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My mama say that if I am apprentice to this driver, after some time I will get my own licence and then I can get my own lorry to drive. And if I save my salary end my chop money I can buy my own lorry end then I will be big man like any lawyer or doctor. So I like that and after we have paid money to the driver of "Progres" plus one goat and one bottle of Gordon gin and one piece of cloth, I become his apprentice.
Ken Saro-Wiwa, SOZABOY
Longman, 1994: 11-12
This passage, from Saro-Wiwa's novel about a young Nigerian during the Biafran War, describes a common arrangement for vocational training for self-employment, and gives evidence of just how widespread and normal such practices are. Teasing out the fundamental elements of this useful arrangement yields valuable insights for those concerned with training for self-employment.
There is an eager apprentice with a clear sense of a market opportunity, and of the training needed to take advantage of that opportunity. There is a willing master, chosen from an array of willing masters, and a well established if informal system for passing along marketable skills. Barriers to entry are low. At the outset "Sozaboy" need demonstrate little beyond the willingness to work and to learn. The apprenticeship itself is the entry point to a large, loose, overlapping and ever-changing network of owners and operators, customers, mechanics, policemen, petrol sellers and others. This enterprise network will become the market, the resource base, and the principal support system for the apprentice's future enterprise.
The training to be undertaken will serve both the apprentice's need for skills and income and the master's need for skilled labour. The investment in training needed to achieve these ends promises to be a good one for all parties. The apprentice's income will provide for his immediate needs and help capitalise his future self-employment, and as his skills increase he will become an increasingly productive employee.
Good use will be made of existing productive assets. There is little or no need for additional investment in training equipment or infrastructure and little administrative expense. Because the arrangement is culturally embedded, flexible, economically sensible, and useful to all parties, the potential for replication is good and the likelihood of sustainability is high. Indeed, utility and sustainability are being demonstrated daily in dozens of countries.
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Box 1 - The Benefits Of Traditional Training Practices Traditional training practices, in common with all forms of on-the-job training, are strongly oriented towards practical work and local market demand. Informal sector trainees are exposed to most aspects of microenterprise while becoming thoroughly enmeshed in local society and the local economy. Traditional training practices provide useful skills, broad exposure to business realities, and the opportunity to cultivate the social and economic networks needed to overcome obstacles to self-employment. The business relationships that result are a low intensity, low cost and long-term form of follow-up assistance. The networks formed during training, especially the links with business owners and apprentice masters, provide readily available support during the critical early stages of enterprise "birth and survival" and opportunities for business linkages and mentoring support thereafter. Traditional training practices can provide marketable skills, access to economic opportunities, and the support system needed to capitalise on both. Source: Grierson (1995) |
Programmes to encourage self-employment and the informal sector through training and other measures are proliferating. Increasingly, self-employment support programmes are trying to learn from and emulate the traditional training practices long used by the informal sector.
Typically, training for self-employment is offered outside formal training systems, though there are noteworthy exceptions in Kenya and elsewhere, and a growing interest in formal sector training institutions becoming more familiar with traditional training practices (King, 1996b). Nonetheless, the everyday reality is that both self-employment and training for self-employment are essentially informal sector phenomena. Most self-employment is characterised by the modest physical and financial scale; low levels of technology and profitability; and uncertain and insecure legal status that are typical of the informal sector. Most training for self-employment takes place in this uncertain yet dynamic environment. Because this is the dominant reality, this book is primarily concerned with nonformal approaches to training for self-employment and specifically concerned with nonformal approaches that feature some form of vocational training as their essential element.
It is probably reasonable to ask early on: Why vocational training? Indeed, why training at all? Can training really help those hoping to become self-employed? In virtually all quarters, the current view of training is a well justified mix of scepticism and enthusiasm. Encapsulating both views, a recent report on the 1994 International Jobs Summit in Chicago observed that "the pro-training camp hugely overstate the ability of training to curb long-term unemployment" (The Economist, 1994). The simple answer though, and the answer that is the basis for most common practice and much of what follows, is that "the possession of some kind of skill or technical knowledge will make self-employment easier to enter and more productive" (King, July, 1984). Those hoping to become active in today's competitive markets need something to bargain with and the opportunity to begin bargaining. Vocational training for self-employment, when carefully designed to do so, can provide both. Increasingly, it is being recognised that market linkages through mechanisms such as apprenticeships in small enterprises, help training programmes impart marketable skills while creating access to market opportunities (Caillods, 1994).
