Towards Skills Development for Pro-poor Growth Enhancing The

8/14/2019 Towards Skills Development for Pro-poor Growth Enhancing The

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Economic Development and Employment Division (41)

Technical and Vocational Education and Training Section (4115)

Sector Project:

"Innovative and Integrating Approaches to

International Cooperation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training"

Work in ProgressTowards Skills Development

for Pro-Poor Growth:

Enhancing the chances for gainful (self-) employment and improved quality of life

Edda GrunwaldMarian Nell

Janet Shapiro

Eschborn, November 2003 / Revised December 2004


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TOWARDS SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FOR PRO- POOR

GROWTH:

Enhancing the chances for gainful (self- ) employment and

improved quality of life

PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

The purpose of this paper is to provide some guiding principles to support development

project planners and implementers in conceptualising and implementing pro-poor-

growth-oriented vocational education and training (VET) initiatives in developing

countries.

The paper looks first at current thinking around pro-poor growth. With this as the overall

context, it then considers the specific role, or potential role of VET/skills development in

supporting pro-poor growth, and at some of the problems encountered by VET thus far

in trying to make a difference in poverty reduction.

The paper is seen as an ongoing work-in-progress. Suggestions and Examples are

given as a starting point:

Suggestions are made for reconceptualising the issues so that VET is able tomake a more significant difference.

Examples are given of projects and interventions that are already working withinthe very fluid parameters of the changing debate.

The paper suggests Nine generic building blocks for a VET intervention aimed atpro-poor growth.

Finally, the paper attempts to draw the discussion together in suggested guidelines for

those practitioners conceptualising and implementing VET programmes in the

developing world at the current time.

Some specific acknowledgements are given in the course of the paper. However, the

paper is, in fact, the result of discussion and debates with many people working in the

field to whom our gratitude is enormous. Together we are trying to push the boundaries

of understanding and implementation of VET so that it can fulfil its enormous potential.

November 2003 Edda Grunwald

Marian Nell

Janet Shapiro


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Note to the December 2004 revision:

This paper was always meant to be a work in progress. Since it was made available in

November 2003, we have been fortunate to receive feedback from a number of sources.

At the same time, the debates and discussion, both within GTZ and outside of it in the

wider development arena, have moved on. Although much in the original paper still

remains relevant and important - especially for poverty reduction oriented vocational

education and training (PROVET)1,there are also whole new areas of significance to be

thought about and debated, and different ways of thinking about some of the issues

raised in the original paper. Our own thinking, informed by ongoing reading and

experience in the field, has also clarified. We have, therefore, written a new paper which

encompasses many of the thoughts and ideas that came from those who read the first

paper, as well as our own growing understanding of the issues. However, as the first

paper still remains relevant and is quoted in the 2004 paper, it is, with some minor

changes, presented here. We hope people continue to fine it useful. The focus of the

first paper is on starting a skills development initiative.

The focus in the second paper is on understanding how skills development programmes

fit into a broader understanding of poverty reduction approaches.

December 2004 Edda Grunwald

Marian Nell

Janet Shapiro

1The term means VET that has a direct impact on poverty reduction. Such interventions use

bottom up approaches, in contrast to interventions which emphasise indirect impact, hoping fora trickle down effect from economic growth generated through interventions which work onoverall or mainly structural aspects.


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CONTENTS

ACRONYMS.......................................................................................................iv

1. POVERTY AND PRO-POOR GROWTH.................................................... 1

2. THE ROLE OF SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN PRO-POOR GROWTH........ 5

2.1 Crisis in VET .............................................................................................. 5

2.2 Formal and non-formal education, formal and informal economicsectors ....................................................................................................... 6

2.3 Three categories of poverty ....................................................................... 8

2.4 The emphasis on enterprise-based training............................................. 13

3. THE NINE GENERIC BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A VETINTERVENTION AIMED AT PRO-POOR GROWTH .............................. 16

3.1 An enabling environment ......................................................................... 17

3.2 Appropriate financing mechanisms.......................................................... 183.3 Adequate infrastructure............................................................................ 20

3.4 Linkages................................................................................................... 22

3.5 Networks .................................................................................................. 23

3.6 Empowerment content ............................................................................. 26

3.7 Appropriate methodology......................................................................... 27

3.8 Complementarity...................................................................................... 28

3.9 Monitoring and evaluation........................................................................ 29

4. GUIDELINES ........................................................................................... 31

5. LITERATURE........................................................................................... 36


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ACRONYMS

AURA..........................Commissioning Framework for German Technical Cooperation

BAFIS..........................Employment oriented Vocational Training

BESD ..........................Basic Entrepreneurial Skills Development

DAC ............................Development Assistance Committee

DfID.............................Department for International Development

EMVET........................Entrepreneurial Management for Vocational Education and

Training

FASP..Focal Area Strategy Paper

ICT ..............................Information and Communication Technology

LDC.............................Local Development Centre

LearnNet.Learning Networks

MDA............................Mineworkers Development Agency

NUM............................National Union of Mineworkers

OECD..........................Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PROVET .....................Poverty Reduction Oriented Vocational Education and Training

PTC.............................Provincial Technical College

SDC ............................Swiss Development Corporation

SDRA..........................Skills Development for Rural Areas

SL ...............................Sustainable Livelihoods

SMME .........................Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises

SWAp.........................Sector-wide Approaches

VET.............................Vocational Education and Training

VTC.............................Vocational Training Centre


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1 . POVERTY AND PRO- POOR GROWTH1

Increasingly, poverty reduction (with the intention of eventual eradication) has becomethe central aim of development efforts and the focus of development agencies in

developing countries and of the national governments of these countries. Poverty

reduction is seen as the outcome of what is termed pro-poor growth. As Vocational

Education and Training (VET)2 can also contribute to pro-poor growth, it is important to

locate it in the current debates and understandings.

The analysis of poverty has shifted from an incomes-based understanding of poverty,

to recognition that poverty is a multi-dimensional challenge. In the Guidelines on

Poverty Reduction of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) poverty is seen asdenoting peoples exclusion from socially adequate living standards and as

encompassing a range of deprivations. The dimensions of poverty, as defined by the

DAC document, cover certain distinct aspects of human capabilities:

Economic (income, livelihoods, decent work); Human (health, education); Political (empowerment, rights voice); Socio-cultural (status, dignity); Protective (security, risk vulnerability).Cross-cutting issues, that impact on poverty reduction are gender balance and

sustaining the natural resource base.

Enlarging on this, the manifestations of poverty can be seen in

- lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure sustainable

livelihoods

- hunger and malnutrition, ill health

- limited or lack of access to education and other basic services

- increased morbidity and mortality from illness

- homelessness and inadequate housing- unsafe environments

- social discrimination and exclusion.

To sum it up: Poverty is characterised by a lack of participation in decision-making and

in civil, social and cultural life.

This holds true especially for women who bear a disproportionate burden of poverty.

Children growing up in poverty are often permanently disadvantaged, perpetuating the

1

In the 2004 Paper we focus more on pro-poor development and explain the difference.2In the 2004 Paper, the emphasis is on skills development rather than VET and the difference

is explained in more detail.


