Introduction
Non-formal education
The vocational training system
Rural training
NGO-organised training
Conclusions
We have already considered training through the medium of vocational education in the school location in the previous chapter. In chapter four, we will turn to consider training within enterprises, both formal and informal sector. What we are concerned with in this chapter, therefore, is a half-way house of sorts - after schooling but before work. The focus here is on training that takes place in centres outside the worlds of school and work, but owing something in character to both. We have used the term "post-school and out-of-school training" since much of this does take place immediately after primary or secondary education, and requires prescribed levels of educational achievement as entry qualifications. At the same time, there is a great variety of short-cycle nonformal training available, and this tends to be much less dependent on prior educational qualifications.
The emphasis by donors on non-formal education (NFE) has subsided since the 1970s, and, for instance, in the World Conference on Education for All in 1991, it was clear that school education got a great deal more attention than did literacy programmes and many other varieties of NFE (NORRAG NEWS 1991). However, it is essential to analyse something of the scope and potential of NFE, as it has often been the recourse of the very disadvantaged groups which populate much of the informal sector. Much of what is referred to here will be returned to in more detail later in this chapter when we consider the role of NGOs in providing non-formal education and training for disadvantaged groups.
It has always been difficult to capture the nature and extent of NFE. One reason for this is that NFE projects and programmes and especially those associated with tens of thousands of NGOs in the developing world are typically multi-purpose; they include a dimension of social awareness and mobilisation, some community development, an element of adult literacy, but very frequently also some significant encouragement towards income generation and increased agricultural productivity. It is this last dimension that makes NFE important to our current study, the view that NFE has closer links with work than most school-based education. This focus of NFE on training for productive activity was evident in one of the earliest classics to survey NFE: Sheffield and Diejomah's Non-formal education in African development (1972).
The major difficulty in making a more considered assessment of the nature and extent of NFE - let alone its impact on the informal sector - is that, in many cases in developing countries, those who attend different types of classes and even those who formally enrol are often not registered as part of national educational statistics.
A further problem in linking NFE to self employment and the informal sector is the lack of differentiation between the different kinds of non-formal education. There have been many attempts at classification but most are only useful in the very specific circumstances in which they were derived. Early, general attempts (e.g. Coombs, Prosser and Ahmed 1973; La Belle 1982, etc.) are inadequate precisely because they fail to take account of the specific circumstances under which a set of non-formal educational activities has arisen and what its ultimate objectives are. In generic terms, however - the application of which will vary from country to country - we can distinguish between:
· para-formal education - activities providing a substitute for regular full-time schooling, a second chance for those who for one reason or another missed out on the regular school system;· popular education - where the focus is on the poor and adapting the content and pedagogy to the needs of the users
· personal development activities - where a 'market' for courses has arisen in which different courses are being sold for direct consumption as is the case for artistic-expressive courses
· professional training - including the many kinds of especially short-cycle vocational training for particular occupations (Carron and Carr-Hill 1991)..
Within this framework, a large number of different activities may be part of education and training for the informal sector. Because of the difficulty of capturing NFE activity mentioned above, there have been very few systematic surveys of the range of provision in any one country. Those that do exist, however, suggest that there is a substantial investment in education and training for the informal sector. Examples from three relatively comprehensive surveys of programmes - in Cameroon, Lesotho and in Latin America - are given below.
In the Cameroon survey, the main objectives of NFE activities included the following, and within these that are several that could benefit the informal sector, either through pre-service or in-service modes:
· acquisition of basic agricultural knowledge (extension)
· acquisition of practical agricultural skills (including the manufacture of equipment and tools)
· acquisition of basic health-related knowledge
· acquisition of practical handicraft production skills
· acquisition of practical homemaking skills
· learning to read, write and do arithmetic (literacy and numeracy skills)
· training in small-scale financial management, savings and commercial skills
· occupational retraining for the handicapped
· rehabilitation of delinquents (Creative Associates 1983: 21).
In practice, of the 267 projects inventoried, 127 were directed at teaching new agricultural practices (48%), 71 at small scale management techniques (27%), 60 at literacy skills (22%), 57 at reeducation and functional training (21%), and 14 towards the construction of equipment and tools (5%) (Creative Associates 1983: 23).
In Lesotho, the different actors see their major goals to be occupational education, community development education, and family improvement education. Clearly, orientation towards the informal sector could be a large component of what constitutes community development education. The predominant topics covered were agriculture and animal husbandry (63% of programmes), health nutrition and family education (49% of programmes) and literacy, numeracy and migrant education (with 20% of programmes). The congruence is not obvious between goals and topics but it is noticeable that many of the courses are directly or indirectly related to production; and many others could contribute to sustaining the development of micro-enterprises.
One of the most recent surveys in Latin America (Schmelkes 1990) confirms not only the salience of NGOs in the delivery of post-literacy and work programmes in 13 countries of the region (55% of the most significant programmes are NGO-sponsored, and many of the others are jointly carried out by state and private bodies); the survey also attests to the multi-dimensionality of NGO programmes, as they often address literacy, health, skill acquisition and much else. However, within the 76 major programmes across the region, it was clear that skills (of potential significance to micro-enterprises) were crucial:
The majority of the sampled programmes fall with the first objective (improved productivity), since they emphasise skill development, vocational training, productivity, technological development, micro-enterprise enhancement and other characteristics associated with individual improvements in human capital (Corvalan 1994).
It appears that the programmes with the greatest uptake are those which impart a transferable skill whether that be basic literacy or improved organisational capacity rather than a specific kind of training. In many cases, the initial enthusiasm and motivation for self-improvement via the informal sector may well come from participating in just such a general 'course' organised around "life skills".
Organising a review or survey around NFE programmes with a particular substantive content linked to production - as did Sheffield and Diejomah (1972) - may not be very easy to do in most countries because of the statistical weaknesses already alluded to. But there is sufficient evidence available to take us back to the twin threads that ran through the previous chapter on education: that orientation to the informal economy can be explicitly arranged through specific content, or it can be developed through an emphasis on completely general skills such as literacy and numeracy. Alternatively it can be acquired through these academic skills being taught in a vocational way (Sawamura 1994).
Given the difficulty of systematically surveying what is taking place in these areas, we have picked out three themes as being of particular interest to donors in the current climate: the (cost-) effectiveness of (mostly urban) vocational training institutes (VTIs); the importance of developing alternative modes of provision in the rural areas; and the increasing and varied role of NGOs.
Much of this post - and out-of - school training takes place within a national, state-controlled training system. Such systems have been the subject of similar debates regarding efficiency to those which have emerged within the education system. In the training system, the debates perhaps have greater importance, however. In most countries there is limited scope for non-state provision of education, especially in the basic cycle. Training, on the other hand, is less obviously the preserve of the state. We shall consider this debate and others which surround the training system and its ability to respond to the needs of both the formal and informal sectors.
A second focus of this chapter will be on programmes which seek to provide training in rural contexts. Increasingly, such training has become well-integrated into the overall training system, particularly in Latin America. Nonetheless, there are issues and experiences peculiar to the rural context and these will be explored.