There is much that can be learned about training for self-employment from the informal and traditional practices honoured in Sozaboy and used successfully in virtually all developing countries. Typically, these durable practices use enterprises as both the primary place of learning and as the starting point for new enterprise creation. But, durable as they are, traditional systems are in some respects quite fragile. Though the enterprises of the self-employed are typically of low technological sophistication, they operate in environments of high socio-cultural complexity. The noise and clutter of the informal sector often serves to hide the fact that traditional apprenticeships are sophisticated and subtle manifestations of the cultures they serve. This, and their clear success in their present state, are often the basis for arguing that governments and assistance agencies should not tamper with them (Fluitman and Oudin, December 1991). The limits of our current knowledge are such that it is probably best to err on the side of caution. Hence, learning from tradition - rather than proposing to modify it is the essential message offered here. The primary purpose of this book is to describe how the fundamental elements of common traditional practices have been adopted and adapted by a number of successful vocational training for self-employment programmes.
Where There Is No Job uses the term "vocational training" quite broadly to mean "learning a skill or trade in order to pursue a livelihood". For many vocational training will result in a "vocation" - which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as "one's ordinary occupation, business or profession". "Self-employment" refers to the considerable accomplishment of those who create a job for themselves and who work for their own account.
There is one fundamental aspect of self-employment that sets it apart and that highlight its importance as a means of combating unemployment and under-employment. Self-employment is economic self-help The self-employed have created new small units of economic activity; tiny businesses that are for the most part managed by their worker-owners. Successful self-employed businesspeople often go beyond this and employ others as well. And they are sometimes quite prosperous. There are, to be sure, impressive numbers of wealthy self-employed businesspeople, including many doctors, engineers, brokers and others. This book is lime concerned with this elite group of the self-employed. The vast majority of the self-employed are to be found in modest enterprises which generate little value-added and which earn only small profits, but which provide their owners sufficient income to live in modest comfort and dignity. It is this level of enterprise that we are primarily concerned with here.
Vocational training is commonly said to be "in crisis" (UNESCO, 1996), to be failing to respond to the needs of growing populations and rapidly changing labour markets. This crisis of vocational training is by no means limited to formal sector vocational training, though it is particularly pronounced there. Nonformal and NGO-based vocational training programmes also struggle to provide useful skills at reasonable cost to sufficient numbers of those in need. The crisis of vocational training has three interrelated aspects: the crisis of cost, the crisis of relevance, and the crisis of equity. Each of these aspects is examined briefly below.
The Crisis of Cost: Vocational training is inherently expensive.
Vocational training is expensive; infrastructure, equipment, training materials, and institutional and personnel overheads are all relatively costly. A large proportion of these costs is fixed. Vocational training tends to be lengthy. These structural factors, and the modest scale of many programmes, result in high unit training costs; a situation exacerbated by low and declining levels of enrolment, high drop-out rates, low post-training placement rates and limited application of the skills taught during training. Expensive under-utilised training facilities, that are seldom if ever used for commercial production, realise only a modest portion of their economic potential (Gent, 1979). The combined pressures of great need, growing numbers, and declining resources are compelling the search for less costly, more efficient and more appropriate forms of vocational training.
The Crisis of Relevance: There is a growing mismatch between the training offered by vocational training programmes and the skills needed for dynamic competitive markets.
Relevance refers to the degree to which the skills acquired in vocational training programmes can be used to meet the needs and aspirations of those who undergo training. If training is to be relevant, it must attract people, by responding to their aspirations, and serve them, by imparting skills that help them gain access to and compete in local markets. Ultimately, the principal measure of relevance is "jobs" - some form of work, either as an employee or through self-employment Overall, by this critical standard of measure, vocational training has demonstrated declining relevance in recent years. Training is not leading to work to the degree that it can and must.. And because of this well-known declining relevance, many of those who need marketable skills are "voting with their feet"; they are leaving or avoiding all types of vocational training programmes. The growing numbers of empty desks and abandoned workbenches are compelling evidence of the crisis of relevance. Many institutions and programmes are seeking renewed relevance through increased involvement in self-employment training. "In practice it has become very common to regard a reorientation towards self-employment as a major contribution towards revitalising" vocational training programmes and institutions (Hoppers, 1994).
