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5.2.1 Training outputs: Public sector training

Written by: International Labour Organization

Article Overview: Despite a chronic lack of supporting evidence, most training for the poor provided by public sector training institutions has been widely criticised for being inaccessible, irrelevant and of poor quality.

5.2.1 Training outputs: Public sector training

Despite a chronic lack of supporting evidence, most training for the poor provided by public sector training institutions has been widely criticised for being inaccessible, irrelevant and of poor quality. These limited training efforts, it is argued, have been based on a simplistic modernisation paradigm which, drawing heavily on human capital theories, identifies the skill deficiencies of individuals who are poor and disadvantaged as the key constraint which, once addressed, will result in major increases in productivity and incomes. Thus, the belief in individual agency - the ability of each individual to overcome their state of poverty - is of central importance.

Training projects and programmes for the poor have generally replicated the policies and practices of supply-driven training for the formal sector. As a consequence, they have had the following characteristics:

· A largely 'top-down' process of skills transfer with little or no involvement of trainees in the identification of training needs and the design of training programmes. As passive recipients, there has been little sense of ownership and, by failing to recognise the knowledge and skills of the poor, training has been a disempowering, even "infantilizing" process.

· Attempts to forge training partnerships with other organisations and groups have been rare. There have only been limited attempts to provide training as part of an integrated package of services. Poor communication and frequent "turf wars" among government ministries responsible for these services are endemic in many countries.

· Most training has been delivered at training institutions. In common with the mainstream programmes of these institutions, there has been a heavy emphasis on longer duration pre-employment courses for unemployed youth and other disadvantaged groups, especially the disabled. In many countries (particularly in SSA), governments have preferred to establish a parallel network of mainly rural based training institutions specifically intended for training for self-employment (e.g. Youth Polytechnics in Kenya, Youth Training Centres in Zimbabwe, Brigades in Botswana).

· Traditionally male-dominated artisan training courses (plumbing, metalwork, carpentry etc.) have predominated in most countries. Training in social and business skills has been fairly limited. In her review of programmes of assistance for women entrepreneurs in Africa in the early 1990s, Kuiper concluded that the acquisition of business skills was a "seriously neglected area... the skills taught remain limited to vocational skills and, in the case of women's groups, organisational skills" (Kuiper, 1991:61). Lack of business training has had serious consequences for income generating projects. Other authors have come to similar conclusions (see Bakke-Seeck, 1996; Burckhardt, 1996).

· Fees drive away the poorest. In Ghana, for example, even at government-funded vocational training centres in remote rural locations, the majority of students come from relatively well off urban backgrounds (see Bennell, 1998). Given the massive excess demand that exists in most countries for post-school education and training, training intended for the poor and other disadvantaged groups is invariably 'captured' by better qualified school leavers.

· The provision of short courses for MSE operators and workers remains very limited. Instructors usually have little or no understanding of the problems of doing business in the informal sector. Governments have often created parallel organisations for the development of MSEs (especially Enterprise Development Institutes), but these tend to cater for non-poor clienteles. Training targeted at individuals, (especially women in survival enterprises), has been the exception rather than the norm.

· The design of training projects, especially in post-conflict situations, has tended to be too rushed so that planning ends up being carried out simultaneously with implementation. The ILO-supported 'Start Your Own Business ' Programme in Mozambique is a good example. Training objectives were seriously underfunded and insufficient information was collected in order to able to identify properly training needs in local labour markets. Serious shortages of trainers in rural areas meant that training was generally of poor quality and the skills acquired could not be effectively utilised mainly due to lack of credit and market opportunities (see Bryant, 1997).

· In SSA, training programmes for the poor have often been the result of donor initiatives. As separate projects and programmes with their own funding and management structures, they have rarely been effectively institutionalised on a sustainable basis.

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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  7.3.4 Labour market reform: Mainstreaming skills development for the poor
  3.1.4 Overall resource availability: Training priorities, resources and reorientation
  3.1.2 Training for the formal sector: Training priorities, resources and reorientation
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Article Tags: chronic lack, constraint, disadvantaged groups, formal sector, government ministries, incomes, individual agency, modernisation, paradigm, parallel network, passive recipients, poor communication, poor quality, public sector training, skill deficiencies, supporting evidence, trainees, training institutions, turf wars, unemployed youth



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