Often such provision began in the NGO sector and has been incorporated over time into state training structures. Nonetheless, there is still a recognisable NGO tradition of training (or, more accurately, a series of such traditions). But this process of incorporation of NGO training initiatives into state provision has to be set against a contrary tendency which is the direct encouragement by the state of NGO delivery of education, training, health, etc. Government's incapacity to provide some of these basic social services - especially in some of the countries most affected by debt and structural adjustment - has produced a new opportunity and a challenge to NGOs to become alternative providers of what had been thought of as a state obligation. We shall pay attention to these developments also, as they impact on training.
Public v. Private
We start with a number of general trends concerning the debate on training, and then look at its implications for our main target audience, the informal sector.
Recent years have seen world-wide attempts to roll back the boundaries of the state. This is reflected in the arena of training policy. The most recent World Bank sector paper on vocational training (World Bank 1991a) speaks eloquently of the need to support private sector training. It argues that the state is often an unsuitable agent for providing training. Rather, its primary role should be that of a facilitator, supervisor and standard-setter through the creation of an enabling training environment. Central to this enabling environment is the avoidance of what it terms distortions likely to constrain private sector investment in training. There are circumstances, however, when the World Bank admits that the state may have to play a role in the actual provision of training. This is most likely in the least developed countries where the private sector is at its weakest and also where employers are resistant to training (World Bank 1991a).
The World Bank is probably correct to stress the importance of the state's creation of an enabling environment. However, there seems to be considerable grounds for scepticism about the advisability of a minimalist role for the state in training provision, in situations where there is no powerful existing employer tradition of training. Evidence for this comes not just from developing countries, but also from the UK (Institute for Public Policy Research 1990) and from several of the NICs (Kraak 1993). The ILO in particular appears to be of the opinion that the World Bank is over-optimistic about the ability and/or willingness of enterprises to provide socially optimal levels of training (e.g. Kanawaty and de Moura Castro 1990). The power of such arguments seems indicated by the acknowledgement of a greater state role in training contained within the World Bank's latest contribution to the debate (Middleton et al. 1993).
The way forward might be for the state seriously to consider where its own comparative advantage in training lies, and where other agencies have a comparative advantage. More importantly, perhaps, it may also wish to seek to explore what can and should be done through the development of mutually reinforcing relationships between itself and the private sector (Bowland 1988; Kanawaty and de Moura Castro 1990).
It is clear that in many countries private training needs to be encouraged. Here the Bank argues that deregulation is the key to efficiency (World Bank 1991a). Certainly, there has been too much restrictive legislation. However, existing market imperfections (often exogenous) suggest that there is a case for supportive legislation. An accreditation system which sets minimum standards reflective of the realities of the whole range of training agents should be a major part of training policy (Bowland 1988).
One significant area of market imperfection appears to be the information market. In most developing countries information is a rare and costly resource. Many people simply do not have access to the necessary information for the identification of their training possibilities. One innovative way in which this is being tackled is illustrated by the case of PRIDE, Kenya. This ODA-funded programme sells subsidised training vouchers to its clients (PRIDE 1990). This in itself is an important technique, worthy of further examination.
More significant, however, is PRIDE's organisation of a market where training agencies are brought together with prospective trainees. Whilst in Kenya this has been done by an NGO, there may be many countries in which the state would have to take responsibility for such an innovation.
In many countries there has been a rapid growth of proprietary (for profit) training in recent years. This has tended to focus on a narrow range of subjects such as secretarial skills and computing. However, in spite of the often high cost of such training, there is an increasing unemployment problem for its graduates. As a result, there seems to be little potential in many countries for further expansion of such training.
In much of Africa the weak state has a counterpart in an anaemic, private formal sector of the economy. In Latin America, however, the private sector has long played a major role in training provision (Ducci 1994). Across the region there are a series of national training agencies (NTAs). These are funded by a mixture of payroll levies on firms and fees. They often provide a variety of courses which are aimed at all sectors of the economy including the informal sector, so that in a sense the formal private sector is subsidising training for the informal via the NTAs (Ducci 1991). In Chile, provision is contracted out to a myriad of agencies, including NGOs, proprietary training institutions and universities (Messina 1993). Elsewhere, as in Colombia, the national training agency is the provider but utilises local trainers and infrastructure wherever possible (Ramirez 1993b).
Latin American training systems have largely been successful (Ducci 1991). Their success seems to be due to semi-autonomous training bodies supported by the private sector and the state, as well as by an active network of NGOs that are responsible for many of the innovations in training at a more local (rural and municipal) level (Ducci 1994). There are fears, however, for the future. It appears that even this reduced level of state involvement in training provision is too great for some policy makers who have internalised structural adjustment ideology. As a result, training is in some countries being increasingly subcontracted to private training companies (Gallart 1994; Messina 1993). Many of these trends towards privatisation of training have focused on training for the formal sector. However, considerable elements of the debate are also relevant to the informal sector. Previously support for the informal sector was seen as an unfortunate social necessity, due to the harsh reality of insufficient formal sector jobs. Recently, however, there has been increasing attention on the informal sector as the engine of private enterprise. Indeed, self-employment in the informal or micro-enterprise sector is seen as quintessentially a private sector activity (King 1993). This is reflected in a changed emphasis away from government-sponsored intervention programmes and towards the removal of government-created obstacles to the efficient operation of market mechanisms (World Bank 1991a). However, the reservations expressed above about the ability and willingness of the private formal sector to provide socially optimal levels of training may be even stronger when it comes to the informal sector.
Reforming the vocational training institute (VTI)
Prior to the current questioning of training policy by donors (particularly the World Bank), governments of developing countries established (usually with donor, often with ILO or World Bank, assistance) networks of Vocational Training Institutions with an apex National Vocational Training Centre. These institutions were given the responsibility for the preparation of skilled manpower for industry (Bowland 1994; de Moura Castro 1991).
Traditionally, policy makers and implementors viewed industry in narrowly modern sector oriented terms. However, it has become increasingly clear that the modern industrial sector has severe difficulties in absorbing manpower into wage employment. Therefore, a mismatch has developed between the likely labour market destination of VTI graduates and the training orientation they receive.
As state-financed and -directed institutions, VTIs typically have been slow to react to this contradiction (Awashti 1993). However, the retreat of the state in many countries in the face of financial collapse (e.g. Africa) and/or resurgent laissez-faire ideology (e.g. Latin America) has brought many VTIs face to face with harsh realities. In some countries, e.g. Jamaica, VTI reforms are already well established (HEART 1993), whilst in others, such as Ghana, the planners are still deciding on how best to implement government policy calling for such a reorientation.
The early 1990s have also seen considerable donor interest in VTI reform. It is a key element of the reform package envisaged in the latest World Bank sectoral paper (World Bank 1991a). It is also the subject of research currently being undertaken by the ILO. Bilateral donor interest has also been evident, e.g. from both SIDA and DANIDA in the case of vocational training system reform in Tanzania.
Whilst it is evident that much of the necessary reform must be at the policy level, a significant degree of reorientation is beginning at VTI level (e.g. Ball 1991; Rao and Wright 1991; Awashti 1993; MEDI 1993). It is likely that VTIs will continue to play a role in preparing workers for the formal sector, and many reforms are directed towards the more efficient achievement of this. But it is noticeable that a good deal of the reform efforts of the ILO in respect of the VTIs is concerned with thinking through their potential for influencing the informal and micro-enterprise sector. Typical of this is the Turin Workshop and research papers of December 1993 on 'Training for self-employment through VTIs' (ILO 1993).