There is as yet little to guide these efforts. Approaches based upon linkages with enterprise and industry are showing promise and are on the increase. Approaches based upon traditional practices, though newly popular in the literature and on the conference circuit, remain poorly understood and seldom effectively applied. There are still relatively few training initiatives that focus specifically on self-employment, and many of these are new and unproven. As a result, relatively little is known about how to enhance practical relevance.
The Crisis of Equity: Vocational training programmes are often difficult to access and use, especially for those in greatest need of self-employment skills.
Those seeking or needing self-employment, because of economic duress or social disadvantage, are increasingly among the target groups designated for vocational training assistance. The long-standing "crisis of equity" in vocational training poses particular problems for many of these new candidates for vocational training. Vocational training programmes often present considerable barriers-to-access and barriers-to-participation.
In practical terms, "equity" means "access" in the first instance. Equitable vocational training programmes present the lowest possible barriers-to-entry, in terms of gender, age, literacy levels, education, fees and physical proximity. Equity is not just about access, however. A foot-in-the-door is not enough. When the obvious problem of barriers-to-access has been overcome, the issue of equity quickly becomes the more formidable matter of addressing barriers-to-participation. The range and type of training choices on offer; the level, style and language of training; the manner of presentation and the teaching methods used; as well as course schedules, course structures and cultural considerations, are all common barriers-to-participation. These are just the areas that must be carefully considered when designing to avoid a crisis of equity. Vocational training for self-employment programmes must be at least as flexible as their clients, if they are to serve them equitably. Effective self-employment training programmes must be designed to reflect and accommodate the lives and the customs of those they intend to serve.
The best way for low-income countries to use vocational training to "prepare for the future relatively efficiently and equitably" is to focus on "immediately applicable skills for self-employment in agriculture, crafts, light industrial production and commerce" (Carnoy, 1994). However, the resources available to pursue this goal are in most cases quite limited, while those in need of self-employment assistance are many. This harsh reality argues in favour of low-cost approaches, both to allow for adequate economic returns on investments in training, and to ensure that necessarily limited resources serve the largest possible number of people. Vocational training for self-employment programmes must keep costs and access barriers low, while keeping relevance and participation levels high, and they must do so for steadily expanding numbers and categories of those in need.
The following section presents a framework for designing individual approaches to vocational training for self-employment. This framework, along with careful consideration of the issues of cost, relevance and equity, will serve as the basis for much of the discussion and analysis that follows.
There are three broad stages in the training for self-employment process:
· The Selection Stage;
· The Training Stage; and
· The Enterprise Stage.
These three stages can be represented as a simple production process:
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RAW MATERIAL |
PROCESSING |
PRODUCT |
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————————————————————® | ||
This conceptualisation, though deceptively simple, is a useful one because it emphasises the fact that vocational training for self-employment is a process comprised of several distinct yet interrelated elements. In addition, it helps make clear the distinction between processing and product. That is, it highlights the difference between what a training programme or enterprise development agency does directly and what is expected to result from their efforts. When "jobs" - whether as employment and self-employment - rather than qualifications or numbers of graduates becomes the ultimate measure of success, it becomes both necessary and useful to think of selection, processing and product as distinct stages in a complex process.
· The Selection Stage involves the criteria and systems used for target group designation and trainee ("raw material") selection.
· The Training Stage includes the design and delivery of all forms of vocational training ("processing"), whether institution, project or enterprise based.
· The Enterprise Stage encompasses the techniques used and services provided in support of self-employment ("product") at the start-up stage, and later as follow-up assistance.
All three stages are integrated into the Planning and Assessment Framework for Vocational Training For Self-Employment, shown in Figure I, overleaf.
Figure I
Planning and Assessment Framework for Vocational Training for Self- Employment
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Selection Stage —® |
Training Stage —® |
Enterprise Stage |
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· Target group designation |
· Course identification & design |
· Start-up support |
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· Trainee selection criteria |
· Training venue choice |
· Follow-up support |
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· Trainee selection |
· Training technique choice | |
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· Training delivery | |
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Raw material —® |
Processing —® |
Product |
Source: Derived from Grierson and McKenzie, 1996.