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cycle into the next generation. The following definition is useful in discussing issues

that are relevant to this paper:

Povertyexists when an individuals or a households access to income, jobs

and/or infrastructure is inadequate or sufficiently unequal to prohibit full access

to opportunities in society. The condition of poverty is caused by a combination

of social, economic, spatial, environmental and political factors. Due to the

multiplicity of causal factors and their spatial dynamics, individuals and

households may move in and out of poverty depending on stages in life-cycle

and shifting political economy patterns. Poverty is therefore much more than a

lack of adequate income.3

Broadly defined, Pro-Poor Growth is growth that benefits the poor and gives them

more access to economic opportunities.4 Klasen (see footnote) in a thoughtful

article on pro-poor growth, goes on to refine this definition, adding that, for him:

Pro-poor growth must benefit the poor disproportionately; Pro-poor growth requires that asset inequality be addressed as a priority

(this implies material assets such as land, as well as equity in human capital

such as health and education).

Pro-poor growth must address gender inequality.5 Pro-poor growth must focus on rural areas, improve incomes and

productivity in agriculture, and off-farm activities andmake intensive use of

labour to combat both under- and unemployment.6 In general, pro-poor

growth should be particularly concentrated in geographic pockets of deep

poverty.

For our purposes, in discussing skills development, Klasens statement that the extent

to which growth will be pro-poor will depend also greatly on the amount of human

capital the poor possess is significant. He believes that heavy investment in the

human capital of the poor will yield two benefits on poverty reduction. It will increase

economic growth and it will make growth more pro-poor.

Our immediate concern is with vocational education and training (VET) as an

instrument of pro-poor growth through investing in building human capital. However,

given a multi-dimensional definition of poverty, it is no longer sufficient simply to look at

skills training as providing access for the poor to income generating skills:

3From Parnell and Pieterse 1999, quoted in: Defining Poverty, Pieterse and van Donk - OD

Debate, Volume 10, no 1, March 2003.4

From Stephan Klasens article: In search of the Holy Grail: How to Achieve Pro-poor Growth?5

So, for example, female literacy levels have been shown to have a high impact on poverty

reduction.6The vast majority of the poor in developing countries live in rural areas, although the needs of

the poor in urban areas must also be addressed.


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We need to look more widely at issues of organisation, reducing vulnerability and

increasing resilience, providing adequate infrastructure, strengthening networks and

increasing the ability of the poor to voice their needs.

Within this context, the notion of empowerment needs to be understood beyond its

rhetorical value. Empowerment can be defined as the expansion of assets and

capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control, and hold

accountable, institutions that affect their lives.7

As poverty is multi-dimensional, poor people need skills at both the individual level and

at the collective level. They need skills to generate income and to lead a healthy life;

they need the ability to organise and mobilise to take collective action to address their

problems.

For poor people to be empowered in the context of encouraging pro-poor growth,

interventions are needed at the macro, meso and micro levels. A recent GTZ paper8

looks at capacity development as change processes at the level of individuals

(micro), organisations (meso) and framework conditions (institutions and policies which

would correspond with the macro level) to strengthen the abilities or capacities of

individuals, organisations and societies to make effective and efficient use of

resources, in order to achieve their own goals on a sustainable basis. This is an

important understanding in looking at what VET means in the current GTZ context -

especially under a pro-poor growth orientation. It will extend the boundaries of a moretraditional understanding of VET.

The sustainable livelihood (SL) approachbuilds on existing best practice in how to

provide sustainable pro-poor development. The SL approach contains certain

important principles for those involved in VET. These include:

People-centredness Empowerment A responsive and participatory approach An holistic approach which recognises the inter-relationships between different

aspects of peoples lives

Sustainability in economic, institutional, social and environmental terms The need to build on peoples strengths and not just focus on their problems The need to work at multiple levels: micro-level activity should feed into

development policy and institutional development, macro- and meso-level

structures and processes should support people to build on their strengths

7

From Deepa Naryans Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: A Sourcebook, The World Bank.8Policy Paper No 1, Strategic Corporate Development Unit, Policy and Strategy Section

Ricardo Gomez; March 2003


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Recognition that poor people are not one homogenous group, and a commitment tounderstanding the differences in terms of strengths, vulnerabilities, organisation

and so on

Recognition that poverty reduction requires long-term commitments and a flexibleapproach to providing support.

9

One final point here:

Work in the context of VET needs to be linked to Sector-Wide Approaches(SWAps).

SWAps focus on the overall effectiveness of a particular sector, such as education, in

addressing what has currently been defined as the major development challenge:

poverty. They combine institutional development, policy dialogue and service delivery,

and they are a response to perceived short-comings of project-led approaches to

development aid. The intention of SWAps is to encourage national ownership of

development processes, to integrate government and donor support within a coherent

planning, management and expenditure framework, along lines determined by nationalpriorities, and to emphasise capacity building so that government systems can sustain

ongoing development. A SWAp does not exclude cross-sector co-operation and,

indeed, given the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, cross-sector co-operation seems

to be a requirement. This is very much the case with VET which provides a direct link

between the world of learning and the world of work and which has the potential to

cross the divide between formal and non-formal training, giving it a flexibility that could

be invaluable in the context of a pro-poor growth approach.

9This section is based on an article entitled Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods in: OD

Debate Vol 10, No 1, March 2003.


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2. THE ROLE OF SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN

PRO- POOR GROWTH

The above analysis of the challenges in pro-poor growth approaches indicate thatthere is a role for VET that goes beyond the traditional provision of technical skills

training and which encompasses a broad range of capacity development and support

interventions to enable countries to meet the demands of a pro-poor growth agenda. If

this is linked to an SL approach, it further expands the possibilities for VET that is able

to meet the demand, inherent in the situation, for flexibility, innovation and creativity.

2.1 Crisis in VET

The approaches discussed above recognise the need for concerted efforts to build the

human assets and capabilities of poor people. In the past, VET initiatives have tended

to focus on the provision of technical training for people who will be employed in the

formal sector of the economy. As John Grierson points out in his book Where There is

No Job10, this emphasis does not take into account the three crises of vocational

training:

The crisis of cost; The crisis of relevance; and The crisis of equity.All of these crises relate directly to the role of VET in pro-poor growth where VET

interventions are premised on prioritising the needs of the poor.

The crisis of costcomes about because vocational training as traditionally conceived

is inherently expensive. It involves infrastructure, equipment, training materials, and

institutional and personal overheads, usually for a fairly lengthy period of time. A large

proportion of these costs is fixed. Unit costs become very expensive, particularly with

declining levels of enrolment and high drop-out rates. These are, certainly in part, due

to low post-training placement rates and limited application of skills taught duringtraining. Institutions cannot be economically viable on this basis.

Thecrisis of relevancereflects an increasing 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 their understanding of their own situation, and serve them by

imparting skills that help them gain access to, and compete in, local markets. While we

10SKAT, 1997


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agree with Grierson that, ultimately, the principal measure of relevance is jobs,

whether as an employee or through self-employment, in the context of a broader

understanding of pro-poor growth and how it can best be achieved, this can be fairly

widely interpreted.

Example: In a BMZ/GTZ project in Swaziland aimed at providing skills to a group of

crafters to enable them to generate a better income, one of the important by-products

was the development of a sense of collective strength. After the skills part of the training

was complete, the crafters decided to form a self-help association and the project

provided some support and organisational training to them in achieving this.