Many of the wider debates about the impact of globalisation, flexible specialisation, internationalisation of markets, and the diffusion of new technologies are much more related to developments in the OECD countries and the NICs (along with their VTIs) than they are to the poorer developing countries and their training systems. (See for example the papers to the ILO Workshop on new trends in training policies [October 1993] for these trends).
The relevance of vocational training to the workplace in industrialised countries is frequently questioned (Lauglo 1994). There is a greater problem in developing countries where time- and occupation-limited structures are even less appropriate. It is sometimes argued that the possibility of using competency-based approaches to facilitate flexible training periods should also be investigated for developing countries. Modularisation might also be extended in order to make training more flexible. But in considering the relevance of these new modalities for the developing world, it must always be remembered that in the North these new developments in the training system have only worked effectively when they mirrored and were reinforced by new developments in technology, labour processes and in the economy more generally. Even more so in the South, the introduction of isolated innovations in the training system alone is likely to be ineffective.
The reform of VTIs is driven in the South by a double agenda. On the one hand reforms are seeking to make their relationship with the wage employment sector a good deal more flexible. On the other, VTIs are being urged to orient their trainees towards self-employment and enterprise since the mismatch is so stark between numbers of formal sector jobs and numbers of aspirants. But the fact that many of their graduates eventually will enter the informal sector does not mean that attention should be switched away entirely from the wage employment sector. Reforms which increase the articulation between training and the realities of the world of wage employment should not be dismissed as irrelevant. Whilst much attention at the political level has been focused on the preparation of youth for immediate post-training self-employment, there is a considerable body of evidence suggesting that frequently the most successful informal sector actors are those who have entered the sector after a combination of training plus a substantial period of employment in the formal sector (e.g. Grierson 1993; Mead and Kunjeku 1993). Even though the modern sector is very small (and is not even 'modern' by the standards of what is happening in the North), it remains the source of much of the most relevant technological learning for the eventually self-employed.
VTIs are becoming increasingly attuned to market realities, although this process is often hampered by excessive bureaucratisation and centralisation of decision-making (Awashti 1993). In Latin America, vocational training is less shackled by bureaucracy and is more able to cover costs, largely through payroll levies (Ducci 1991). In Africa, however, it is likely that self-financing will remain a distant goal for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, there are examples of institutions where significant cost-recovery is being achieved. An illustrative case is that of Harare Polytechnic in Zimbabwe. Whilst state regulations mean that the official courses of the Polytechnic are free; it has been able to offer evening classes which have attracted huge numbers of students whilst covering costs and partly subsidising the day-time programme. The Engineering Department, for instance, has had up to 700 external students enrolled for particular courses (ApT 1993a). This example indicates that even where the state is reluctant to abandon subsidised tertiary level technical education, there is scope for innovative methods of cost-recovery, as well as a significant market for training.
In some sense the above illustration presents a paradox about VTI reform. Within the full-time day provision of many VTIs the traditional student clienteles, often still highly subsidised, are being urged to become more oriented towards self-employment. In the evening provision, large numbers of aspirants are paying much more for their courses, and may well be activated by a desire to use such training to enter wage-employment.
In this situation, not nearly enough is known about who are the present clienteles of both formal full-time and less formal, part-time vocational courses, and what the implications of the agenda of flexibility, reduction of subsidy and deregulation might be for these clienteles.
Training with Production
Training with production, as contrasted with Education with production (EWP), is common in both Africa and Latin America. In Asia, however, it is less apparent. In India, for example, this is due to the strictness of labour legislation, which makes such training unattractive to potential providers.
In parts of Africa and Latin America, however, Training with production (TWP) has received a degree of support from policy makers, implementors and researchers. Its supposed benefits may be seen as four-fold. Firstly, through the sale of the output from workshops, an element of cost-recovery can be introduced. Secondly, the retention by the students of their products or income derived from production can help to reduce the costs of training for these students. This, it is argued, should increase the access of disadvantaged groups to training. Thirdly, by making the learning situation closer to the realities of production, pedagogical benefits can accrue. Fourthly, the productive process can increase the self-worth of the individual (Biervliet 1994).
In practice, however, TWP is difficult to organise (Kanawaty and de Moura Castro 1990). Training (T) and production (P) are often conceived of as occupying the same continuum with training programmes being situated somewhere between the two poles.
Such a view implies that there are trade-offs between the amounts of both training and production to be attempted as part of the particular training programme.
However, it is also possible to view training and production as discrete environments. In such a view, training undertaken in a production environment (in an enterprise) reflects the realities of production rather than training, and vice versa (King 1985).
(adapted from King 1985: 76; [T = Training; P = Production])
This analysis implies that an ideal blend of training with production may not be possible. Rather, the production imperative is likely to predominate in some situations, and in others it is possible that the emphasis upon training will tend to reduce the learning from production (Grierson 1989b).
The difficulties of this balance between training and production are illustrated by one of the best known examples of TWP, that of the Botswana Brigades. The Brigades were founded in 1965 as a response to the needs of youth unable to get places at secondary school (Van Rensburg 1978). Initially for building, and later for a range of other trades, they aimed to provide workshop training, supplemented by theoretical lessons and general education. However, the majority of the trainees' time was to be spent in productive activities. The Brigades ran into problems with this approach, however. Over time, the movement began to be strongly differentiated between production and training brigades, although both still reflect the original mandate to an extent.
The example of the Brigades also suggests that a form of TWP can achieve a good degree of success. The system has produced a large number of craftsmen with nationally recognised certification (Hinchliffe et al 1988). The performance of the Brigades in providing low-cost training for disadvantaged youth has been largely positive and has led to the Brigades being increasingly formalised into the state system of provision (Hinchliffe et al 1988, Närman 1988a). Such a programme does appear to minimise opportunity costs for students and facilitates more equitable access to training.
From the perspective of the original notion of the Brigades being a way of developing small scale rural enterprises, the evidence is more mixed. Only a short time after they had started, the Botswana economy began to grow rapidly, based on new-found minerals, and hence many Brigade-leavers, once destined for rural self-employment, found themselves working in the booming formal sector building industry and elsewhere. And now that the Brigades have become the lowest layer of a national hierarchy of vocational training, it is likely that their original self-employment agenda will be further eroded.
Moreover, the very qualified success of examples such as the Brigades is probably outweighed by negative counter examples. In many cases TWP simply equates to poor quality production. Furthermore, frequently it also leads to competition between the subsidised production of the VTI (using the VTI trainees as cheap or free labour) and the output of the informal sector enterprises nearby. As well as being a market distortion, such production will inevitably increase the suspicion with which VTIs are regarded by many informal sector producers.
TWP strategies still appear to be on the agenda of many policy makers. In some instances this has resulted in heads of national training systems being left with the dilemma of having been ordered to implement a policy of TWP that their experience tells them does not work. What this group may need most is alternative strategies to present to their governments, not financial and technical assistance for a potentially flawed programme.
