The HIT Enabling Environment Intervention Methodology

“This publication has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of SNV and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.”

The HIT Enabling environment intervention strategies

Selected country examples

Jos van der Sterren Alice Penet November 2013

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Table of content

Table of content ...............................................................................................................................2

Definitions & Abbreviations .............................................................................................................4

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................6

What are Enabling Environment core values? ................................................................ 7

What is the environment? .............................................................................................. 8 1. Strengthen dialogue and synergies amongst key sector stakeholders ................................ 10

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 10

1.1. Mali: National Public/private committee, with regional tasks forces ............... 12

1.2. Benin: A strong steering committee, with effective tasks force and a real decision role .................................................................................................................. 13

1.3. Nepal: encouraging informal TVET - private sector synergies per occupation .. 15

1.4. Moçambique Hospitaleiro: a National Public/private committee, with specialized tasks forces ................................................................................................. 17

2. Develop understanding amongst key sector stakeholders on opportunities & constraints in

provision of TVET to informal economy ........................................................................................ 20

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 20

2.1. Mozambique – Making municipality take informal economy into account ...... 21

2.2. Benin – Raising interest of private sector to train casual workers .................... 22

2.3. Mali - Raising interest of TVET providers for informal workers ......................... 23

2.4. Cambodia: create national understanding of the relevance of a specific approach to teach informal workers ............................................................................ 24

3. Strengthen structures connected with the informal economy to increase access to skills

development ................................................................................................................................. 26

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 26

3.1. Ghana: strengthening TVET providers to address training demands of informal street vendors ............................................................................................................... 27

3.2. Mozambique: Making TVET providers adapt to informal workers needs ......... 28

3.3. Mali : training as a step towards recognition..................................................... 29

3.4. Mali: empowering groups of beneficiaries to access training ........................... 30 4. Build capacity of training structures to design, revise and update market led and practical

skills development programmes ................................................................................................... 32

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 32

4.1. Nepal: including the private sector in identifying training needs and design of curricula ........................................................................................................................ 33

4.2. Vietnam: developing capacities through private service providers .................. 34

4.3. Vietnam: training private TVET providers to make their offer more market led 35

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4.4. Nepal: building capacity of national authority of TVET for curricula development ................................................................................................................. 36

5. Develop mechanisms to track trainee performance, income and employment post training

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Introduction .................................................................................................................. 38

5.1. Nepal: tracking performance with on-the-spot anonymous checks ................. 39

5.2. Mali: creating new monitoring structures in a collaborative manner ............... 40

5.3. Mozambique: improving databases of national vocational training system ..... 41 6. Devise mechanisms to link up with industry for the provision of practical experience to

informal workers ........................................................................................................................... 43

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 43

6.1. Cambodia: involve large companies in providing trainers with technical skills 44

6.2. Ghana: providing technical experience for informal workers ........................... 45

6.3. Vietnam : Providing industry experience to trainees ........................................ 46 7. Develop or link to interventions with funding mechanisms to ensure

continuation/expansion of TVET activities .................................................................................... 47

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 47

7.1. Nepal: making the industry see the added value of trainings in improving their services .......................................................................................................................... 48

7.2. Benin: assuring formal certification through tight collaboration from inception 49

7.3. Cambodia: linking informal TVET into existing industry standards on vocational training .......................................................................................................................... 50

7.4. Vietnam: raising interest of development programs to keep on funding HITT trainings ........................................................................................................................ 51

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 53

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Definitions & Abbreviations ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

CBT Competence Based Training

CIREP Interministerial Commission for TVET Reform (Moçambique)

CMI Inhambane Council Municipality

CMM Maputo Council Municipality

COREP National Public Private commission for TVET Reform (Moçambique)

CTA Confederação des Associaçoes Economicas de Moçambique

CTEVT Council for Technical Educational and Vocational Training (Ghana)

DACUM Develop A CUrriculuM, international methodology to develop a curriculum

DFTQC Department of Food Technology & Quality Control (Nepal)

DNFP Direction Nationale de la Formation Professionnelle (National TVET Agency, Mali)

ECOBENIN Beninese NGO, implementation partner of the HITT programme in Benin

EE Enabling Environment

EFS Employment Fund Secretariat (Nepal)

EU European Union

FODEFCA Fonds de Développement de la Formation Professionnelle Continue et de l'Apprentissage (National TVET Fund, implementation partner of the HITT programme in Benin)

GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit - German International Cooperation Agency

HIT High Impact Training, a TVET approach developed through the experience of the HITT project

HITT High Impact Tourism Training, the EU funded project which enabled to design the HIT approach

ILO International Labour Organisation

INEFP National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (implementation partner of the HITT programme in Moçambique)

Informal tourism and vocational education and training

On the basis of previous experiences and lessons learned, providing TVET services to the informal economy requires specific approaches, methodologies and training methods, that takes into account living and working conditions in the informal economy and constraints in learning processes. Requirements for delivering effective TVET services to the informal economy are under HIT approach:

Demand-driven: activities for TVET in the informal economy should be based on accurate needs assessments, and designed and implemented in contact and in partnership with local stakeholders.