The crisis of equity is of specific concern in the context of a pro-poor growth

approach. Vocational training programmes are often difficult to access and use,especially for the poor. Barriers to access for the poor could be age, education,

gender, literacy levels, fees and physical proximity. There may also be barriers to

participation, even once access is gained. The level, style and language, teaching

methods, course schedules, course structure, type of training on offer, and cultural

considerations may all be barriers to participation. Vocational training programmes that

are meant to be accessible for the poor need to be designed flexibly to reflect the

needs and situation of those they are meant to serve.

2.2 Formal and non-formal education, formal andinformal economic sectors

So far, we have not touched on two distinctions that are often made in the more recent

literature on VET:

The distinction between formal and non-formal education and training; and The distinction between training for the formal sector and training for / in the

informal sector.

Non-formal education and training usually takes place outside of a formal

institutional framework and curriculum, often within a work or community environment.

There are ongoing debates about whether or not to provide accreditation for non-

formal education and training within the overall education system of a country. Such

accreditation adds to expense and may reduce the flexibility which is one of the

advantages of non-formal education.

One argument for accreditation is that it provides some kind of quality control with

regard to the provider. However, people provide their own quality control by talking

with their feet in most cases. In other words, if a course or programme does not

provide them with something useful, they will not use the provider again, and will share


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their dissatisfaction with other potential users. Market forces will determine quality. The

exception to this is when market forces do not apply because of e.g. donor

intervention. Where courses are offered free, people may attend them just because

they are there, rather than out of genuine need or reports of learner satisfaction. In this

case, the training becomes supply-led rather than demand-led and the market forcesare distorted. The lesson from this is that non-formal training should be as cheap as

possible (to provide and to purchase), while still giving useful input. Summarised, this

means: as much as is necessary but no more.

Where some form of accreditation is useful is when a person wants to move from the

non-formal education and training system to the formal system, and/or wants some

form of accreditation to prove competence. So, for example, a motor mechanic who

has learned his or her skills through traditional apprenticeship may aspire to get a

formal qualification so that s/he can charge more for services, and service a more

affluent clientele. (At the lower end of the market, people are far more concerned withdoes s/he do the job well enough? than with qualifications for which they would have

to pay more.) Increasingly, institutions within the formal sector, from colleges to

universities, are acknowledging the importance of recognising prior learning as an

acceptable entry point and are willing to test and accept entrants to the formal system

on this basis.

It is important to remember that it is not necessary or possible or meaningful to accredit

some of the skills which will further pro-poor growth. So, for example, the ability to

develop a personal vision for an enhanced quality of life is very empowering and may

make a distinct difference to how people conduct their lives, but reducing this ability toa certificate of some sort does not add anything to its intrinsic value.11

The distinction between the formal and informal economic sector seems

increasingly to be of less importance as people move fairly fluidly along a continuum of

poverty and wealth. Their needs at any one time may encompass one or both forms of

training, and they may, at different times, be part of the formal or part of the informal

sector. There are, after all, poor people in the modern or formal sector and those who

are not-so-poor in the traditional or informal sector.12

11Many people like to have certificates as proof that they have participated in a programme or

course, and there is no reason not to provide these. However, the meaning lies in the personaloutcomes of such training or capacity development and not in the certificate.12 Today most governments recognise the important role that the formal education sector has toplay at the basic primary level in giving young people a sound literacy, numeracy and problem-solving basis that will stand them in good stead in the labour market. Hence the emphasis in the

educational SWAps on compulsory primary school education for all. However, in manycountries, there is still an enormous backlog of those who did not receive sound basic primaryeducation.


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Example: In Cambodia, there is no official informal sector as all enterprises pay

license fees of some kind. Within the SMME sector, however, there is a huge range of

enterprises, varying from one person survivalist businesses to flourishing medium-sized

family businesses, able to access loans as big as $ 200 000 to grow their enterprises.

If one defines the informal sector as the sector of the economy in which people

largely make their own jobs and through that are sometimes able to employ and train

others, then it is likely that this sector will continue to grow and it already is responsible

for more than 80% of (self-) employment in many developing countries. It should,

therefore be a significant site of VET.

Of more importance than these distinctions may be the ability of a VET system to

provide what is needed to people, in the most appropriate form, when they need it, with

the intention of building the capacity for flexibility and resilience. In a single working

life-time, it is likely that people will move from one sector to the next, and that the range

of skills they need will, at times, best be met through formal education and training, and

at others, through informal methods.

Example: In Uganda, students trained at government technical training institutions

using the sandwich method are now being allowed to get their practical training through

placements in relevant enterprises in the informal sector. In the sandwich method, formalclassroom-based training is interspersed with on-the-job training. In Uganda, there was

recognition that, as the formal sector shrinks, graduates along a continuum of training

options will need to look at informal sector options as well as traditional wage

employment in the formal sector. This made the informal sector placements for the

practical work a useful option.

2.3 Three categories of poverty

Within GTZ, three distinctions between reasons for, or causes of, poverty are

discussed (although there is clearly some overlap):

Category 1: Poverty through modernisation.

This happens when something in the economic dynamics of the society excludes those

who, formerly, were part of the economic mainstream. So, for example, workers may

lose their jobs when industry becomes more mechanised. Structural adjustment

policies in many developing countries have led to the retrenchment of many former

government employees. People who are poor as a result of modernisation usually

have relatively good educational backgrounds, they may have retrenchment

settlements, and their options for catching up are relatively good.


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Category 2: Poverty through marginalisation.

This kind of poverty happens when, through legislation or regulation or simply neglect,

or through changes in market demands, certain areas (geographical or sub-sector) of

the economy and certain forms of economic activity are marginalised. The creation of

business nodal points in certain geographical areas may disadvantage other areas, orskilled service providers may become deskilled as technology or globalisation outstrips

them (as in the case of piece workers in the garment industry). In situations such as

these, people have some assets to help them cope with modernisation, but they may

also be able to use the growth potential of the informal sector itself, because they know

and understand the system.13

Category 3: Poverty through lack of adaptation in a changing environment.

This may happen because people who have operated in the informal sector cannot

make the transition to the modern sector, out of lack of opportunity or lack of skill or

capacity or lack of will. It is this kind of poverty that often afflicts traditional rural peopleengaged in agricultural pursuits. People in such situations do not have an obvious way

of plugging into the more mainstream economies, whether formal or informal. They are

often under-employed. Their survival techniques depend heavily on their own individual

ingenuity and on their family and community networks. One form of adaptation is

migration to urban areas, but even there, family and community networks remain

important. There is potential for people in Category 3 to engage more pro-actively in an

increasingly dynamic informal sector and even, longer-term, to forge links with more

formal enterprises as the distinctions between formal and informal sector blur along a

continuum.

Example of an intervention in Category 1:

In South Africa, thousands of mineworkers have lost their jobs since the 1980s because

of changes in the economy. South Africa has a strong labour movement and the

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) set up the Mineworkers Development Agency

(MDA). Its mission was to increase the incomes of existing and ex-mineworkers and

their families. At the same time, government was keen to transform the economy and

strengthen black-owned SMMEs and to create new jobs for black people through furtherSME development. Mining companies were also keen to be seen transferring assets to,

or directly funding, ex-mineworkers.