But equally what needs to be recognised is that what may be termed an informal sector version of TWP is often already embedded in VTIs. By this it is meant that, given the lack of government support for materials, instructors have turned to using the facilities of the VTI for production, and are really just offering on-the-job training to their trainees while organising 'custom jobs' to outside clienteles. This lower case kind of twp is a not uncommon response of training systems faced with structural adjustment, but it is yet one more example of the training for self-employment existing in one form before the government or the donor agencies promote it in another (King 1990b).
Entrepreneurial Skills Development Programmes (ESDPs)
A common criticism of graduates of VTIs is that they lack the entrepreneurial skills and attitudes that are the prerequisites of successful informal sector actors. In Latin America the national training agencies were often swift in their adoption of such an approach (Ducci 1991). There is also increasing evidence of responses to this trend in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. In the Commonwealth, for example, a programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat has led to the development of Entrepreneurial Skills Development Guidelines, and the launching of pilot projects in several member countries (Rag, Wright and Mukherjee 1990).
Experience in developing such projects appears to suggest that what is required for their success is a transformation rather than a reformation of existing VTIs (Rao and Wright 1991). It is insufficient simply to add on business courses to the existing content of VTI training provision. This will not alter the hidden curriculum of such institutions (MEDI 1993). Rather, whether entrepreneurial skills development is organised as an optional course; a core offering for all students; or as the central element of the training package, it must be fully internalised by the institution (Hoppers 1992). This is a major undertaking, requiring, inter alia, the right supportive financial and legislative framework from the government, and a rethinking of staff and student recruitment (Awashti 1993 and MEDI 1993).
An example of a successful reorientation of this kind is provided by the Malawian Entrepreneurs Development Institute (MEDI). This was a conventional VTI which changed its name and focus in 1985. At that point entrepreneurship accounted for approximately 30% of course content (MEDI 1993). Subsequently, the entrepreneurial content of MEDI courses has increased as it has shifted towards a new role of taking graduates from conventional VTIs and providing them with entrepreneurial skills plus some technical skills upgrading closely tied to commercial requirements. The technical upgrading is done in a TWP context. MEDI only accepts those who wish to be self-employed and appear to have entrepreneurial potential (MEDI 1993).
In MEDI's case reorientation appears to have been highly successful (MEDI 1993). The factors central to this success are significant. This was a root and branch change which transformed MEDI from being a VTI in any conventional form and which was accompanied by the termination of the contracts of many of the training staff. MEDI's new orientation makes it suitable for the development of the entrepreneurial abilities of those who already possess technical skills and have the potential to become successful entrepreneurs. However, such an institution is not a suitable vehicle for reaching the large majority of people who are likely to be involved in the informal sector.
It is unlikely that MEDI will be a relevant model for the majority of VTIs. If, as seems certain, traditional VTIs are to continue to exist, it may be more realistic to seek to develop a limited number of Small Enterprise Development Institutions to provide entrepreneurial preparation for the informal sector rather than attempting to introduce enterprise education systematically into all VTIs (Hoppers 1992). Such centres could act as resources for other agencies interested in entrepreneurship development. Indeed, it is possible to envisage replication of the model of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI-I) which exists primarily as a facilitator rather than a provider of entrepreneurial development courses (Awashti, Murali and Bhat 1990).
One of the commonest current prescriptions for VTIs is that they offer enterpreneurial training for all their students, so that they are oriented to occupations other than wage-employment. As the example of MEDI makes clear, a serious commitment to enterprise development means far-reaching changes, and a fundamentally different kind of institution, involved not just with training but with many of the other services, such as credit and extension, associated with small enterprise development ('maximalist approach'). The alternative, 'minimalist' approach keeps enterprise training to a minimum, as a single subject, in an institution that is still primarily concerned with skill training. There is no involvement with small scale credit, follow-up or other services.
If an institution, such as a VTI, really wishes to bring enterprise into its core curriculum, this is no longer a curricular question. It involves rethinking who are the appropriate clientele, what pre-training experience should they have, and what support should be offered after they leave (King 1993).
The Future of Vocational Training
World-wide, vocational training systems are experiencing a period of profound change (ILO 1993). They are becoming- more responsive to a set of new labour market and technology shifts. Government agencies are beginning to forge genuine alliances with other agencies which possess comparative advantage in various aspects of training provision. Governments are also becoming more aware of their responsibility to create an enabling environment in which both training and production can flourish. There are many situations in which the change of the state's role from player (and provider) to referee (and standard-setter) is desirable. However, it is important to avoid ideological zeal being permitted to outweigh practical considerations, and to recollect that many of these trends are affecting OECD countries more than the poorer developing countries
The VTI itself is also subject to great pressure to change. It is clear that many have been obliged, through political and economic changes, to become more flexible in terms of funding and curricula. This is particularly true of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and selectively of developing countries. In these latter, they are increasingly expected to reflect, through the composition of both their staff and student bodies, a greater emphasis on the informal sector. However, there will be a continued role for the VTI in preparation for the formal sector. More and more, therefore, developing country VTIs are expected to cater to both clienteles, formal and informal. This is not necessarily a contradictory requirement, however. Many eventual informal sector actors will also spend a period of time in the formal sector accumulating skills and capital. Therefore, reformed formal sector training can be good for the informal sector too.
As we have suggested in the two previous chapters, we should not expect to find a single model of the most suitable VTI response to the pressures to reorient towards self-employment Different VTIs will necessarily reflect different existing institutional realities and intended policy imperatives. It will be necessary for planners at both institutional and national level to determine the appropriate degree of self-employment focus in each circumstance. The options available may range from no change at all to a total reorientation towards preparation for self-employment. This range of options can be presented in a simplified form by the below decision tree: 2
2 The following model and the discussion surrounding it are taken from the report of a working group at the ILO Expert Consultation on Training for Self-Employment through Vocational Training Institutions, held in Turin, December 1993. It owes much to John Grierson.
Essentially, this model illustrates that there are a variety of possible responses to the pressure to reorient VTIs towards self-employment. Option 1 represents the situation in which the VTI continues to serve its traditional, formal sector constituency only. Such a position may reflect a belief in the need for the continuing provision of training to such a constituency, or it may point to an incapacity to take on a new and much more challenging clientele. It should not, therefore, be seen as an irrational resistance to inevitable and necessary change.
Option 2 reflects similar concerns but allows a role for the VTI in coordinating with other agencies deemed to be more suited to providing the non-skills aspects of self-employment preparation.
Option 3 reflects the reality that evolutionary change is often more advisable than revolutionary change. It reflects and respects the VTIs experience in providing its "core" activity of technical skills training. However, it acknowledges additionally that traditional subjects and methodologies may no longer reflect even the realities of the formal sector and that their reform might better equip the VTI to address the skills needs of both the formal and informal sectors.
Option 4 would maintain the technical skills preparation activity of the VTI but would provide self-employment focused non-technical training support services in addition to the "core". Inter alia, such additions could include ESDPs, marketing assistance and business counselling services.
Option 5 would be a MEDI-style approach. Whilst some degree of technical training might be retained within the package of provision, the primary focus of the institution would have changed from technical training to self-employment preparation.
