Feedback Form
Home Features Mastermind Videos About Advertise Blog Network Contact
   

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

Featured Ebook


ebook Famous Entrepreneurs - Modern Empire Builders


Featured Ebook

More Evan Carmichael
More popular articles
- THOUGHTS ON PRODUCTIVITY
Have A Suggestion?


Sales Lessons From Starbucks And Dell

4.1 The potential for training interventions: The demand for training

 
African Accounts - Meet The Authors
United Nations , Resource United Nations Capital Development Fund
Resource
International , Resource International Monetary Fund
Resource
dorothyduncan , Profile dorothyduncan
Profile
John , Multiple Choices John Wesonga
Multiple Choices
African Accounts - Meet The Authors
4.1 The potential for training interventions: The demand for training
   

As is well known, the supply of training does not usually create its own demand. Clearly, therefore, training provision for the poor has been powerfully shaped by the nature of the demand for training among targeted groups, in particular in the informal sector. Lack of effective demand is a key reason for both the limited training provision for the poor (and hence outputs and impacts) in most countries as well as the overall failure of national training systems to reorient their activities in support of the poor.

4.1 The potential for training interventions There is a tendency to over-estimate the extent of self-employment among the poor in both the urban and rural informal sectors as well as the scope for improving productive independent economic activity. If anything, this tendency has increased in recent years with the emergence of 'private sector development' as the major long-medium term objective of economic reform programmes, particularly among donors. However, the fact remains that most informal sector activity will continue to be "the last resort for the desperate rather than a panacea for employment problems" (ILO, 1997:).

Breman eloquently describes the situation of the urban poor in Gujarat, India. In situations such as these, where "the great mass of people" are in wage employment and "have no prospect of improving their position" (Breman, 1995: 97), there is virtually no demand among the poor for formal training. In particular, for those at the bottom of rural society, the formal sector is an "impregnable fortress". With very simple technology and an abundant supply of cheap labour, not only can workers be trained at minimal cost on the job, but there are no incentives to invest in more skill-intensive technologies. In such brutal labour regimes, the degrading effects are such that employers regularly replenish their workforces with new recruits from rural areas.

It is clear that the informal sectors in other countries have much higher proportions of self-employed labour and tend, therefore, to be less exploitative. However, the value of detailed anthropological research of the kind undertaken by Breman is that it highlights the immense and complex array of social, economic and political problems that have to be surmounted in order to achieve sustainable reductions in mass poverty.

Another key development in India and other countries is that "the organised sector is disorganising itself" precisely in order to exploit cheap labour to the greatest extent possible. This process of "informalisation of the formal sector" is likely to become more pervasive as the benefits of non-regulation exceed those from regulation. Probably, the greatest training need in these situations is to develop the capacity of specific groups of poor workers to organise themselves in order to limit the degree of exploitation they are subjected to, in particular by increasing wages and generally improving conditions of work. The success of the Self-Employed Women's Association in Ahmedabad is widely cited in this regard. However, initiatives to replicate this type of project do not appear to have been widespread.

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.

Like this article? Share it with your friends
[Get Copyright Permissions] E-Mail | Print | More  


Related Articles Related Articles
SME's - interventions in developing countries
  In my literature review, a pattern developed for developing countries separate to developed countries.
2.1.3 The potential for change
  Given the received wisdom that training for the poor has had limited impact and training systems have not reoriented to meeting the need of the poor, the key question is 'what is the scope for improvement with respe...
7.3.3 Reconceptualising the role of training: Mainstreaming skills development for the poor
  The whole concept of training should be reformulated more in terms of purposeful skills development based on a variety of modalities/interventions and not just conventional, formal training courses. Because 'trainin...
10.3 Training for existing enterprises: Support for Growth-oriented Women Entrepreneurs in Tanzania, 2005
  Once in business, women entrepreneurs express a strong need for training in marketing, product quality, financial management and business planning. But access to this business and management training is limited.
7.3.4 Labour market reform: Mainstreaming skills development for the poor
  Training for the poor must also be part of a coherent set of active labour market policies. Without concerted government interventions to eliminate key impediments that prevent women, disabled persons and other disc...

Related Forum Posts Related Forum Posts
Training Training
One Thing To Note One Thing To Note
Teleclass Training Teleclass Training
Training and Self Development Training and Self Development
Re: Drop out Billionaire Re: Drop out Billionaire
Re: Has anyone used the SBA's Micro Loan program? Re: Has anyone used the SBA's Micro Loan program?
Re: When is it not the manager's fault? Re: When is it not the manager's fault?
Training Budgets Training Budgets

Related Forum Posts Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors

The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.


 
About the Author


International Labour Organization
(Visit International's Website)
As the world's only tripartite multilateral agency, the ILO is dedicated to bringing decent work and livelihoods, job-related security and better living standards to the people of both poor and rich countries. It helps to attain those goals by promoting rights at work, encouraging opportunities for decent employment, enhancing social protection and strengthening dialogue on work-related issues. The ILO is the international meeting place for the world of work. We are the experts on work and employment and particularly on the critical role that these issues play in bringing about economic development and progress. At the heart of our mission is helping countries build the institutions that are the bulwarks of democracy and to help them become accountable to the people. The ILO formulates international labour standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labour rights: freedom of association, the right to organize, collective bargaining, abolition of forced labour, equality of opportunity and treatment and other standards addressing conditions across the entire spectrum of work-related issues.
Have A Suggestion?

View Author's Video
Become An Author

Free Downloads


International Labour Organization's

Complete
List Of
African-Accounts
Articles


First Name
Last Name
Email
 
If you enjoyed this article, get International Labour Organization's Complete List of African-Accounts Articles For FREE!
Become An Author