DfID (Department for International Development, Britain) provided funds for technical

assistance to MDA, and initial operating costs for MDAs programme to develop new

Local Development Centres (LDCs) in the areas where ex-mineworkers lived. One of the

services offered by the MDA at these centres was training/skills development. The LDCs

have training contracts from the government and the private sector; they also sell and

13

Sometimes, workers have been so deskilled, and what they know has been so broken downinto isolated units, that they cannot build on their skills to do anything else. Apparently this is thecase with the Cambodian garment workers.


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hire equipment and input supplies and marketing services. The MDA is comparatively

well-resourced and well-led and benefits from being embedded within a strong and

growing institution (NUM). It has multiple stakeholders, several of which have significant

resources that can be used by the MDA. The MDA strategy is to transfer economic

resources from better-resourced stakeholders to support the social and economicdevelopment of those of its members who are in need.

Macro level: The South African government framework is supportive of SMMEs and

concerned to develop systems and structures that alleviate the problems of poverty

caused by economic dynamics. South Africa has progressive labour legislation which

ensures that retrenched mineworkers have retrenchment packages which, with business

advice and training, can be reinvested in the SMME sector. NUM has developed a

pioneering national initiative to help it deal systematically with unemployment and to

build on the potential of the informal sector.

Meso level: The LDCs are providing an intermediary structure to ensure that support and

re-training are available.

Micro-level: Ex-miners are being given the support and re-training needed to initiate their

own businesses and at least maintain their earning capacity.


In Zimbabwe, the BMZ/GTZ ISTARN project initiated a traditional apprenticeship project.

Traditional apprenticeship is a widespread practice in many developing countries. For

centuries people have acquired skills by informally apprenticing themselves to small-

scale business enterprises which offer manufacturing or service skills. The ISTARN

project sought to add value to this practice without interfering with it excessively. It did

this by offering would-be apprentices a few weeks of more formal training in a skill, once

they had themselves found placements. The range of skills training offered was fairly

limited but included traditional manufacturing such as carpentry, and new skills such as

motor mechanics. This input was offered at the beginning of the training period andduring the training period. At the end of the training period, apprentices were offered a

brief period of business training. One of the problems of the traditional apprenticeship

system is that it does not encourage innovation or the use of new techniques. The

masters or existing business owners tend to be quite conservative and to do things the

way they have always done them. Training, which was done using the facilities of under-

utilised training centres, was intended to overcome this. The project was very successful

and was institutionalised through local technical colleges in a number of locations in

Zimbabwe. Graduates of the process were very successful in getting jobs or setting up

their own businesses. The recent political and economic problems in Zimbabwe may,however, have impacted negatively on the initiatives.


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Macro level: The project initially had the support of the relevant ministry. It was

combined with Business Development Services and there was government approval to

use ministry people to be trained to provide these services.

Meso level: The Vocational Training Centres (VTCs) provided a base for the training and

then took over the running of the programme in local areas. Staff personnel were given

training to enable them to make the kind of adaptations to their teaching methods that

were needed in working at a more informal level. Appropriate materials were developed.

Micro level: Participants were encouraged to be independent and entrepreneurial from

the start. Training was largely enterprise-based and apprentices had the opportunity not

only to learn trade and business skills, but also to make business linkages in the context

of the local market, including getting knowledge about raw material suppliers and

customers. The masters found the pre-training useful as the apprentices did less

damage and were more useful in the early period of the apprenticeship. The project also

gave them access to new ideas.


In the Ivory Coast, a Rural Training Network project is supported by BMZ/GTZ, in

conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Republic of France, The World Bank and

the African Development Bank. It is a non-formal training and education programme

which deals with skills development and basic know-how in relevant fields so that

participants can respond to changes and opportunities, general education and training

such as literacy programmes, management and organisational training, and training in

accessing information. The programme prepares participants so that they can use the

support of the normal agricultural extension services. It is gender-sensitive and low cost.

People can access it without prior certificates. The intention is to build the training

centres within a village as private associations of users that will organise and manage

the programme in their areas, using existing infrastructure (broadly defined). The villages

then form an inter-village association where funding issues are dealt with. There is also

a regional level of governance, made up of representatives from the inter-village

associations. Up to 80% of training fees are subsidised by public funds. Participants are

mainly small scale farmers, groups of youth, members of co-operatives etc.

Macro level: Government has created a framework through which national policy, the

design of the training system, donor co-ordination, funding and co-ordination can take

place.

Meso level: Regional structures are being developed for information exchange and

financial decision-making and management.

Micro-level: Local training groups (450 in 2001) and associations and their needs are at

the centre of the intervention which is demand-driven.


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Depending on the purpose, how one designs a VET programme and the kind of

interventions needed will differ, although considerable overlap is likely. So, for

example, entrepreneurial and business skills are likely to be important for all three

categories. Skills in building on community and family networks (also known as

livelihood coalitions) are likely to be particularly significant in the third category, skillsin forming formal associations and self-help groups will be important to the first and

second categories, skills in accessing micro-loans in the first and, to some degree, in

the second categories, and so on. What is required in terms of national government

intervention and regulation will also differ between the categories, as will the approach

taken by donor governments. What is required in terms of financing for VET will differ

and so will needs in terms of formal and non-formal education, accreditation, location

of training, marketing of training, exactly how broadly training is defined, how gender

imbalances need to be addressed etc.

Thus, the challenge for development agencies is to move out of the box of a formulafor VET, to be prepared to be responsive and innovative, and to use the VET base to

meet the needs of people for skills development and lifelong learning across all three

poverty categories in a flexible and cost effective manner. The intention in VET aimed

at pro-poor development should, to the extent possible, be to build on and support

initiatives that have local origins that fit within the SWAp of the host country, and that

encompass a broader empowerment intent than simply skills development.

In the context of a progression in the understanding of the heterogeneous nature of the

causes and implications of poverty, it is also possible to see appropriate skills

development interventions along a continuum. There is a place for employment-oriented vocational training even in the informal sector (e.g. the GTZ BAFIS

programme) at one end of the continuum, serving a relatively small group of people

who may be able to find employment in the informal sector, or even access

employment opportunities in the formal sector. It is likely that those in Category 1 of the

poverty-cause classification will benefit most from such an approach. Re-training for

other positions for those, who become redundant as a result of modernisation, falls

along the continuum at this point.

In more recent times, however, the emphasis has shifted to basic entrepreneurial

skills development (BESD), with the understanding that people are going to have, onthe whole, to create their own jobs. In this approach, entrepreneurial training is

combined with skills training. This kind of training often works with both Categories 1

and 2, where people already have links to the modern sector and, with some support,

are able to exploit their knowledge and understanding to carve out commercially viable

space for themselves.

Even more recently, people concerned about skills development, particularly for

Category 3, have begun to grapple with the complexities of skills development in, for

example, traditional rural communities, where people are struggling to adapt to

changing modern conditions. In such communities, one of the few major assets that

people have in combating poverty is family, group, community affiliation. A suggested


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training approach here is solution-oriented learner-networks (or LearnNet). In

these situations, the challenges can be technical, business management,

infrastructural, individual. There is no ready made training quick-fix. What is needed

is a multi-pronged approach that supports families, groups, communities, networks in

finding their own solutions within their functioning unit. In other words, support towardsempowerment, guided by the needs of the particular unit. This may involve a range of

skills training, from negotiation and advocacy skills to skills in vegetable processing to

coaching in design or computer skills, etc. The intention is to empower people to take

control of their own lives, and it is on this basis that impact needs to be evaluated.