Employment-effective: TVET should cover competencies necessary for workers to access better jobs, improve productivity and income, and eventually to facilitate mobility into formal decent jobs.

Learning contents should be predominantly practical and in some cases productive, since the learners will be required to start earning money immediately and hence have to put what they learned into practice right away.

Flexible and modular: approaches have to fit the working and living conditions of target groups as well as take into account their learning capacity and

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patterns. Experiences with marginalised groups have also high-lighted the importance of addressing problems of self-esteem and empowerment.

Linked with the formal TVET system: this include adapting the formal TVET system to the needs of the informal economy and recognition by the formal education and TVET systems of skills acquired in informal and non-formal training activities.

Informal workforce

Generally, the informal economy is understood as all activities that are performed outside the formal structures that govern taxes, workplace regulations and social protection schemes. ILO (1999) has used the following definition for ‘the informal sector workforce’ that will be used also in the HIT approach, and can be categorised into three broad groups:

owner-employers of micro businesses, which employ a few paid workers, unregistered.

own-account (self-employed) workers, who own and operate one-person business, who work alone or with the help of unpaid workers, generally family members and apprentices

dependent workers, paid or unpaid, including wage workers in micro enterprises, unpaid family workers, apprentices, contract labour, home workers and paid domestic workers (jobs without social protection)

Informal employment is often casual, irregular or seasonal implying frequent changes of workplaces and employers. Informal workers experience often poor working conditions such as long working hours, high level of health hazards or lack of social security usually accompanied with poor earnings, low productivity, and lack of legal protection. The access to formal and non-formal education is often very limited for all informal workers. In some developing countries, attempts have been made to foster links between the formal TVET system and the informal economy, in particular through combining traditional apprenticeships with some formal training. However, in most cases this is limited to isolated pilot actions and rarely includes systemic approaches of larger scale.

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

NCTP National Committee for Tourism Professionals

NGO Non Governmental Organisation

NMA Nepal Mountaineering Association

OICG Opportunities Industrialization Centre Ghana (implementation partner of the HITT programme in Ghana

REACH Vietnamese NGO, implementation partner of the HITT programme in Vietnam

SME Small and Medium Enterprises

SNV Netherlands’ Development Organisation

TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training

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Introduction Through the European Union (EU) funded programme ‘Investing in People’, SNV is implementing the High Impact Tourism Training for Jobs & Income (HITT) programme. This programme is being implemented in seven developing countries (Benin, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique in Africa and Cambodia, Nepal, Vietnam in Asia) and aims to provide adapted and locally relevant training courses to informal workers in the tourism sector, resulting in a virtuous circle of better qualifications and skills, a higher number of clients and an increase in income received by these informal workers. Furthermore, other effects include better services provided to tourists, and job creation in the tourism sector. SNV has developed a HIGH IMPACT TRAINING (HIT) approach to guide development professionals in the development and implementation of a practical-market-driven vocational training system for the informal economy. The HIT approach has two major components:

An approach to enabling the country environment for facilitating market driven TVET for the informal economy (EE approach)

An approach to learning Each of these components operates under core principles that give a framework to the way interventions should be planned and conducted. They have been implemented all along the cycle of activities recommended for implementing effective market driven and practical TVET projects for workers in the informal economy. This cycle, developed by SNV to translate the approach into practical methodologies, comprises three steps:

- the inception analysis step - the curriculum development and learning step - the enabling environment interventions

The scheme below presents the interactions between those 3 steps, linking them to the HIT approach core principles :

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THE HIGH IMPACT TRAINING PROCESSIn

ce

pti

on

an

aly

sis

Definition of

Sub-sectors

for interventions

& identification

of key

stakeholders

Identification of

occupations

for project

interventions

Task & skill

analysis

TVET & training

landscape

analysis

Learners

analysis

Cu

rric

ulu

m d

eve

lop

me

nt,

Imp

lem

en

tati

on

& m

on

ito

rin

g

pro

ce

ss

Curriculum and training model

DESIGN

Training products DEVELOPMENT

Training DELIVERY (ToT & ToB)

& linkages with jobs

DETERMINATION

of efficiency of model

to strengthen dialogue & synergies and building capacity of key sector stakeholders

Enabling Environment Interventions

to reinforce/develop structures to support the development of market driven curricula

to reinforce assessment, revision and monitoring of effectiveness of curricula

to ensure sustainability and multiplier effects of interventions

EE core values

HITT learning

principles

This document will focus on the Enabling environment interventions that can be undertaken throughout a TVET programme.

