CAF encourages involvement of productive sector in technical and vocational training

Cecilia Llambí, education specialist at CAF, moderated the forum on didactic approaches, which featured Miguel Venturiello, Counselor at Universidad del Trabajo (Uruguay), María Rosa Almandoz of Universidad Nacional de Moreno (Argentina), and Jarbas Barato from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil). The forum highlighted that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) must face the challenges of ensuring relevance of its training offers in order to effectively boost the articulation between education and the labor world, and contribute to the universalization of secondary education.

Recognizing on-the-job training as a field of skills training, not only on specific techniques but also cross-disciplinary skills such as teamwork, creative problem-solving or effective communication, as well as establishing flexible training pathways with certification of competency, are some of the possible ways to achieve this. To this end, the productive sector needs to be involved in the definition of common objectives and to bring about changes in roles and responsibilities of educational institutions and companies in terms of teaching-learning processes and in relation to self-assessment and certification of competencies.

The forum which aimed to open a space for discussion on the challenges of Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Latin America and to promote the definition of consolidation guidelines, brought together leaders from the Ministries of Education and/or scholars, representatives of the private and labor sector, administrators of national technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems and multilateral bodies.

Participants debated the issues of relevance of TVET models and the world of labor, presented international articulation experiences on TVET and discussed specific training approaches to this educational modality. Other topics included the importance of promoting company-school links, the development of innovative pedagogies in technical offerings, the expansion of strategies to boost demand for such programs, and transitions to other training and/or labor pathways.

Jorge Arévalo Turrillas, Vice-Counsel for Vocational Training of the Basque Country, Pablo Narvaja, from the National University of Lanús (Argentina), Naceur Chrati, Head of the Platform for Vocational Training Experiences at the IIPE Office for Africa, Fernando Fernando Ubal, Director of the National Employment and Vocational Training Institute (Uruguay), Alicia Segura, Director of Education at Toyota (Argentina), were some of the participants in the different panels, where they shared their initiatives.

The forum also featured representatives and technical teams from the business sector and workers from Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador.