agencies and NGOs. While skills development is key objective of the microenterprise programmes/projects, most enterprise development organisations do not regard themselves as training organisations. In a very real sense, therefore, because the training function is losing its institutional identity, many specialised training institutions are faced with an identity crisis.

Whatever concept of training is actually adhered to, it is clear that 'training to overcome economic vulnerability' embraces a much wider set of skills than just conventional technical and managerial competencies. These include basic literacy and numeracy, social and political 'awareness '(gender training being a prime example) and life skills. Interventions that facilitate 'personal development' by raising self-esteem, confidence and motivation are the main objective of many NGO interventions. Similarly, it is generally accepted that enterprise development and income generating projects require more complex combinations of skills with much heavier emphasis on social and management skills rather than narrowly defined technical competencies.

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING PAPERS 43 Learning to change: Skills development among the economically vulnerable and socially excluded in developing countries Paul Bennell Employment and Training Department International Labour Office Geneva First published 1999 To learn more about this author, visit International Labour Organization's Website.

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