Interventions in favour of self-employment can focus on any or all of these stages, and can do so with quite varying degrees of intensity and effectiveness. The points of intervention, and the nature of the intervention, have considerable influence on the degree of self-employment success, as well as on costs and on management complexity.
Perhaps the single most important design principle is that there should be consistency throughout the training for self-employment process. Selection criteria, training approach and follow-up strategy must all be consistent in their pursuit of self-employment. Though training approaches will vary considerably according to context, target group, and the characteristics of individual training agencies, the principle of consistency applies in all cases. Vocational training for self-employment programmes must be consistent throughout all three stages of the training for self-employment process.
Errors of inconsistency are all too common. For example, those intending to use vocational training solely for access to higher education often comprise a large proportion of those enrolled in formal vocational training programmes. When allowed to do so, they severely constrain efforts to support self-employment. In cases, such as Bangladesh's rural trade schools, inconsistent selection criteria cause both inefficiency, by draining resources and misdirecting well-intentioned training efforts, and inequity, by blocking access for those who both want and need to learn self-employment skills (Becker in Fluitman, 1989).
Whether formal or informal, vocational training is inherently expensive. Vocational training for self-employment is a largely untested use of this expensive mechanism. Good programme design increases cost-effectiveness, by making best use of available resources, by helping reduce and share training costs, and by increasing overall effectiveness. When self-employment criteria and approaches are not used consistently, inefficiency will be the likely result. Ultimately, inefficiency will manifest itself in the form of high relative cost per person successfully self-employed, and low relative impact in terms of the proportion of those assisted who become self-employed. Or, more succinctly put: inconsistent programmes will usually have poor results.
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Box 2 - The Effects of Inconsistency In 1988 the Indian government initiated a 5 year programme to re-orient 95 vocational training institutes (VTIs) to self-employment and to give 4,170 VTI graduates additional training in entrepreneurship and "demand based trades". At its conclusion the programme had admitted only 228 trainees to 18 institutions, of which 171 completed training. Few of these became self-employed. One institute, the Industrial Training Institute, Bangalore, was evaluated to ascertain the reasons for the disappointing performance. The evaluation found that was there was no provision for seeking "entrepreneurs" at the selection stage, that there was only limited local market involvement at the training stage, and that no start-up or follow-up support was available at the enterprise stage. Source: Awashti (1996) |
Though the evidence is still largely anecdotal, it is increasingly clear that the later in the self-employment process that specific support for self-employment is initiated, the less likely that self-employment will result. Merely adding self-employment support services late in the vocational training process will do little to stimulate self employment. Correspondingly, getting an early start - that is, selecting those with self-employment potential and intent - is an important success factor. The evidence strongly suggests that the sheep must be separated from the goats early on; it is unlikely that they can be changed into goats late in the process.
The actions and objectives at the raw material stage (equitable selection for self-employment potential) and the product stage (successful self-employment) must be consistent and well matched. Vocational training is simply the link between the two, though it may well be the basis for the self-employment that results. Nonetheless, even if otherwise well designed, training can do little to correct for "errors of inconsistency" at the selection stage. Getting an early start, and being consistent throughout, emerge as the basic vocational training for self-employment design principles.
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Box 3 - Training for Self-employment: Design Principles 1. Be consistent throughout the training for self-employment process Training programmes must apply self-employment criteria and approaches curing all three stages of the training for self-employment process. 2. Concentrate on the early stages. Training programmes should concentrate on the first two stages of the training for self-employment process. They should identify and select those with self-employment potential; and they should use "training approaches that provide marketable skills and access to self-employment opportunities and support. Source: Grierson and McKenzie, 1996 |
The Case Studies in the following chapter present a variety of approaches to vocational training for self-employment. Yet in spite of their considerable diversity, they have much in common: all have responded effectively to the issues of cost, relevance and equity, all have started early, and all have been consistent in their focus on self-employment throughout all stages of the training for self-employment process. Together, they demonstrate that the careful application of a few basic principles can have considerable impact in terms of self-employment creation.
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