Extract "First Meeting on Vocational Training in Argentina"

Extract: PrimeraMeeting Jornadaon de Formación “First Vocational Profesional Argentina: Training inen Argentina: New challenges on education “Nuevos desafíos de la educación para el trabajo” (RIET/RESEFOP) for work”.

Extract: “First Meeting on Vocational Training in Argentina: New challenges on education for work”.

INTRODUCTION On November 18, 2015, the First Meeting on Vocational Training: “New challenges on education for work” was held, as an initiative driven jointly by INEW (International Network of Education for Work) and the RESEFOP (Union Network of Vocational Training Schools). Activities were developed at the facilities of the UATRE’s (Argentine Rural Workers and Stevedores Trade Union) Escuela Político Sindical “Lorenzo Mariano Miguel”.

The meeting, which arises from an open and participatory process, brought together a significant number of participants related to the Education and Work scenario. Both teachers and personal staff of the educational institutions of the sector, as well as union representatives and researchers involved in the educational and labor field, participated in a fruitful meeting of collective work, based on dialogue and the exchange of knowledge and experiences. This allows creating common perspectives related to the different areas involved in the world of knowledge, the social reality and the labor context.

Based on a pre-established methodology of work, significant aspects of the Vocational Training (VT) environment were approached by participants coming from different regions of the country. The plurality of voices, due to the different local realities that define the cartography of the education and production system, allowed for the convergence of shared points of view in which, without doubt, significant goals meet together and are identified at the local, national and international level. In the same way, the participation of the different sectors comprising the VT system allowed for the exchange and development of enriched points of views as concerns institutional quality, communication, teaching strategies, relationship with the context and encouragement of students to participate.

This meeting was certainly a major step towards the final upgrading of the Argentine Vocational Training system. A step that, undoubtedly, would not have been possible without the active role of all of the workers of our country. Therefore, we extend our deepest appreciation to each of the unions that comprise the RESEFOP (Union Network of Vocational Training Schools) and that made this meeting possible: Association of Technical Teaching Institutions (Asociación del Magisterio de Enseñanza Técnica (AMET)); Legislative Staff Association (Asociación del Personal Legislativo (APL)); Motorcyclists, Couriers and Services Trade Union (Asociación Sindical de Motociclistas, Mensajeros y Servicios (AsiMM)); Subway and Premetro Workers’ Trade Union (Asociación Gremial de Trabajadores del Subterráneo y Premetro (AGTSyP)); Argentine Trade Union of Pharmacists and Biochemists (Sindicato Argentino de Farmacéuticos y Bioquímicos (SAFyB)); Argentine Ship Captains’ Trade Union (Sindicato de Conductores Navales de La República Argentina (SICONARA)); United Educators Trade Union of the City of Buenos Aires (Sindicato de Educadores Unidos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (SEducA)); Water and Sewage Services Workers’ Trade Union of Greater Buenos Aires (Sindicato Gran Buenos Aires de Trabajadores de Obras Sanitarias (Obras Sanitarias)); Union of Tenant-based Horizontal Building Workers (Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de Edificios de Renta y Horizontal (SUTERH)); Argentine Rural Workers and Stevedores Trade Union (Unión Argentina de Trabajadores Rurales y Estibadores (UATRE)); Educational Workers’ Trade Union (Unión de los Trabajadores de la Educación (UTE)); Argentine Tourism, Hotel and Gastronomy Trade Union (Unión de Trabajadores del Turismo, Hoteleros y Gastronómicos de la República Argentina (UTHGRA)); Plastic Workers and Employees Trade Union (Unión Obreros y Empleados Plásticos (UOYEP)) and Sports and Civil Entities’ Workers Trade Union (Unión Trabajadores de Entidades Deportivas y Civiles (UTEDYC)).

We are certainly writing a significant chapter in the history of Argentine workers, recognized in the world for their great tenacity in shaping their own future. We are proud of, and satisfied with the tasks performed until now, and we expect to continue doing and increasingly growing, united as brothers and aware of the fact that Education and Work are the only guarantors of genuine Social Justice.

INEW – RESEFOP Team 1

HODOLOGY: Group work and thematic axes.

By means of thematic working tables in which the members of INEW and RESEFOP’s technical team, managerial staff, teachers and students of Vocational Training Centers (VTC) took part, each group worked according to an analytical scheme.

Guiding axes: - Status.

- Identification of positive critical factors: strengths.

- Identification of negative critical factors: weaknesses, obstacles and limitations.