These approaches are not discrete, nor only specific to one poverty category. But they

do represent a continuum of potential interventions that fit into a broadly defined VET

approach, each of which need to be seen in the context of the GTZ capacity

development emphasis.

2.4 The emphasis on enterprise-based training(In this sub-section, we are indebted to Michael Schulz for many of the insights and for hisinnovation in terms of the examples.)

A key principle in German bilateral co-operation is support to self-help processes, and,

increasingly, there is an emphasis on the business enterprise as a focus for

development support. This is particularly valid in the context of VET which has come to

be more about empowering people to help themselves, giving them the capacity for

resilience, than simply about imparting technical skills. This change is part of the

developing understanding of what is needed in pro-poor growth and development. Akey element of the approach is to link the world of learning and the world of work and

to recognise the business enterprise as a site of learning. This is not a new idea. In

fact, it has a history that goes back to the middle ages when education resources were

scarce and most people in Europe got their skills through apprenticeships and not

through any form of institution-based schooling. In most developing countries,

institution-based training is out of reach of the vast majority of people, it is often

inadequate (see above) and it does not build on established self-help principles. In

contrast, enterprise-based training has all the elements of a self-help process,

involving, as it does, enterprise owners, apprentices and employees in an ongoing

active process of learning in the context of actual business practice.

Enterprise-based training is financed largely by enterprises14 and those who receive

training within them. It adheres to business principles in this regard, ensuring that it is

demand-driven, not supply driven. Outcomes are measured practically in the form of

jobs and incomes secured. The driving force is entrepreneurial initiative and the

invisible hand of the market. People in businesses whether the enterprise owners or

trainees, are learning in a real situation all the time. The basis is responsiveness,

flexibility, resilience. The link to employment and self-employment is strong. Growth

14Although, in developing countries not many formal sector economy companies are prepared

to offer placements.


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potential is high and assisted growth potential can be accelerated and sustained. This

understanding further expands the borders of what should legitimately be considered

VET. If the enterprise is a significant site, and potential growing site, of VET in the

context of pro-poor development, then interventions that grow businesses through

capacity building and enable them to offer training and employment opportunities toyoung people, can also be seen as VET interventions.

Example: In Cambodia, BMZ/GTZ has been assisting a VET project which used

barefoot consultants to support micro and small businesses through business

improvement circles (BICs). The rationale was that, by helping the businesses to grow,

the project would create more training opportunities for young school leavers (many

drop-outs) who would otherwise be condemned to eke out a living as unskilled labourers

all their lives, probably living below the poverty line. Although it is too soon to measurethe impact of this project on the intended beneficiary group (school drop-outs), groups of

young people have been trained to facilitate business improvement circles and are doing

so on a commercial basis with considerable success at least to the extent that there is

an ongoing demand for their services, and enterprises are willing to pay for them. These

services are currently offered mainly to micro and small enterprises. There are plans to

develop the process at a higher level, so that similar services can be offered to medium-

sized businesses. This is an innovative way of addressing VET. It builds on the

understanding that entrepreneurs learn best from one another and in an environment

familiar to them. The BICs facilitate this. They strengthen networking and business

linkages. The BIC concept could also be extended to product improvement circles and

training improvement circles, both of which have the potential to strengthen the SME

sector as a site of learning for both enterprise owners and employees and apprentices.

While this project is still in the stage of hypothesis testing, it has exciting potential for

addressing VET problems for which there is no quick-fix solution, building on local

initiative and creating a strong potential for sustainability in the long-run. We see this as

an example of working with Category 2 (marginalisation) in terms of causes of poverty.

Not all training can, or should, be enterprise-based, although, in the context of pro-poor

growth in developing countries, there should always be a link between VET and the

world of work. Some training will take place in an institutional / organisational context

and, therefore, some VET interventions should be focused on making these institutions

/ organisations more appropriate environments for VET that is pro-poor growth

oriented. Again, Cambodia provides an example:


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Example: In most developing countries there have been efforts to re-orientate

training institutions, mainly government ones, towards more appropriate service delivery.

There have been many failures. It is very difficult to turn institutions that have been run

as bureaucracies into fee-generating, demand-driven centres. A BMZ/GTZproject in

Cambodia (see above for this projects BIC initiative), introduced a programme called

Entrepreneurial Management for Vocational Education and Training (EMVET) to a

number of Provincial Technical Colleges (PTCs) in Cambodia with considerable success

in certain instances. The purpose of EMVET is to introduce entrepreneurial management

at the level of vocational training providers in order to create an entrepreneurial culture

at the system level. The programme covers planning, marketing, delivery and evaluation.

The GTZ project advisor believes it also needs to do more on financial management of

different sources of income. However, in a number of the institutions where it has beenoffered, the training has produced better than expected results. The best performing

Institute now generates more than US $100,000 a year. The Cambodian government

has allowed the institutions to use this money (or at least has not prevented them from

doing so) to offer incentives to staff and to continue running short courses for business

people in their locations. The intention of the EMVET approach is to enable the colleges

to run courses that are modular, relevant, cost effective and impact on the ability of

participants to improve their socio-economic status. Whether or not the approach results

in the desired impact is still to be tested.


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3. THE NINE GENERIC BUILDING BLOCKS FOR

A VET INTERVENTION AIMED AT PRO- POOR

GROWTH 15

In this section, we look in some detail at what we have called the nine generic building

blocks for any VET intervention that hopes to contribute to pro-poor growth. While not

every intervention will require that each of the building blocks be in place, most will

require that a significant number of them be in place. Several of them take us back to

the core principles of an SL approach. We see this paper as a work-in-progress. There

may well be other generic building blocks, or other ways of looking at these nine, that

need to be added or developed.

THE NINE GENERIC BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A VETINTERVENTION AIMED AT PRO- POOR GROWTH

15

The general idea for the design of this section came from A Guide to Rural Economic andEnterprise Development (REED), a working paper of August 2003, published by GTZ butreflecting a joint DfID, FAO, GTZ, IFAD, SDC, World Bank and EU ACP (CTA) process.

ANENABLINGENVIRON-MENT

APPRO-PRIATEFINAN-CINGMECHAN-ISMS

ADEQU-ATEINFRA-STRUCT-URE

LINKAGES

APPRO-PRIATEMETHOD-OLOGY

EMPOWER-MENTCONTENT

NET-WORKS

MONITOR-ING ANDEVALUA-TION

COMPLE-MENT-ARITY

APPRO-PRIATE PRO-POOR VET


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3.1 An enabling environment

At the very least, the context in which the intervention operates should not be opposed

to the basic tenets of pro-poor growth VET and should encourage and support the

growth of the informal economy. Policies need to encourage VET that favours pro-poor

growth. This may mean that there is a SWAP that makes specific provision for VET,financially and infrastructurally, that emphasises the need to link the world of learning

and the world of work, that encourages entrepreneurship and enterprise-based

training, which has gender as a cross-cutting issue. It should also influence other

sectors appropriately e.g. the finance sector towards micro loans and appropriate

financing schemes, ministries such as gender, and labour towards enterprise-based

learning. Rules and regulations need to be appropriate but also transparent and

consistently applied, both within VET, and within related sectors such as regulating

small businesses, addressing corruption, ensuring access by the poor to all services.

There also needs to be an acknowledgement that - in pro-poor growth - the poor needa voice and their networks and associations need to be supported and recognised.

