Competency-based training and certification system construction industry. UOCRA Foundation. Argentina
- To promote lifelong training of employed and unemployed construction workers.
- To implement training actions relevant to the socio-productive reality of the industry in the country.
- To strengthen the education/work relationship, with active involvement from social actors.
- To promote investment in training.
- To develop lifelong training.
- To systematise training processes, so that training actions result from previous needs studies and that, after their implementation, these actions are assessed.
- To contribute to improve the competitiveness of enterprises and employability of workers.
- To create favourable conditions for the enrolment of applicants, the evaluation of their skills and their subsequent written certification.
- To agree on the design of skill indicators and the development of valid and reliable procedures for their evaluation.
- To certify the skills of workers who request it, regardless of how these skills were acquired.
- To give workers the chance to get a formal recognition of their occupational skills.
- To establish training paths for those who have not achieved any certification level yet.
- To integrate the training and certification subsystems.
People who require training in trades within the construction industry.
Employed or unemployed workers of the construction industry, with the required experience in their trade.
The System consists of two complementary and interrelated subprogrammes:
- Labour competency-based training.
- Labour competency-based evaluation and certification for workers of the construction industry.
Activities carried out are in line with the objectives stated under the Agreement signed between UOCRA, CAC and the Ministry of Labour.
One of the first stages focused on the development of occupational profiles, of key roles in the construction of houses, buildings and facilities, based on the concept of “occupational families”. These products led to the development of the occupational-functional-training map of the professional field of construction, integrating dimensions of the education/work relationship.
Curricular bases were developed for each profile, as well as the teaching/learning units that take specific curricular organization forms: the modules. Occupational profiles, curricular bases and modules were approved under Resolution 188/02 of the Federal Council of Culture and Education.
The implementation of the labour competency-based training subsystem was carried out through the Vocational Training Centres of the UOCRA Foundation’s network of institutions. They developed the following activities:
- Design and implementation of improvement plans, covering the dimensions of: relationship with the socio-productive context, vocational guidance, training, institutional evaluation, graduates follow-up, safety and environment.
- Development of modules and educational material.
- Design and distribution of printed materials edited by UOCRA Foundation.
- Application of curricular designs under a competency-based training approach.
- Awareness-raising actions and teachers’ training using a blended method.
- Evaluation and monitoring of implemented training actions.
- Trainers’ training using a blended method.
- Upgrading of the vocational training centres’ equipment, according to the construction specialities taught in each one.
The main objective of the competency-based evaluation and certification subsystem is to publicly, formally and temporarily recognize the labour ability shown by a worker, through an effective and transparent mechanism of evaluation of their labour skills, with regard to a standard, without being necessarily subject to the completion of an educational process.
Specific objectives:
- To generate a competitive workforce, with the capacity to adapt to changes.
- To define more dynamic and accessible training methods.
- To turn from an offer-based to a demand-based training system.
The certification process has four stages:
- Application: applicants apply on their own or through a construction company that requests the certification of its workers to the IERIC.
- Interview: it is aimed at assessing, based on the applicant’s employment history, the role and skill level in which they will be evaluated.
- Evaluation: a skill is evaluated in a comprehensive way, selecting related methods for the type of skill to be evaluated, using strategies and tools developed for such purpose.
- Issue of the certificate.
Applicants whose performance during the evaluation does not show the achievement of the skills required for the role, are sent once again to the training system to receive training and gain that knowledge. They will be evaluated again, after a period of work practice.
- Joint work of entrepreneurs , workers and government support, for the identification of profiles and occupational families, elements that provide the required framework for the implementation of the system.
- Commitment from all actors involved in each and every stage and element of the system.
- Support from the Ministry of Labour, through the funding of actions.
- Implementation of the blended method in teachers’ training courses.
- Identification of good practices of occupational roles of the construction industry, stated under the Labour Skill Standards.
- Systematisation of processes regarding training and evaluation stages (curricular designs, evaluation tools, among others).
- Formal recognition of good professional practices.
- Implementation of a methodology for the evaluation and certification of skills.
- Setting up of a network of vocational training institutions.
- Institutional capacity of the UOCRA Foundation for carrying out the continuous assessment of the system components, promoting good practices and identifying weaknesses in order to overcome them.
For the UOCRA Foundation, the implementation posed the challenge of managing knowledge, establishing smooth communication channels, promoting interrelationships between different actors involved in the programme, preparing technical teams, developing internal training, generating innovative logistics processes and showing adaptability capacities when faced with diverse situations of different complexities.
The system highlights the possibility of making social dialogue and tripartite involvement real, with joint actions implemented by the State, enterprises (represented by CAC) and workers (represented by the trade union).
