Catering to national industry needs

Paulette Dunn-Smith, Contributor

MOST OF the articles in the past have focused on improving workforce productivity in private enterprises. This week, we depart from this approach to look at the critical and transformational role public-sector training agencies play in improving workforce productivity and, in particular, the success of the National Industrial Apprenticeship Agency in Brazil, SENAI, by far, the most impressive in Latin America and the Caribbean, in terms of its contribution to sustained economic growth and productivity, and improved standards of living for its people.

In many countries, the usual arrangement for public-sector intervention in skills and vocational training is through ministries of labour, human resource and/or education. An increasingly dominant and creative role is now being played by semi-autonomous national training agencies in many countries around the world. They typically provide subsidised skills training in their training centres, but their responsibilities and influence go well beyond this. Most play a role in determining national policy and setting regulations and some, particularly in middle-income countries, provide consultancy and technology-information services. They also help organise specialised training in support of specific investments or facilitate adjustment in the workforce.

Such agencies have been able to develop national training systems of quality with strong links to industry, each with considerable flexibility and responsiveness. This has been facilitated by employer and worker representation on their boards of management as well as by stable funding. A good example of such an operation is SENAI, established and governed by enterprises, which finance it through payroll levies. In Brazil, training on a national scale is provided by a number of agencies, known as the 'S' system: SENAI (manufacturing), SENAR (agriculture) SENAC (commerce) and SENAT (transportation). All the agencies work together, however it is SENAI - The National Industrial Training Service of Brazil which has become a world reference in Technical and Vocational Education and Training. The institution has been continuously reinventing itself based on national industry needs, and aligning its strategic goals and objectives around the changes in the socio-political and economic context throughout its nearly 60 years of existence.

SENAI is organised in a centralised system with one national department and 27 regional departments. The institution is responsible for the training of 2.8 million professionals per year throughout its network of 730 centres. In nearly 70 years of existence, more than 30 million Brazilians have enrolled in SENAI. Incidentally, the former president of Brazil Lula Da Silva was a past student who had high regard for the institution, and who consistently supported and spoke of its importance to national development.

SENAI's mission speaks to the "strengthening of industry and the full sustainable development of Brazil", promoting education for work and citizenship, with technology being the driving force. The growth of SENAI was not by accident as 10 years ago, the strategic vision was for SENAI to take on the role of national leader as an institution of education for work, anchoring its leadership role in technological innovation, results-oriented administration and international recognition. All its planned objectives have been achieved as planned, and the leadership of the institution has been stable, dynamic, visionary and highly respected. Some of the strategies used by SENAI included:

• (a) The improvement of management - where training was given to managers of centres, performance targets set and emphasis placed on the achievement of results.
  
• (b) Market orientation - which saw an emphasis on the development of actions to strengthen and expand SENAI's relationship with national and international markets.
  
• (c) Increased social responsibility - in which the training agency developed strategies to impact social responsibility and citizenship of every participant in training.
  
• (d) Sustainability of the agency - SENAI intensified its efforts to enlarge the supply of competitive and innovative products and established strategic alliances.

During the period of consolidation, SENAI adopted a quality control standard (ISO 9001) that improved the quality of its business processes, training centres, and skills training in Brazil. After evaluation, by the quality observed, training centres were recognised as 'Model Centres of Vocational Education' or 'National Technology Centres' each rewarded bronze, silver and gold in ascending order based on their level of compliance in their management of processes, information and people, leadership, strategic planning, focusing on the client and the market, and results.

SENAI also puts on an annual skills and knowledge olympics, which is the springboard for well over 50 technological innovations and inventions developed by students and teachers, several of which are adopted at the national level. SENAI also signed agreements to train young people between 16 and 24, and the unemployed who are more than 40 years of age with vocational education. It has a programme for teachers in which quality teaching materials are shared among regional departments to improve teaching in the centres. In the rural areas, joining forces with the Ministry of Health, SENAI has raised literacy levels, increased access to vocational training, and has seen improvements in the health of the population. SENAI stresses citizenship and entrepreneurship in all its training programmes, ensuring that its graduates leave with all the social and technical skills which Brazil needs for a productive workforce to continue on its successful developmental path. By continually reviewing its role and renewing itself, SENAI has become the benchmark for national training agencies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Paulette Dunn-Smith is an international trainer and workforce development expert. She is the executive director, Dunn, Pierre, Barnett & Associates Ltd and chairman, Caribbean Career and Professional Development Institute. Contact her at pdunn@dpbglobal.com or www.dpbgglobal.com.