And, in terms of the GTZ capacity-development approach, there needs to be high level

capacity to support interventions at all levels.

To what end?

Interventions at this level should be aiming at encouraging practices and policies that

strengthen democracy, empower the poor, are flexible, community specific,

decentralised, sustainable and fair. There needs to be tangible political will to protect

and promote the interests of the poor, visible in policies and implementation.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders most likely to be involved at this level include donor and development

agencies, national, regional and local legislatures and authorities. Business and wider

civil society associations can also be important here, either through their expertise or

through a lobbying and advocacy function.

Possible goals

Some possible goals within this building block:

VET policy that is pro-poor and in tune with the overall economic and educationaldirection of government planning. The progressive decentralisation of VET in line with the policy framework. VET as part of local poverty reduction strategies. The active involvement of the private sector in the planning and provision of VET. A two way process between governments and the poor, and between donors and

the poor.

Overall pro-poor policies that support innovation and initiative, and reward thesewith incentives.

High level capacity to support a diverse approach to VET that is pro-poor oriented.


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3.2 Appropriate financing mechanisms

GTZ completed a guideline16 on the financing of vocational education to which we are

indebted here. However, we have focused on points of interest within our particular

pro-poor growth framework and have in no way attempted to reproduce the complexity

of that paper.

The financing of education and vocational education is closely bound up with the task

of poverty reduction. In general, when we are talking about VET in the context of pro-

poor growth, we are not any more concerned with professional training (broadly

defined) or with large company-based training. Professional people and those

employed by large companies do not feature large in the profile of the poor. Mostly,

they can afford the kind of training offered by state or commercial training facilities, and

will invest in it if they think the return in terms of future earnings will be sufficient.

Sometimes the state or the employer pays for the training. The training offered tends to

be relatively lengthy and costly, relying on major infrastructural development and fulltime training and administrative staff.

We are mostly concerned with how people operating at the lower end of the scale

finance their training. At this level, people also invest in their own training on the basis

of return expectations. At times, the state intervenes in an attempt to counteract social

and geographical imbalances. However, direct subsidies run the risk of distorting

market forces and impacting negatively on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of

VET. People in all three of the poverty categories discussed above are looking for

training that is relatively short, work-oriented, and practical. People want to spend little

and get as much as possible. Often, in any case, there are opportunity costs to their

participation in the training (in the form of foregone earnings). This is true for those who

already have some kind of (self-) employment or who could be earning in a job, even if

a low paid job. Where training is fully paid for by the state or a donor, and/or when

trainees are given allowances, the cost to the financing body increases and the issue

of sustainability becomes a major factor.17 At a primary training level, financing solely

by the state can be defended in the context of poverty reduction and compensation for

social or economic imbalances but, as a long-term solution, such financing puts a

heavy burden on the state and/or donors, is probably unsustainable, and may well

distort the demand-focus in skills provision.

In general, VET financing mechanisms should reflect the principle that training is a

service and that its beneficiaries should bear the cost.

The authors of the guideline on financing of Vocational Education (see above) believe

that vocational education finance should contribute to:

Adapting the range of training and further training to individual demand;16

Horst Idler / Walter Georg / Antonius Lipsmeier: Dealing with Financing of Vocational

Education A guide for advisors, planners and their partners; 200317Practices such as traditional apprenticeship deal with the sustainability issue quite effectively,

allowing the burden of training costs to be shared at a community level.


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Covering societys requirements for qualifications (and we would urge the principlehere: as much as is necessary, but no more than is essential);

Avoiding or minimising distortions in competition between enterprises resulting fromthe burden of training and further training costs;

Minimising structural incompatibilities between vocational learning programmesand the demand for them (i.e. between what is offered and what potential learners

want or need);

Avoiding structural inequalities between vocational learning programmes and theneed for qualifications in the employment system;

Reducing as far as possible the costs of regulating and administrating training andfurther training as well as its financing;

Avoiding inflationary thrusts through changes in modes of finance; Achieving high quality training and further training; Reducing the range in quality of training and further training; Dismantling and avoiding discrimination against certain potential client groups in

the vocational training and further training system.

While no one project or programme can hope to pursue all these goals at the same

time, those involved should be clear about which they are pursuing within any project

or programme. The paper suggests that donor interventions take as their starting point

a partner countrys historically developed VET-system and its funding mechanisms.

Presumably, this means looking at state systems, private sector systems and private

individual and informal systems.

To what end?

Interventions at this level should have two main aims: sustainability (the ongoing

existence of the intervention and/or the ongoing impact of the intervention) and redress

(recognition that the poor have been unfairly disadvantaged and some attempt to make

up for this). Balancing the two requires a real understanding of the social and

economic dynamics of the society, community and extended family.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders here include the state, learners and their families, NGOs, employers,

employees, international donor agencies. To the extent that taxes and levies are used,almost everyone in the society is a stakeholder.

Possible goals


Employers, trade unions, accrediting and regulating bodies set up training funds(either voluntarily or through statutory regulation) for those who cannot afford

unsubsidised training. Such funds would then be administered by a multi-

stakeholder governance structure on which there were representatives of the

proposed beneficiaries. Even when training is subsidised there should be somebeneficiary contribution, in money or kind, to ensure that market forces prevail.


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Governments offer incentives to enterprises that provide training. If this approachwere extended to the less formal sector, then there would need to be some kind of

quality control for the training offered.

Co-financing arrangements, including cost recovery, involving local authorities,public/private partnerships and, where possible, giving the beneficiaries a say inwhat they want to do (ensuring that the demand emphasis remains). Voucher

systems have many problems but they do make provision for the demand

emphasis, as do low or no interest fixed term loan schemes. These allow for

special attention to be paid to those who would otherwise be excluded because of

the extent of their marginalisation e.g. AIDS orphans.

Decentralisation of provision and of control of income generated through provisionby community and local based institutions.

Providing incentives (e.g. training for facilitators, materials, fees), and some qualitycontrol, with regard to private providers.

Minimising the need for new infrastructure, using existing infrastructure, keepingcosts as low as possible, creating a strong possibility of sustainability.

3.3 Adequate infrastructure

Within the term infrastructure, we include physical and equipment infrastructure as well

as appropriate trainers, governance and administration. Infrastructure is, in fact, a set

up, whether physical or personal, that facilitates the functioning of an operation. It may

even mean the development of a transport infrastructure that enables rural enterprisesto get their goods to market. The greater the use of enterprises as sites of training, the

less centralised physical infrastructure is needed. The enterprise becomes the

classroom and it is usually appropriately equipped (although this does not necessarily

mean perfectly equipped.)

Often, local buildings that already exist can be put to use. Schools and formal training

institutions often stand empty during holiday periods and are generally under-utilised.

Even a community hall or meeting place can be used as a venue (for example, in

Cambodia, pagodas are sometimes used as meeting places). In countries where

people are very spread out and have to cover fairly long distances to reach centralvenues, the possibility of mobile training units might be explored. The intention should

be to avoid white elephants (infrastructure that is unused or not fully used).

The soft infrastructure issues are more complicated to address and, many would

argue, more important. A good trainer can probably achieve something under a tree; a

bad trainer, or an inappropriate one, can probably achieve little even in a state of the

art building with state of the art equipment. It seems to make sense to use people who

have already been trained as trainers to support learning processes that are meant to

be pro-poor growth. However, many of these existing trainers have learned to train in

the formal context, and, even then, their methods may well be unsuited to changingcircumstances. They need to be trained in adult education participatory methodologies.