What are Enabling Environment core values?

The Enabling environment Interventions are operating under core values, which drive not only EE interventions, but also all steps undertaken to implement the HIT process. Those principles are:

- Drives by the Market – to choose sectors, geographical areas, occupations, tasks and skills for training delivery determined by private sector needs and sector growth potential.

- Focus on employment for informal workers – to ensure training modules are

practical, developed in close consultation with real practitioners and validated by actual employers so trainees improve job and income prospects and eventually informal workers can move to formal jobs.

- Works with the formal TVET system – to build capacities of the TVET sector in

the development of training materials, delivery and monitoring of training,

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training trainers in teaching using active learning methods and to secure recognition of training interventions by the formal education and TVET systems.

- Fosters local partnership and ownership - to promote dialogue and

collaboration between stakeholders from the public and private tourism and TVET sectors, to embed the programme in the sector, to ensure the long term sustainability and multiplier effects of project interventions.

- Understands the economic and social context – to ensure gender and cultural

issues are addressed in the design and implementation of interventions and opportunities to promote the empowerment of target beneficiaries are pursued throughout the implementation of project activities.

The organisation of activities along core principles has proven an effective approach, particularly in the context of a multi-country project, as it sets common structural rules for running the activities and gives a clear message to external stakeholders on the fundamentals of the approach taken by the project towards skills development. Having said this, the piloting of these values in the EU funded HITT project evidenced that the success in implementing these principles will very much depend upon the country context. Thus associating these elements with country environment structures is crucial to be able to identify and define activities that can be implemented to create or reinforce country structures that are lacking or are too weak.

What is the environment?

For a TVET programme, the environment is made of different stakeholders who are interacting:

- The private sector: active and with interests in a particular trade (occupation) of the sector. Stakeholders bring in knowledge about occupations requiring better qualified staff, most important tasks workers need to perform within this occupation, key skills required for performing those tasks, and what soft and technical skills need to improve. These stakeholders help connect interventions with commercial market environment, the public sector and industry accreditation schemes, facilitate access to end beneficiaries and provide employment related opportunities to end beneficiaries.

- The informal economy – focused on a particular trade (occupation). They bring knowledge regarding opportunities and constraints of target beneficiaries for learning and accessing to training. This information is crucial for the development of the training models and delivery strategies and takes into consideration the informal workers livelihoods, gender and cultural issues, as well as working conditions.

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- The vocational training sector: relates to the structure supporting skills development interventions in the selected occupation, including the training (public and private) institutes, the trainers, the qualification and certification formal systems and TVET related policies.

- The public sector: brings in knowledge about the governance in the sector and help connect interventions in a specific occupation with the overall sector. It can also help on mobilizing civil society.

- The civil society: in particular development initiatives with whom the project could establish collaboration to enlarge the outreach of interventions. Opportunities of collaboration are identified at the inception phase and potential partnerships pursued while implementing the project. Enabling Environment interventions can be multiform. There is no typical intervention that works without fail. While implementing the EU funded HITT programme, it came up that two aspects were crucial for this topic:

- the first one is to understand the Enabling environment core principles and to integrate them whenever possible at each stage of the process

- the second one is to adapt interventions to the local context and actors, because interventions are built around them and not the contrary.

This document, thus, will not be presenting a methodology to enable the environment for informal workers vocational training programme. It will present a range of interventions, that have been undertaken in particular contexts, with the aim of creating / improving the environment to facilitate sustainability of informal workers vocational training programmes. Seven areas of intervention have been identified, and this document is presenting concrete case studies for each of these areas. Chapter 1: strengthen dialogue and synergies amongst key sector stakeholders; Chapter 2: develop understanding amongst key sector stakeholders on opportunities, constraints, benefits in provision of TVET to informal economy; Chapter 3: strengthen structures connected with the informal economy to increase access to skills development; Chapter 4 build capacity of training structures to design, revise and update market led and practical skills development programmes; Chapter 5: devise mechanisms to link up with industry for the provision of practical experience to informal workers; Chapter 6: develop mechanisms to track trainee performance, income and employment post training; Chapter 7: develop or link to interventions with funding mechanisms to ensure continuation/expansion of TVET activities

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1. Strengthen dialogue and synergies amongst key sector stakeholders