If changes are to take place then they will require an altered emphasis at national policy level as well as in the VTIs. There is a need to consider how the institutionalisation of any such change can be built into national- and VTI-level policies, and the role of donors in facilitating this. Such considerations must be present from the outset in all new programmes of support to VTIs.
However laudable reforms to the training system may be, their probable impact on the informal sector should not be exaggerated. The numbers of formal sector trainees who eventually move over to the informal sector does mean that general reforms will impact indirectly on the informal sector. A more direct effect will be seen from the proposed reorientation of the training system towards the informal sector. However, it must be clearly understood that this reorientation will have an uneven impact across the highly heterogeneous informal sector.
ESDPs, for example, are in several countries explicitly aimed at "emergent entrepreneurs" or small- rather than micro-enterprises. It is necessary to be clearer as to who this target group is. Many of these programmes are aimed at already highly privileged groups such as university students and civil servants. On becoming entrepreneurs, these will be classified as informal by virtue of their size, rather than any real similarities with "typical" informal sector actors.
Whatever its nature, we may expect that the ongoing reforms of highly formalised VTIs may succeed in reaching some informal sector artisans who require significant levels of technical skills. However, a reformed training system is unlikely to be the most appropriate vehicle for supporting small businesses with limited technical dimensions, such as foreign exchange stalls in Lagos or Peshawar. Furthermore, there is even less likelihood that the official training system can reach the most marginal members of the informal sector. As we shall see in the next section and next chapter there are often mechanisms which are more suited to reaching certain populations such as these.
Historically the preoccupation of national training systems has been with the 'modern' sector of the economy. In parallel, most of the interest until very recently in the informal sector has also been directed at urban artisans. However, there has also been a growing awareness that the majority of the population of developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are still to be found in the rural areas. (This has of course changed markedly in Latin America, with, for example, the urban population in Colombia moving from 30% in 1950 to some 70% in the early 1990s). The continuing pace of rural-urban migration has attracted the concern of governments. And as a result of this, national training systems have been required to begin thinking about their obligation also to provide rural training. It had always been thought that this did not make much sense when the VTIs were only concerned with preparation for government ministries and urban industry, since it might just accelerate the movement to the cities. But with an informal and micro-enterprise orientation, there was no reason for training not to be relevant in situ in the rural areas.
Where it has formed part of a national system of provision, rural training has often suffered from one of the major problems faced by urban training systems: the tendency for provision at local level to reflect national planning directives rather than local needs (Awashti 1993; Haan 1994).
In Latin America strong national training agencies (NTAs) have helped to ensure better articulation between urban and rural, formal and non-formal training (Ducci 1991 and 1994). However, in Africa this has not been the case. There the lack of such strong agencies in many countries has allowed a polarisation. The former has tended to remain highly formalised in content and methodology, and oriented towards the development of skills needed in manufacturing industry. The latter, however, has had its methodological underpinnings in the non-formal mode, and has been oriented towards agriculture and conventional rural artisan skills. Moreover, rural training has tended towards a multifaceted approach, in contrast to the highly focused nature of urban training. On the other hand, there is evidence that trainees in rural training centres and similar institutes regard national trade tests as their priority qualification.
Urban training, especially in government centres, has been increasingly affected by certificate escalation, with the result that many of the institutions recruit at post-secondary level, where once they had accepted primary school leavers. Similar forces are at work in rural training, but there are still openings, even in government centres, for those with just primary education. A prime reason for this differentiation is that many of the facilities for rural training are in the hands of NGOs or local communities, and they see that level of entry as more appropriate than developing a post-secondary institution.
Participation in unskilled rural activities is not regarded highly by rural school leavers who aspire to further education or urban sector employment. Rural training, therefore, has been seen by many as a backdoor entry into these areas from which they have been excluded by virtue of their limited education (Oketch 1993). This has tended to affect rural training programmes negatively. Firstly, there is pressure to academicise the curriculum and to stress certification in order to facilitate entry into further courses. Secondly, there is a tendency for such training to become more reflective of the needs of the formal sector as this is where trainees have aspired to find employment.
We are not in fact arguing that a separation into two tracks, rural and urban, with their own certification systems, is preferable, for enough has been learnt in the 1960s and 1970s (especially in francophone West Africa) about rural populations' resistance to separate rural fare. But with the rethinking of VTI preparation for the formal sector, there is an opportunity to build a national system of qualifications which is truly national, and does not just mirror the skill needs of the most modern firms in the cities.
As a result of these factors, rural training programmes have been torn between their stated objectives, and meeting the demands of rural young people to training for relevance and mobility. This is illustrated by the case of the Youth Polytechnics (YPs) in Kenya, but other examples could have been drawn from many other countries.
The original Village Polytechnic movement was launched by the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) in 1965 in direct response to the growing unemployed primary school leaver problem. These institutions were designed to provide this target group with the necessary skills for self-employment in the rural areas. Subsequently, the name was changed to Youth Polytechnic (YP) and an enlarged funding and administrative role was taken by the government. The approximately 650 YPs have produced a large number of skilled artisans and have helped to make attitudes towards manual work more positive (Oketch 1993).
However, they have also displayed a number of weaknesses. The YPs became increasingly wedded to the formal trade testing system and, like the Botswana Brigades mentioned earlier, they have produced graduates who have found their way into formal sector employment (Oketch 1993). (The original idea that the skills provided would be locally determined was always unrealistic, given the rural-urban income differential (Allen 1972), and it was perhaps inevitable that they would in a sense become a 'shadow system' of the formal VTIs (Court 1972)). Furthermore, there has also been a serious neglect of the development of business skills. There is a serious imbalance in the levels of unemployment of graduates of male and female graduates (Oketch 1993). As the YP trainees are the 'failures' of the academic system and are largely from the poorer sectors of society, they also tend to face severe difficulties in entering viable self-employment due to their limited access to capital and support networks (Oketch 1993).
The example of the YP is not only useful as an illustration of the limitations of rural skills training strategies, however. The YP also serves as the foundation on which is based a major donor intervention to promote community-based rural training. The Skills Development for Self-Reliance (SDSR) programme is a major on-going attempt by the ILO, UNDP and SIDA to overcome the weaknesses of rural training in Africa. In Kenya, this has developed into the Kenya Youth Training and Employment Creation Project (KYTEC). This is discussed deliberately at some length here, since many of the issues are common to myriad rural programmes of skill and micro-enterprise development.
This project seeks to implement the SDSR methodology through the YP system and is executed through the relevant ministry. SDSR methodology consists of five stages:
i) Community Needs Assessment;
ii) Feasibility Study of Potential Viable Projects;
iii) Training;
iv) Credit;
v) Client Follow-up and Monitoring. (ILO/SIDA 1993)
KYTEC seeks not only to increase the (self) employment opportunities of the rural youth, but also aims at the reorientation of YPs towards this goal (Kivunzyo 1993). This has involved it in providing upgrading courses for YP trainers. Currently (December 1993) the Kenyan government is planning reform of the YP system and KYTEC appears to be a central player in these discussions.