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One issue is that, where there is an entrepreneurial content to the training, or even the

intention of the training, many of these trainers will have no understanding of this. So

retraining of trainers becomes a priority, as does developing potential trainers with the

necessary background, and considering the idea of peer training.

Examples:

In the Cambodian barefoot consultant initiative discussed above, the idea of Business

Information Circles (BICs) was used. The barefoot consultants facilitated BICs where

enterprise owners learned largely from one another. The barefoot consultants run their

services as a commercial enterprise and so are also engaged in entrepreneurial

activities.

In a project in South Africa(Khuphuka), trainers were encouraged to use opportunities to

turn their skills to income generation through production and some of them were able toset up their own enterprises, as well as continuing to train. This was particularly useful

when the organisation had to retrench staff. These trainers already had a viable

alternative to wage employment.

In the area of governance, or control and management of initiatives, again the

emphasis needs to be on local governance with, if necessary, this feeding into regional

and even national structures. The example given of the Ivory Coast Rural Training

Networks is a case in point here. In these, governance began at the village level and

went through to the regional level. Hard infrastructure was minimal, but people were

not only learning immediately applicable income generating skills, they were also

learning governance skills, a key factor in democratic participation. Beneficiaries of

training may form associations which then manage and organise appropriate training.

In the case of the retrenched miners in South Africa, the beneficiaries already had

considerable trade union experience and were able to mediate their own training to

some degree.

To what end?Interventions at this level should be aiming at sustainability and decentralisation.

Building expensive buildings which need constant upkeep and staff to run them may

not be the route to go. Transport in many rural areas is difficult and expensive and

getting to a central venue, even within a region, may be a problem. Using existing hard

infrastructure, wherever possible makes sense, as does encouraging the use of

functioning enterprises. Training and retraining of trainers is a priority. How this is done

requires innovative approaches. Providing financial incentives to trainers based on

their success-rate, measured not only in numbers trained, but in the impact of the

training, is in line with a market-oriented approach. Governance needs to be as closelylinked to the people being trained as possible.


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Stakeholders

Stakeholders in this building block are clearly governments (at all levels), donor

agencies, training institutions, other service providers, enterprise owners and,

importantly, local communities. In some instances, local economic development

centres may be important facilitators of infrastructural development. In some places,

certainly in rural areas of Africa, accessing appropriate venues and getting a degree of

local control may mean working with tribal chiefs.

Possible goals


Use of existing facilities wherever possible, including functioning workplaces. Use of venues that are as decentralised as possible. Focused and appropriate training and retraining of trainers, and use of peer

trainers, with some mediation. Participatory governance structures that give beneficiaries a significant voice in the

control and management of VET initiatives.

3.4 Linkages

Here we are talking about the linkages between a VET initiative and other aspects of

the social and economic functions in a society or community. In any market-oriented

society there are value chains around production and distribution, stretching from raw

materials through to after-sales service. Pro-poor growth VET needs somehow to

incorporate an understanding of these value chains and it needs, wherever possible, to

link training to these chains as part of the process of linking the world of training and

the world of work. The practice of traditional apprenticeship, at its best, does this

particularly well. Informal apprentices work alongside a master who shares not only a

trade or service skill, but also information about raw materials, accessing equipment,

finance, customers. The apprentice gets the opportunity to make links and connections

that will stand him/her in good stead in the future.

Another way of looking at linkages in VET is to see the training part of VET as part of

an overall package, a part that will better achieve its ends (reduction of poverty) if the

training process is part of a package that includes micro-financing, business

development advice and marketing exposure. The kind of support and advice will vary

from situation to situation. So, for example, one of the important goals of the Ivory

Coast Rural Training Network project quoted above was to ensure that those trained

would be able to access the normal agricultural extension services. This does not in

any way mean that the training provider should provide all these elements as well (in

fact, they should not !), but the better connected the training provider is in terms of

business and potential support linkages, the more useful the training is likely to be.

Through these linkages, training extends into the workplace. Business enterprises that

are part of an extensive set of such linkages may also be more likely to be able to take


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on trainees or new graduates with some training, or to be able to refer them to other

potential employers.

To what end?

The main significance in this building block is the essential link from the world of

learning to the world of work. Training providers who have these links themselves are

far more likely to be able to guide trainees towards them, and their training is likely to

be far more geared to the realities of the workplace.

Stakeholders

These include the training providers, the linking enterprises, the trainees and,

particularly for those in poverty Categories 1 and 2, business associations. Also

included are service providers in areas such as BDS (Business Development

Services). If these can be strengthened they form a set of linkages in themselves. At a

more meso level, where associations become members of regional or even nationalassociations, the linkages are further extended, bringing in new ideas and

opportunities down to the community level.

Possible goals

Some possible goals in this building block:

VET initiatives directly connected to business association linkages as thegovernance structures of VET-specific institutions include a range of business

people.

Objectives set for enterprise-based training to ensure wider exposure to businesslinks.

Exposure to the various elements of the value chain included even in institution-based training.

The creation or strengthening of local business associations so that they cancontribute to work-linked VET.

The skill of accessing appropriate support e.g. from micro finance networks andinstitutions, built into training curricula.

3.5 Networks

Networks are closely related to business linkages, but go beyond them, particularly,

but not exclusively, for people in Category 3 of the poverty categorisation used above.

This is the group that is struggling to make the adaptation to a more modern and

constantly changing economy. The large, and largely rural, group that falls into this

category relies for its survival on its network of family and community connections.


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These networks have been called livelihood coalitions.18 They are informal groups,

described as having a strong core, but a loose and open edge.

Example:

Franz Moos describes one such coalition in Albania were he works:

The Qerreti group is a group of women who have just started jointly processing their

fruits and vegetables, partly for their own consumption, partly for informal exchange with

relatives and friends in town, and partly for selling and creating income. The group

members are both close and slightly more distant neighbours, most are related and

belong to the same clan. On the one hand, the group is quite informal. There is a core of

those who show more initiative and are more active, and they work with casual suppliers

of raw materials and other collaborators. On the other hand, the group is supported by

the regional producers organisation which is supporting a grant to the group for a new

processing facility, and collaborates with them in training and marketing. The core group

has a contract with the organisation.

The core Qerreti group consists of people with different skills and potentials. One has a

suitable space, others have suitable land and experience as producers of raw materials,

others have time to work at the processing centre, one is an agronomist with experience

in fruit-tree cultivation. They have joined forces and are now joining together with an

outer circle of their friends and relatives in town to make the initiative work. The kinds of

skills they need include basic skills in producing good quality fruits and vegetables, but

also skills in processing fruit and vegetables, in developing a marketable product, and

some will need skills in management, in negotiation and in co-operation with other

groups. Not everyone needs all the skills and the skills they need as a group go beyond

trade skills or even commercial skills to encompass a whole level of empowerment.

The group has potential links to people who have migrated from the area and now live in

towns. In the future they may be an important part of the livelihood coalition and will

need other skills. It also has the potential to train young people once it is established.

The significance of this example for us is that it indicates:

How important such networks can be. They can be built on by VET initiatives sothat they are more likely to be successful.

