By Gonzalo Graña - Programme Officer at the ILO's Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training, CINTERFOR. Responsible for apprenticeship and dual training

At the 111th International Labour Conference in June this year, the ILO adopted a new International Labour Standard (ILS) on apprenticeships, which takes the form of a Recommendation.

The subject of this new Recommendation, "Apprenticeship", as it is called in the ILO context, is "any form of education and training governed by an apprenticeship contract, which enables an apprentice to acquire the skills required for an occupation through structured training with remuneration or other financial compensation, on the job and off the job, leading to a recognised qualification "*. In other words, the term "Apprenticeship" in this context coincides to a large extent with the training modality also known as "dual training" in several countries in our region.

This new ILO Recommendation fills a gap, in a certain sense, with regard to ILO ILS on apprenticeship. Indeed, the last specific ILO Recommendation on vocational training and human resources development (Recommendation No. 195 of 2004) did not say a word about this particular training modality.

The new ILS on this issue is also excellent news for the region for several reasons. Firstly, because it provides countries with a clear set of guidelines and recommendations on how to structure learning programmes and systems; a roadmap, in a way, that would help to reform existing experiences in a coherent and articulated manner, or to create systems and programmes from scratch when there is no previous progress in this field.

It also serves to emphasise, when we are talking about apprenticeships, issues such as social dialogue, the roles and responsibilities of the actors involved, financing, the regulatory framework, relevance to the training needs of the labour market and social and equitable inclusion in vocational training, in accordance with what are the pillars or main elements of apprenticeships in the ILO's conceptual framework.

We are convinced that promoting, strengthening and expanding this training modality would be a great contribution to the toolbox of public policy on vocational training in our region.

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where there are consolidated, mature, solid apprenticeship programmes, with the participation and support of social actors, have proven to be effective in achieving a good transition to the world of work for the young apprentices involved. The problem we have is that given their (generally) small scale, they fail to move the needle on overall youth unemployment. In other words: it is very good for those few who can participate.

To scale up and massify existing dual training programmes today, and to do so with quality, there are several requirements that should be met, but there is one in particular that is the main bottleneck in most countries: there needs to be a much larger number of companies willing to open their doors and take on apprentices.

For this to happen, at the very least, it is necessary that the existing regulatory framework does not offer doubts or uncertainties to companies that could eventually participate, and that there are the necessary incentives and support (particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises) for them to take the decision to join the existing programmes.

Communication and information on the benefits of this training modality, when it works well, with regard to the human resources management of companies is an element whose value can hardly be overestimated when it comes to promoting learning.

Finally, as can be seen from a careful reading of the Recommendation, it is a training modality that depends on, and at the same time promotes, effective social dialogue both at the level of governance of the system and at the sectoral and even enterprise level. This is particularly welcome in our region, in a context where spaces for effective and efficient institutionalised tripartite social dialogue in other areas of the world of work seem to be shrinking at times in several countries.

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*Definition taken from the Recommendation approved at the 111th ILC.
** All relevant information on the Apprenticeship Policy Commission can be found here.