NN46, September 2011
Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark
Are Latin American Countries Promoting “Light Vocationalisation” in General Secondary Education (GSE)?
By Claudia Jacinto, IIEP, Buenos Aires
Email: cgjacinto@gmail.com
Keywords: vocational training; secondary education; labour skills; Latin America.
Summary: Different initiatives in Latin America are aiming to provide a closer preparation to enter to the world of work in General Secondary Education. What are the tensions to provide at the same time general and specific labour skills as an addition to general education?
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The direction of educational reforms in the 1990s in Latin America was to uphold that the uncertainty of the employment market and the need for equal opportunities required attention to be paid to providing a general education of quality and a broad range of common, transversal, skills. There was a consensus to emphasize general skills at least until the end of lower secondary education. Without questioning these views during the 2000s another debate emerged in this respect concerning: In what respects should general upper secondary education prepare people for employment beyond the general competencies?
The perspective was moving from the general towards the detailed. Several of the existing policies in countries in the region also recommend occupational competency training as part of the GSE programmes. Not only are general competencies highlighted in an undifferentiated way as was the case in the 1990s, but the development of ‘general and specific employment competencies’ is also being promoted in GSE. Thus the idea that training for work in secondary education only concerns technical schools is gradually being superseded, as has happened in some European systems.
The objective is to provide a closer preparation to enter to the world of work facing the critical views on the “excessive generalism” that is normally attributed to the GSE. This usually implies the incorporation of internships, entrepreneurship, educational and labour guidance and counseling to GSE, as well as linkages to vocational training. The following approaches are being taken:
a) Internships: Almost all countries of the region offer internships or practices (not only in private companies, but also in public entities, non-government organizations and social services offices) in the technical secondary level. But countries like Brazil and Colombia have also incorporated practices in GSE.
b) Generation of entrepreneurship skills: the students participate in a production or management experience in all their stages. For example, in Colombia, a national law for the Promotion of the Entrepreneurship Culture establishes projects of entrepreneurship in all levels of education.
c) Educational and labour guidance and counseling: aims to provide young people with tools to guide themselves regarding their educational and labour decisions. Chile for example, has financed education and labour guidance plans at schools.
d) Linkage to vocational training: linkages between schools and vocational training centers are promoted. The students attend the general programme in one shift and then in an extra-curricular shift, attend a vocational training center. Brazil and Colombia have included this perspective but there are experiences also in other countries like Argentina and Mexico.
One of the most lasting and consolidated experiences is taking place in Colombia, where since 2002, the coordination of secondary education with training for employment has received a new boost. In this context, the project introduced by the Ministry of Education, aimed to provide tenth- and eleventh-grade students in public and private institutions with the opportunity of obtaining general and specific occupational competencies through agreements between educational institutions and the business sector. This serves to promote the inclusion of this objective in the ‘institutional educational project’, through a number of activities. Emphasis on entrepreneurship and the provision of profitable educational practices is also included. In addition to training in general occupational competencies, the proposal also recommends the inclusion of specific occupational competencies for all students. In particular, the students’ requirements should be considered, aiming training at those students with a more defined professional vocation and those needing to find a job early on. The programmes should be recognized as equivalent to those offered under the National Training Service (SENA) in order to enhance double certification: the full secondary education certificate awarded by the school and the technical secondary certificate awarded by SENA or their authorized institutions.
The experience is not being implemented without debates. It is argued that the number of students is not really significant with regard to the total of secondary education students, since in 2010 the programme reached kist 6.6% of the school population between 12 and 17 years.
Some approaches criticize the unilateral or "vertical" idea of articulation with SENA, which does not provide spaces for participation to educational institutions and "that focuses teaching on training for work (and in some specific programs, like administration accounting) and neglects aspects such as socio-occupational guidance" (Gomez et al, 2009). It is also pointed out that the program depends on the installed capacity of the educational centers, limiting the articulation programs choice according to the previous offer of schools and also encouraging the excessive work teachers have to deal with without compensation.
So even in this lasting experience the risk of “light vocationalization” is present and further follow ups are needed. Beyond the limitations of the implementation they are innovative experiences of double certification and preparation for the world of work in general secondary education, which is interesting to examine for its impact towards institutions and youth.
Gómez Campos, Víctor Manuel, Díaz Ríos, Claudia Milena, Célis Giraldo, Jorge Enrique. 2009. El puente está quebrado: aportes a la reconstrucción de la educación media en Colombia, Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Facultad de Ciencias Humanas
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Cite article as: Jacinto, C., (2011) ‘Are Latin American Countries Promoting “Light Vocationalisation” in General Secondary Education (GSE)?’, in NORRAG NEWS, Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark, No.46, September 2011, pp. 49-51, available: http://www.norrag.org
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