The extent of public sector training for the poor is also strongly influenced by resource availability and the overall incidence of poverty. In Latin America, national vocational training institutes are relatively well resourced, but it would appear that only in a few countries (most notably SENA in Colombia) have training priorities and related resource commitments been changed significantly in favour of the poor (see CINTERFOR, 1998, Castro, 1996). While the overall incidence of absolute poverty is considerably lower than in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the political influence of the poor over training policy and practice has generally been greater. Consequently, the potential for public sector training systems in Latin America to support skill development for the poor in a concerted and comprehensive manner is likely to be considerably greater than in other regions.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, most governments are simply too poor to be able to fund major training programmes for the poor. Most training resources are allocated to a small number of public training institutions which train mainly school leavers for skilled occupations which, in most countries, are heavily concentrated in the public sector. Thus, the provision of public VET in SSA and other low income countries tends to be particularly inequitable (see Godfrey, 1998). And, because pre-employment occupational training by ministry-based training institutions accounts for the lions share of public sector training provision, the number of training institutions which could be re-oriented is usually quite small.
The AIDS pandemic will also limit the scope for training re-orientation. Over 20 per cent of the economically active population are (or are expected to become) infected with the AIDS virus in over 15 African countries (see Lowenson and Whiteside, 1997). Consequently, demands on the training system to replace workers employed in the formal sector who will die or become seriously ill will increase enormously over the next ten years.
As noted above, with pervasive economic adjustment, African governments have come under intense pressure by the IMF and the World Bank to privatise the funding and provision of VET mainly because it is not regarded as a 'basic social service'. Evidence is limited, but the share of VET in national education and training budgets has probably fallen very considerably since the late 1980s in most SSA countries.(7)
Given the very high incidence of poverty in South Asia, public sector training provision for the poor has been relatively tiny. Even in India, where there has been a series of nation-wide skills development programmes for poor and disadvantaged groups (including TRYSEM), only 5-6 per cent of urban target groups have been reached (see Malik, 1996).
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
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