The SDSR methodology identifies the lack of capital as a major constraint on the creation of viable self-employment activities (ILO 1993). Credit facilities have been arranged, therefore, with a commercial bank, guaranteed by money from the Arab Development Bank. KYTEC trainees are presented to the local branch of the bank by their local community-based credit committees. The final decision on whether they receive credit rests with the commercial bank. Since June 1990 over 3 million Kenya Shillings (70 Ksh = £1) have been disbursed and the repayment rate has been 81% (Kivunzyo 1993).
The KYTEC approach is still very young but appears to be developing successfully (Haan 1994). Whilst the SDSR methodology is designed to be flexible enough to be successfully adapted to the particular circumstances of the project country (ILO 1993), there are certain factors which have proved instrumental in KYTEC's success to date, which are worth considering. Whilst this is a donor-instigated project, it is carried out by local staff and is located within the relevant ministry. The project is consistent with the stated policy of the government regarding rural development and makes use of existing structures and staff in carrying out needs surveys, training, etc. (Kivunzyo 1993).
The project explicitly aims at becoming institutionalised within local structures. It makes use of existing organisations and staff wherever possible. This has the effect of minimising fixed costs, whilst at the same time increasing the project's familiarity to key agents and institutions at local and national level. These all further the project's sustainability (Kivunzyo 1993). This is also enhanced by a high degree of cost recovery. Prospective trainees are expected to pay a registration fee which is substantial enough to act as a discouragement to casual applications, as well as covering administration costs. The recurrent costs of training are wholly covered by fees which are included in the total sum for credit submitted to the bank (Kivunzyo 1993).
What is intriguing about this project is that it brokers onto an existing relatively stable training capacity the possibility of adding value through credit and business training. It is worth noting that other agencies, including the ODA, have also targetted the YPs for developing capacities that will feed directly into improved rural enterprise, including the development of tools and technologies (Leek et al. 1993). There are many examples of where a first-rate local initiative, such as the Youth Polytechnics, has been enabled through international funding to have a much wider impact. CIDE's training for disadvantaged youth in Chile is just one small example (Messina 1993; Corvalan 1993).
A further SDSR pilot project is underway in Tanzania; preliminary work has taken place elsewhere, and a number of other countries have expressed interest in this approach. The initial funding, however, appears to be a major barrier to wider replication (Monji 1993) of what at least initially is a high-cost approach, because of the credit and technical assistance dimensions.
In Asia, the ILO has also been responsible for the development of an approach which springs from the same methodology as SDSR. This is known as Training for Rural Gainful Activities (TRUGA). So far, this has been implemented in Nepal and the Philippines. Although, springing from the same methodology, local conditions made Asian planners adopt different mechanisms in order to carry out this methodology. In the Dutch-funded Philippines project, for example, there has been much less reliance on the staff of existing training institutions acting as trainers; local artisans have been preferred (Baldemor 1993).
In many countries the demand for rurally-based and rurally-oriented training is made more acute by the presence of large numbers of refugees. In the past special programmes for refugees have caused tensions at the local level as aid has often raised the material conditions of the refugees above that of their neighbours. One example of a programme which seeks to address the needs of both local and refugee communities is the Refugee and Sudanese Training Programme (RSTP) in Eastern and Central Sudan. This is a German-aided (GTZ) project, although it builds on the previous experiences of an ACORD programme (which we shall consider in a subsequent chapter).
The GTZ programme aims at "sponsoring vocational training and women's activities for refugees and Sudanese with the objective of providing skills which lead to employment and income generation or income saving" (Lohmar-Kuhnle 1993: 2). There are various projects under the main programme which are delivered by a variety of agencies, principal amongst which are the Commission for Refugees and the Ministry for Youth and Sports. Training includes sewing, handicrafts, home economics, car mechanics, and hand pump maintenance. The programme seeks to make use of existing training facilities which are under-utilised. Where appropriate the workshop facilities of the informal sector itself are used (Lohmar-Kuhnle 1993).
In keeping with GTZ philosophy, this programme is based on a request by a counterpart agency. Whilst collaboration with counterpart institutions is desirable, this programme has faced severe difficulties due to the limited institutional capacity in Sudan.
Another GTZ-funded programme which has a dual focus on refugees and their neighbours is found in North West Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan. The Pak-German Technical Training Programme has made use of the existing facilities of a VTI from which to base its outreach to the wider community.
The focus is specifically on skills for self-employment, whether in the rural setting or in the long-established informal sector of the urban bazaars. The central training unit provides training in seven different skills areas, but the 14 satellite centres concentrate on just three: Carpentry, Tailoring and Masonry. Overall the project caters for 4 000 trainees per year. Instructors are selected from the local community on the basis of their technical skills and are then involved in curriculum development. Each training unit has a head who is also responsible for teaching basic mathematics. 35 units are under a coordinator who maintains links with the central unit (Khan 1993).
The programme was very conscious from the outset that the majority of the target group were rural people with minimal formal education. This was a major factor in limiting the course to half-day sessions with a practical focus. Courses were designed to last for four months (Khan 1993).
This programme has elicited favourable evaluation and appears to be an excellent example of what can be achieved through a judicious blend of structure and flexibility. As we shall see in a later chapter this programme has a variety of other provisions under its umbrella. All begin from the premise that self-employment opportunities exist for those with skills training. Importantly, this did not lead to complicated and expensive skills training programmes, Rather, it was understood that any such training should be appropriate to both the backgrounds and the horizons of the target population (Boehm 1993).
Institutionalisation 3
3 The conclusions in this section are heavily influenced by discussions which took place as part of the ILO Meeting of Experts on Community-Based Skills, Training for Self-Employment and Income Generation, held in Turin, September 1993.
Rural training agencies tend to be relatively weak in comparison with the formal sector-oriented training system. Lack of institutional capacity is likely to be a major constraint on programme implementation. In both the rural and the urban training settings there appears to be a change in donor emphasis away from free-standing projects and towards an attempt to integrate their interventions into a coordinated training system (e.g. in the case of SIDA support to Tanzanian VTIs). In this light, it is necessary that institutional replication strategies should be explicit in programme guidelines and plans from the outset. The SDSR TRUGA experience suggests that this can be addressed in a systematic manner. In Nepal, for example, the TRUGA project has through its first five years developed from a pilot programme to coverage of 23 districts; with coverage of all 75 districts expected by 1998 (ILO/UNDP 1993).
Nonetheless, there may be grounds for maintaining some distinctions between rural and urban training within a coordinated system. Reforms in urban training are primarily aimed at full time participation in a particular trade whether in the modern sector or as a self-employed artisan. In rural areas, few artisans are either willing or able to devote themselves full-time to their craft, retaining their involvement in the agricultural sector. Rural training, and (self) employment promotion, must reflect this reality. Methodologies will necessarily differ according to location. Whilst mobile training units may have their place in the poorer urban areas, they seem to have particular relevance in rural areas, as witnessed by experience in such countries as Costa Rica (Ducci 1991) and Nepal (ILO/UNDP 1993).
