1. VIRTUAL COURSE ON CERTIFICATION OF LABOUR SKILLS Update - April, 2005 Maria Claudia Camacho Specialist, Office of Education Science and Technology Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (ESIDI) Second Meeting of IACML Working Groups Buenos Aires, April 11 th - 13 th, 2005

2. Background Operative Agreement between the Ministry of Labour of Mexico and the Council of Ministers of Labour of C.A., Belize, Panama and Dominican Republic - Nov. 2001 “Give priority to the exchange of knowledge and experience on the National Systems of Normalization and Certification of Labour Skills, that are being operated by CONOCER”

3. First Activities to comply with this commitment: Proposal to develop a Virtual Course, with support from OAS Background 1) Seminar “Elaboration of Technical Norms of Labor Skills” – Panama City, July, 2002  Training given by specialists of CONOCER to government officials. 2) Workshop “Evaluation and Certification of Labor Skills based on the CONOCER model” - Mexico D.F., August, 2002  Training of officers from the Ministries of Labour of 8 countries  Financial and technical assistance from OAS

4. Stage 1 – Definition of the course based on the study of the CONOCER model Council of Normalization and Certification of Labour Skills CONOCER Integrated by employers, workers and government System of Normalization of Labor Skills System of Certification of Labor Skills Operates two systems: Elaboration of Technical Norms of Labor Skills (TNLS), through Normalization Committees Establishes mechanisms to evaluate and certify knowledge and expertise based on TNLS

5. Stage 1 – Definition of the course based on the study of the CONOCER model NORMALIZATION Model Components: EVALUATIONCERTIFICATION Elaboration of TNLS (based in productive functions, not in job posts) Normalization Committees (workers and employers) by sector Evaluation Centers and Independent Evaluator collect evidences on personal labor performance, based in TNLS Certification Organisms - Independent of Training and Evaluation processes

6. Stage 1 – Definition of the course based on the study of the CONOCER model Module 5: Professional Training based on Labor Skills Module 1: Introduction to the Labor Skills approach Module 2: Elaboration of Labor Skills Norms Module 3: Labor Skills Certification Module 4: Labor Skills Evaluation Course Scheme:

7.  1) Definition of modules and Bibliography CONOCER, OAS and workshop participants  2) Submission of contents - CONOCER  6) Call to participants and opening of the Course for Central America (First stage)  3) Pedagogical Processing - OAS, with revision by CONOCER  4) Technological Processing and Course online - Educational Portal-OAS  5) Tutors training – OAS and CONOCER First Semester 2003 Second Semester 2003 / Interruption / Second Semester 2004 Stages First Semester 2003 First Semester 2005 ????

8. Course contents have been developed up to Module 4 – Virtual platform already exists. Present Situation Contents must be endorsed by CONOCER, given that they are entirely based on its model…

9. The CONOCER situation December, 2004: The new CONOCER is created by Decree, but the establishment of the Trust is still pending – Until this happens, no personnel can be hired, nor can the the new system be approved. In short: Normalization and Certification of Labor Skills Systems, as presented in the Virtual Course are now outdated, and the new systems have yet to be validated. January, 2005: New General Rules of the Systems have been drafted, but they can only be approved when the Trust is established and the new counselors are elected.