The challenges they present to VET. That there cannot be a one solution solves all approach in VET that is aimed at

pro-poor growth.

Training for such groups needs to be planned in the context to maximise thesynergy they already have.

18

The comments on livelihood coalitions are based on a current debate being co-ordinated bySDC by e-mail. The Swiss Development Corporation has taken the lead in an e-mail discussionaround Skills Development for Rural Areas (SDRA).


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The importance of close networks of this kind goes beyond Category 3 (people in

largely rural areas struggling to adapt to changes in the environment). People who

migrate from the rural areas to towns and cities usually rely on their clan, tribe and

family links to help them find their feet in the urban area. Enterprise owners are usually

more willing to take on someone from their own tribe as an apprentice because theyfeel they know them and can trust them. So the tentacles of the network reach out

and provide a base even far from home. In the SDC discussion, people even

suggested that these links cross oceans when people migrate to new continents.

These networks can be seen as an asset which poor people have and, therefore, as

something to be built on and neither ignored or immediately replaced with more

business-like arrangements. Being entrepreneurial should not mean having to give up

an important asset of this kind.19 However, where the networks are counter-effective

as, for example, in their specific attitudes to women and womens work, it may be

necessary to encourage change in the networks.

There are also more formal networks, from business associations where people from

the SMME sector working in the same field come together to offer mutual support,

through to chambers of commerce. Business associations provide a meeting point,

they sometimes access raw materials at good prices for their members, they can

channel trainees to suitable enterprises and they should be able to provide a voice for

their members so that they can impact on their environment. Chambers of Commerce

take this a step further, bringing associations and individuals together in a professional

body that, by mutual agreement, regulates their area of activity. Areas of concern here

might be employment practices, training practices, government regulations and so on.All these different networks are assets for those attempting to rise out of poverty and

engaging with them, supporting them, providing training for their members should be

seen as a legitimate, if innovative, part of VET.

To what end?

Interventions at this level should be aiming at strengthening existing networks,

addressing power relations so that already marginalised groups are not further

marginalised, encouraging the formation of networks, developing the voice of the

networks, and developing training solutions that are multi-faceted rather than linear.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders include, of course, the networks themselves, other networks with which

linkages can be formed, the individuals within the networks, local training providers,

19In many poor households, business and private earnings and expenses are dealt with from a

common fund. As capital is limited and seasonal fluctuations determine how well the business isdoing, private households often balance profit fluctuations of the business, serving as a kind ofbuffer. The economic unity of the household and enterprise is therefore essential for securing

both the familys livelihood and the long-term existence of the business. Interventions that takea purist view in cases such as this are likely to be counter-productive. (With thanks to GunnarSpecht for this insight.)


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donor agencies offering technical assistance; and, at the more sophisticated end of the

scale, regulatory bodies.

Possible goals

Some possible goals for this building block:

Recognition of the importance of networks as an asset for poor people. Strong networks at all the different levels. Business linkages between networks. Networks used as a basis for participatory planning to meet holistic training needs. Donor agencies willing to support network strengthening, even at the most basic

unit level.

Associations provide an entry point for dealing with external brokers (e.g. brokersreach an agreement with an association to sell the goods made by members).

3.6 Empowerment content

Empowerment content takes us back to the principles of pro-poor growth. For there to

be successful pro-poor growth, the poor must have a voice in how that growth takes

place. One of the side effects of poverty is that it marginalises those who are poor.

Most often, the poor do not speak, others speak for them. However well-intentioned

this is, in the context of a pro-poor growth orientation, it is not desirable. Given this, a

pro-poor VET approach needs to be based on empowerment content, rather than

simply on a process of skills transfer. What does this mean? It means that:

The content should be decided in collaboration with, and with direction from theintended beneficiaries, and any networks of which they are part.

The content should be about income generating skills, entrepreneurial skills,organisational skills.

It should be aimed at helping poor people develop resilience, as well as providingthem with specific skills.

It should include skills that enable poor people to take control of their lives, skillssuch as information accessing, negotiation, lobbying.

It should actively encourage poor people to develop and use their voice.To what end?

The intention here is to give people not only skills but the confidence to manage the

changing socio-economic environment in their own interests and that of their families

and communities. The aim is to support people to become actors in, rather than victims

of, their own lives. This may include content as varying as basic literacy and health,

through to sophisticated negotiating and conflict resolution skills.


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Stakeholders

The full gamut of stakeholders is important here. At the macro level, policy needs to be

flexible enough to encourage training that does not fit within the neat parameters of

vocational education and training. There also needs to be a democratic will thatrecognises that supporting poor people to acquire a voice is not a slippery slope to

anarchy. This applies to government and donor agencies. At the meso level,

institutions and training providers need to be willing to extend the definition of

vocational training / skills training to incorporate a wider range of interventions and

content. At the micro level, beneficiaries need to be willing to seize the initiative and

demand and use the broader range of empowerment content.

Possible goals

Possible goals in this building block:

Traditional curricula for skills training are extended to include empowerment skills. ICT, with a specific emphasis on accessing and using information, becomes an

accepted part of VET.

Donor agencies are willing to support programmes that emphasise empowermentskills.

Poor people organise to access their existing rights and demand those they do notyet have.

3.7 Appropriate methodology20

This building block is really an extension of the previous one, empowerment content.

Once the content has an empowerment emphasis, then the methodology needs to be

appropriate to this. This means that the methodology needs to be interactive,

participatory, experiential. It needs to take into account that learners are largely adult,

that they have skills and knowledge on which new learnings should be built, that they

deserve respect. It also needs to take into account that time spent in training is lost

opportunity for income generation and so allow for modular approaches to training

(short, competency-based modules that will enable people to apply what they havelearned almost immediately). This does not mean one-off short courses, but rather

the opportunity to participate in a coherent set of modules over a relatively long period

of time. This is an important factor for donors when they are planning their

involvement. Ideally, modules of this nature need to be interspersed with

coaching/mentoring and mediated learning from practical application. Where the

20 One of the people who gave us feedback on the original paper noted that methodology differsdepending on whether you are functioning at the macro, micro or meso level and thatappropriate means something different in each case. Although we have only dealt with the

meso and micro levels here, we agree with this point. We could also have said more about theneed to ensure that facilitators and resource people have some skills in participatory adulteducation methodologies.


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overall donor commitment is too short, or too short-sighted, the whole investment might

end up being wasted because it is insufficient and the learnings are unsustainable.

To what end?

Interventions should build on prior learning, they should enhance self-esteem, they

should give people practical experience (preferably in the workplace, but otherwise

through simulations and experiential exercises21), they should be aimed at transferring

control and initiative from the trainer to the learner.

Stakeholders

The most significant stakeholders here are training providers, trainers and the

beneficiaries themselves.

Possible goals

Possible goals within this building block are:

Trainers skilled in experiential methodology. Appropriate resources for trainers available. Modular training, with short-term, immediately applicable learnings, available.

3.8 Complementarity

Complementarity is the principle that interventions work best when they complement

others. This links back to the SWAP approach and to the concept of a focal areas

strategic paper (FASP) which outlines a coherent sector approach in a particular

location. It means working with others who have similar goals, without unnecessary

duplication, learning from one another, optimising the resources available by

leveraging further impact through other interventions or joint interventions.

To what end?

The intention here is to create synergy between a number of interventions so that the

sum of the individual interventions is g

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