Planning for the replication of pilot schemes of rural training is in itself insufficient. Such a process can only succeed if the programme is sufficiently reflective of the perceived needs of the local institutions involved. Programmes such as KYTEC, which reflect national policy objectives, are more likely to succeed than those which seek to impose an external set of priorities on the host country. Too often, however, a top-down strategy for national replication of pilot schemes has been the pattern in many African countries, and this pays scant attention to the local dimension and perspective before declaring the pilot to be nationally adopted. Hoppers has commented on the adoption of Education with Production in similar terms:
The implicit strategy was once the politicians and senior professionals in a ministry were convinced of the acceptability of EWP (and this had to be along conventional educational criteria) then it could easily be implemented throughout the system. There have been no clear views as to how at the same time the local stakeholders could be assisted to address their conventional perceptions and expectations with regard to school-education and development (Hoppers 1994b: 11).
The training provided must also be sustainable, given the financial weakness of most states. There is evidence to suggest that even the most disadvantaged trainees can raise significant sums of money or can be successfully integrated into credit programmes, The key issue with regards to sustainability, therefore, is not the ability to pay. Rather, it is the quality of the training provision and its relevance to local needs. Training provision must be based on a thorough understanding of the needs and opportunities of the community. Methodologies must be appropriate to the backgrounds of the trainees. The reorientation of training along these lines is difficult but, experiences in Kenya, Pakistan and elsewhere suggest, not impossible.
The concern with sustainability must mean that the key time to discuss possible replication is not when the donor-assisted pilot comes to an end, but when the pilot programme is being negotiated, as King (1993b) has argued:
If it is true that the project really would never get started without recourse to special donor arrangements, then perhaps the project or programme does not have a local constituency sufficiently interested to justify it (p. 53).
Training as part of a Package
The lessons gleaned from the above programmes suggest that rural training in itself is insufficient. To be successfully self-employed requires at least some initial capital. Formal loans are particularly difficult to raise in the rural setting, and as a result the majority of micro-enterprises are started from sources other than loans (Mutua and Aleke-Dondo 1990). Training institutions, on their own, clearly lack the expertise to address this issue. There are credit institutions in some countries which deal specifically with rural clients, but again it should be noted that it is informal credit that rural entrepreneurs rely on rather than formal schemes. In some countries the commercial banks have been willing to get involved in such lending. In other countries again, such as India, legislation exists requiring banks to lend a certain proportion to such informal clients. What is needed, therefore, is a mechanism for the coordination of training and credit which is country specific.
In a similar manner, it is unclear that trainers are the best equipped to carry out two of the other frequently recommended components of the overall package of rural training: training needs and opportunities assessment, on the one hand, and post-training follow-up, on the other. The best means of providing these, and the most appropriate agencies to become responsible, must again vary according to the specific situation within each country or locality. Donors have a key role to play in ensuring that their support for rural training takes cognisance of the needs for such alliances and incorporates explicit strategies for their identification and development.
There has been much debate over the relative merits of public and private training. This has tended to contrast the weaknesses of government-provided or sponsored training with the strengths of either industrial or private-for-profit college training. As a result, a further important category of training provider has tended to be insufficiently considered: Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), who provide a good deal of non-profit training. Some NGOs are concerned with the promotion of free market values (e.g. the Urban Foundation in South Africa). However, there are a very large number of NGOs which are interested in training for its social benefits above all else. Indeed, it is the perceived ability of NGOs to reach the most disadvantaged sections of society which has attracted most interest, particularly from donors, e.g. the ILO (Kanawaty and de Moura Castro 1990)
NGOs concerned with vocational training - which are our principal concern - are a highly diverse group. There are Northern organisations with world-wide coverage down to those with links to a single village. There is a variety of coverage among Southern NGOs too, although very few (e.g. CIDE in Latin America) are more than national in their scope.
Some NGOs have religious origins (e.g. CADEC in Zimbabwe); others derive from political parties (e.g. the German Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung); but many have more practical origins. In many countries, for example Kenya and India, a first generation of religious NGOs has tended to be complemented by a second generation of more secular agencies.
In this section we will look primarily at two organisations one a religious order with worldwide coverage; the other a large, national (and increasingly regional)-level, Southern NGO. Both provide excellent and relatively large-scale examples of how technical training can be provided to the most marginalised elements of society.
A remarkable international network of education and training institutions spanning every continent is run by the Salesians of Don Bosco. Founded in Turin in the middle of the nineteenth century by a Catholic priest, St. John Bosco, the Salesians' mission is to provide education and training for the most disadvantaged children and youth in order to insert them more fully into society (Lohmar-Kuhnle 1992).
Salesian institutions are conventionally located in or near the poor urban areas where their target group are to be found. The vocational training provided has a clear socio-pedagogical basis (Lohmar-Kuhnle 1992). The whole person is to be developed, not just their manual skills. Salesian education and training are heavily subsidised, and are often free for the very poorest (Mashek 1992).
The Salesians maintain wide networks of contacts both in business and government circles. This ensures continued goodwill towards their efforts. Furthermore, such networks also provide contracts which bring some degree of cost recovery (typically 30-40%) to the training centres and contacts which are essential for the disadvantaged youth who train there (Lohmar-Kuhnle 1992; Mashek 1992).
Salesian training tends to be of high quality but often is wedded too firmly to conventional trades. It does take youth from the most disadvantaged informal sector backgrounds and provides for their personal and social development. However, with its focus on formal skills training and its networks of contacts, Salesian training is primarily formal sector-oriented (Lohmar-Kuhnle 1992; Mashek 1992). Nonetheless, with the contraction of the formal sector, increasing numbers of Salesian graduates can be expected to enter the informal sector where their training and contacts will stand them in good stead. But they are unlikely to have well-developed managerial skills. However, in Calcutta at least (Grierson 1992), there are attempts underway to respond to this, as we shall see when we consider enterprise-based training later in this study.
Programmes such as those of the Salesians in part arose out of a failure by the state to address the needs of a particular population. Such training is perceived as either complementary to that of the state or treats the state with a form of benign indifference. There is, however, another NGO tradition which grew up as a response to the autocratic state and which has been traditionally highly antagonistic towards authoritarian governments. This trend has been particularly marked in Latin America where NGOs, supported by the Catholic Church, were often the only vehicle left open for civic action (Corvalan 1994). What distinguished several of these in Latin America is that a concern with grass-roots community organisations was married to a tradition of independent social science research (ECLAC 1992).
Some of the best known Latin American training NGOs come from Chile. Since the 1970s the Centre for Educational Research and Development (CIDE) has provided training for over 6 000 socially disadvantaged youth and women in the shanty towns of Chile's main cities (Messina 1993). The centre uses as trainers craftsmen and women who CIDE provides with basic pedagogical skills. The effect of the Pinochet regime (1973-90) on community structures through its repression of local democracy led CIDE and other NGOs to focus increasingly on community development within their projects for the informal sector (Corvalan 1987 and 1994; Messina 1993).
CIDE has drawn largely on the widely-shared Latin American experience of 'popular education' and has a holistic view of training (Messina 1993; Corvalan 1994). Responsibility for promotion of the programme, preparation of training places, selection of participants, and the identification of candidates for instructors' training among local craftsmen, have been devolved to local community leaders and NGOs. Training activities last for 300 hours with a quarter of this time being devoted to personal and social development. Technical training makes use of training with production methods (Messina 1993). After training, CIDE provides some technical and financial support to develop local micro-enterprises, especially for women whose geographical mobility is constrained (Corvalan 1987).