- Identification of positive aspects: opportunities.

- Identification of negative aspects: risks and contingencies.

- Experiences and background of other actors or similar sectors.

- Promotion of specific actions: generation of spaces for reflection, design of projects, among others.

Work teams were grouped according to the topic to be approached, namely: - Institutional assessment and impact.

- Institutional Communication.

- Education and Labor Guidance.

- Training for Trainers.

- Relationship with the socio-productive context.

- Sentirte Parte: experience as knowledge.

There was technical coordination for the working tables and, in addition, reading materials were delivered to their participants, so as to facilitate the individual and group understanding of the core ideas of each thematic axis, prior to the analytical process. This approach to the explanatory contents of each axis have encouraged and enriched the debate among participants. Then, by sharing some of the specific aspects, a diagnosis was made and proposals were presented by each group. Therefore, each group was able to identify the status of each area both in general and specific terms, and to set up a series of proposals for the short and medium term.

Development This extract on the “First Meeting on Vocational Training in Argentina: New challenges on education for work”, includes the name of each of the working tables and a brief introduction to the issues identified.

Working tables: 1. Institutional assessment of vocational training centers (VTC) and follow-up of their graduates.

Introduction.

It is common to encounter difficulties when gathering information, both in the activities developed at the VTC and in the labor careers of their graduates. Once students have completed their courses, there are no records of the labor career. In addition, there is no information on the opinion of graduates regarding their training experience. Whenever an institution becomes aware of any information on the opinion or labor career of any of its graduates, it does so in a casual and informal manner.

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Extract: “First Meeting on Vocational Training in Argentina: New challenges on education for work�.

2. Institutional Communication at Vocational Training Centers.

Introduction: Communication is, above all, part of the relationship-making and training process of people and society as well. People are always communicating, either intentionally or not. Therefore, organizations are not alien to such process, which is convenient to be planned and organized. The massive reach of promotional actions of Vocational Training courses can be achieved by means of an appropriate and modern Communicational Strategy that promotes the use of new and traditional tools. The creation of a strategy is crucial when defining an action plan in which all available instruments are used and technical and human resources are optimized. The purpose is to achieve a fluent and thorough communication, internal and external, able to communicate the life proper of Vocational Training Centers.

3. Educational and labor guidance in Vocational Training.

Introduction: Educational and labor guidance, understood as a supporting process, has for a long time been addressed to young people graduating from medium level schools, who have to elect whether to study and/or to access the labor market. At present, the scope has extended to other moments of life, including young people and adults who at different times of their lives wish or have to change their careers or have a new project as regards their activities. In the end, guidance focuses on issues relating to the transition of people throughout their lives. Nowadays, young people and adults go through decisive processes about the future with great unpredictability. Educational guidance is projected on an uncertain, changing and complex world that demands understanding the context of these days, identifying opportunities, obstacles and difficulties.

Hence labor and educational paths are more diversified and less predictable than in the past.

4. Training for trainers.

Introduction: Learning about the training processes and labor-educational experiences of participants, as well as their interests, needs, difficulties and expectations with respect to the challenges involved in changing societies, from an analytical point of view of the skills required to understand the complexity of current social processes, technological and scientific advances, skills required by the new production processes, among others, to the extent these axes question the role of education, the relationship with knowledge, the construction of learning, the professional skills required for the task of teaching, education and training on academic, communicational and methodological aspects.

5. Relationship with the social-productive context in vocational training centers.

Introduction: We are witnessing a new era characterized by:

Constant change,

Change diversity,

A very complex context,

Technological advance, and

Changes in the organization of work and production.

Vocational training centers (VTC) are part of this new labor context and play a significant role in it. Therefore, they cannot be alien to these changes since they have significant effects on the Education and Labor world. The tasks of VTC do not finish with the graduation of their students, it is necessary to support them during their labor integration and career process in order to gather information that feedbacks the training system, and thus, be able to make such adjustments as may be necessary to attain the long awaited goal of employability.

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6. Sentirte parte – experience as knowledge.

Introduction: It is essential to know vocational training from inside, this implies gathering information on the opinion and experience of students when coming across obstacles and limitations so as to plan improvements in a better way in the Vocational Training field. The perspective of students is the “raw material� to rethink issues related to training conditions, contents, teacher-student relationship, relationship with the productive sector, among others. Taking into account their opinions, as well as those of managerial staff and their teachers, is of the essence to construct and detect improvement opportunities that would convert Vocational Training Centers into education and training institutions that strengthen the transition from studying to work.

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