It is clear that the size of CIDE's offering is very small in comparison with the level of need in Chile. However, the programme does appear to be reaching disadvantaged women and youth. CIDE trainees have on average two years less formal education than trainees on the state-run Chile Joven (Youth of Chile) scheme (Messina 1993). Its gender sensitivity is one of CIDE's great strengths. Its achievement of a 3:2 female to male enrolment ratio is far higher than in comparable government programmes in Chile (Messina 1993).
The emphasis on personal and social development seems to be important (Messina 1993; Corvalan 1994). The same is true of the location of training centres in the neighbourhoods to be served. This takes the form of mobile units or utilisation of local buildings, e.g. schools or churches (Corvalan 1994). The use of non-traditional instructors is important in the breaking down of conventional, over-formalised methods of imparting skills and knowledge (Corvalan 1994). It would also appear necessary that some degree of local community organisation or the possibility of relationships with development agencies already operating in the area should be encouraged if recruitment of staff and students is to be facilitated (Corvalan 1994).
NGOs differ from government agencies in that they have a much clearer focus on the informal sector. They also have a much more explicit link with community development strategies (Corvalan 1994). Typically, NGOs have a concern for local self-reliance and seek to improve small-scale industry. However, what may be their greatest strength is their ethos. Both the Latin American social-orientation NGO tradition (as exemplified by CIDE) and the world-wide Salesian movement are products of a theological concern for the disadvantaged, a "preferential option for the poor" in the language of Latin American liberation theology. Successful NGOs are not necessarily religious but they do tend to have a very evident sense of commitment to their work which is a major factor in their success (King 1993: 10).
NGOs have many strengths. However, one notable weakness is their lack of coordination. There are few examples of large-scale NGO collaboration and these tend to come from the environmental rather than training tradition. However there are signs of change. One country where NGOs are already seeking to establish a national network is Colombia. Over 2 000 NGOs are already directly or indirectly affiliated (Ramirez 1993a). This network brings together all types of NGOs, but training NGOs are amongst the most visible. Their collaboration as a distinct grouping within the wider NGO movement has been facilitated by the establishment of the umbrella organisation.
Many of these Colombian NGOs are interested in training for self-employment, but few of them have sufficient technological capacity. For this reason they have entered into agreements with the national Colombian training body (SENA) which either provides training for the NGO clientele or supports the training provision of the NGO (Ramirez 1993a).
In the sphere of microenterprise development Colombia has also achieved notable success in bringing together the NGOs, the national training agency, and the financial institutions. In 1984 the National Plan for Development of Microenterprise was launched. Between 1988 and 1990 45 NGOs joined SENA and financial institutions in providing management training to 50 000 entrepreneurs. They also helped in the disbursement of US$ 15 million in credit to 20 000 entrepreneurs. These components have been complemented by SENA programmes which address the technical skills needs of these entrepreneurs (Ramirez 1993a).
A similar process has occured in Kenya, although for very different reasons. In 1992 the NGO Coordination Act in Kenya was passed. This was perceived by many to be an attempt at state control of NGOs, but it provoked the creation of an autonomous NGO Coordinating Network.
NGOs, both Northern and Southern, tend to be hesitant collaborators with donors and governments. Often indeed they are fundamentally unsuited to such collaboration. Many NGOs have an ideology about development that is very different from that of the state. Equally, there is a tendency towards a lack of critical appraisal of NGOs. There are a number of NGOs whose programmes run contrary to the cultural, religious and political norms of the societies in which they operate. Equally, there are NGOs which are simply unwilling to engage in dialogue with ''official'' agencies for whatever reason. Such organisations are unlikely to be suitable partners for donor agencies.
Nonetheless, there are many NGOs with which collaboration would be less problematic. For example, it appears that a series of highly professional NGOs are emerging in Ghana (Boeh-Ocansey 1993: 21). The ability of such NGOs to reach the informal sector suggests that they are a natural target for donor support, if required. Such support must be offered in a sensitive way which attempts to treat the NGO as the partner which has the relevant expertise. Donors should seek to support suitable NGOs in ways that do not weaken them in their areas of particular strength. Capacity building, research support and facilitating networks for dissemination of information are obvious interventions which should be further investigated in this context.
As far as direct linkage to both rural and urban training of young people for self-employment is concerned, NGOs (both Southern, Northern and in partnership) are probably a more significant source of support than central or local government schemes. There is a tendency, as has been implied above, for them to be more oriented to what we have called the subsistence self-employed than the more entrepreneurial. There is also a strong tendency for income-generation dimensions to be included in larger multi-purpose, community development projects (e.g. in the case of SCIAF). This makes it hard to separate out and evaluate the success of their support to skill development and self-employment There are, however, other NGOs which are very much concerned with improving the technology of the micro-entrepreneurs in the informal sector. These would include the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), ApT Design and Development, and many others in Germany, Canada and USA.
Equally there are other specialised NGOs which deal with other dimensions of self-employment and micro-enterprise. Some focus entirely on the small-scale credit side, some on product development, some on women entrepreneurs, and some, again, on the vocational training of the young people in rural and urban situations. One of the paradoxes of this NGO vocational training is that because it is often delivered by institutions (whether religious or secular) that are firmly dedicated to the improvement of the poor, the quality of the actual training is frequently very good, and the graduates can be easily commended to formal sector firms, looking for employees they can trust. In many capitals NGOs with names like Christian industrial training centre are aiming to train for self-employment but find their young leavers going straight to wage employment.
Training world-wide is experiencing a period of great change. Bureaucratised state training systems are perceived to be increasingly out of touch with the changing labour market and with the prevailing laissez-faire ideology. The conservative nature of these systems makes them unlikely change agents. However, the conclusion that such systems are inadequate and incapable of meaningful reform would itself be highly problematic. The structure of the VTI system is already in place and cannot be easily dismantled, even if the political will so to do existed. For many countries, this is not the easiest time to try to take on board the kinds of changes that would allow their government training institutions to adapt to many new clienteles, including the self-employed. But we have sketched out here some of ways that this could happen and some of the barriers across the way.
NGO training and non-formal education, on the other hand, appear to have got much closer to the training needs of the informal sector. This is not surprising, given their mandate and mission. But their tendency has been to target particular sections of the self-employed.
Missing, therefore, from both the NGO and the government training schemes are often the very group of entrepreneurial self-employed who have considerable potential for job creation, technology development, and, eventually, training provision. This group is too successful for the NGOs, and too unconnected with state structures to get access to the formal sector workshops of the government centres. This is the very group that the policy community hope will some day graduate from the informal sector to the formal. Not a great deal is currently known about how they acquire their skills.
In fact one of the dangers of spending a whole chapter on post-school and out-of-school vocational training in its various forms is that it may suggest that this is a large and diverse training system. It is, in a number of countries, in Latin America and in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. But this is not the case for many other countries, including most of those in Sub-Saharan Africa. In these latter, and indeed in many other parts of the developing world, the main path to the acquisition of vocational skills is to be located in the enterprises themselves. Accordingly, we now turn to enterprise-based training, to examine its role in preparation for the informal sector.