Introduction

One of the major challenges in improving structures to enhance informal worker’s access to income and employment, refers to the lack of mutual understanding amongst key stakeholders. This can either jeopardize the action (in this case the implementation of vocational training curricula), or at least compromise its sustainability. In the concern of creating long term impact, attention must be given on the ways to promote dialogue and synergies amongst stakeholders who, most of the time, come from different backgrounds and defend different interests. Speaking about TVET field, there is a constant need of dialogue and collaboration to ensure high quality trainings. Especially when it comes to informal economy, where actors are not always used to promote their own interests and where trainings are not yet a habit. This is why a TVET training programme should support practices that enable actors to understand their concerns, collaborate and implement demand oriented TVET solutions for learners in the informal economy. The goal of this intervention strategy is to favour the creation of sustainable practices that contribute (through vocational training solutions) to solving constraints faced by informal economy in income and employment generation. Multi-stakeholder platforms are part of the global strategy of ownership, exit from vulnerable informality and sustainability. Creating country-based multi-stakeholder platforms, is a usual practice aiming at developing ownership by actors and communities. It leads to broad partnerships to obtain the involvement and expertise of all stakeholders. It also helps to link the informal economy, to which the target populations belong, to formal or semi-formal institutions.

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There are 3 attention points to be aware of when creating such a platform1: - its composition should reflect the diversity of the stakeholders. In a market

driven programme, at least half of the members should be private actors. As far as possible, the members of the platform should be appointed namely, so as to ensure a deep comprehension of the issues discussed before, and be decision makers in their own structures, so as to ensure effectiveness and reactivity of the platform.

- its role should not only be consultative but decision maker. However, the operational management should not be left with the platform, in order to avoid heaviness and delays in the implementation.

- its sustainability should be envisaged from the beginning. That is why it is sometimes wise not to create an ad-hoc structure but to stick to an existing one, improving its operating scheme if necessary.

In the following paragraphs, case studies will be presented of Mali, Benin, Nepal and Mozambique.

1 Advices and finding on Stakeholders’ platforms are drawn from the Final report “Assessment of projects

selected by call for proposals targeting the informal economy 2011/278375/1”, wrote by François Eyraudand Pascal Annycke for the European Union.

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1.1. Mali: National Public/private committee, with regional tasks forces

Context: Development programmes in Mali are always led with some kind of public anchorage. Usually, ad hoc steering committees are set up, ensuring the participation of other actors in the project’s governance. In the tourism sector, no platform dedicated to TVET exists. The experiences of market-driven vocational training are few, and when they exist, they barely involve different kind of stakeholders. There is a strong habit of making state agents deliver the trainings rather than using the services of existing formal TVET providers. Formal TVET providers are thus sometimes left behind in the dialogue to improve the training for increasing income and employability.

Structures: Overall national public and tourism sector, local business sector, TVET sector.

Strategy: In this context, the strategy was to present the HITT programme as a multi-sectorial and transversal vocational training project. Stakeholders’ synergies were facilitated through a National Steering Committee and programme implementation through regional platforms of this steering committee. The composition of the committee reflected the multi-sectorial approach and mixed actors from all the steps of the tourism value chain, including farmers, market gardeners, boatsmen, waste management actors, tourism training providers... This diversity went on even after the selection of the occupations to train, because the goal was not only to conduct the HITT programme, but to build up an approach and to learn some lessons that can be used for other occupations also. As per the findings of the inception phase, the committee made up half private half public actors, but was chaired by the Ministry of Tourism. The role of the committee was decision making for the biggest issues of the programme (selection of occupations, adaptation to the context of tourism crisis), and operational for some issues (encourage other technical cooperation programmes to collaborate with the HITT programme, ensure the promotion of the results achieved, mobilize trainees through the corporations...).

Outcome: A National Steering Committee combined with local level working groups, appeared to be effective. The diverse reality in different regions could be taken into account, local

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connections were personal and effective, private sector could express its needs and as a consequence took an interest in supporting TVET. This strategy inversed the normal way of decision making in Mali, usually highly dominated by the public (political agenda). It resulted in the participation of companies and a wide range of corporations’ representatives. Such a global vision enabled to select occupations not directly belonging to tourism industry, but having an impact on it (waste collectors). The chairmanship of the Minister of Tourism enabled people to take seriously this opportunity of dialogue. However, it had both positive and negative effects during the security crisis of 2012 - 2013 war. On the one hand, the political instability could have affected the participation of the committee members by postponing the meetings (though this was not visible after replacing Mopti by Sikasso as a destination). On the other hand it had strengthened the interest of the Tourism Ministry for the HITT programme, as it could make of the topic of vocational skills training a situation of national interest, to assure fast recovery of tourism, as soon as the military conflict would end. Such a committee also enabled the programme to connect to other ministries (sanitation and employment) relevant for certification of curricula. Last but not least, the wide composition of the committee is facilitating the diffusion of best practices in other sectors / occupations, even if they were not directly addressed during the programme, as the results and the approach are belonging to all members. This is a kind of sustainability, even if the steering committee as such won’t survive to the programme.

1.2. Benin: A strong steering committee, with effective tasks force and a real decision role

Context: In Benin, many actors in tourism are active: private sector associations are well organized, public actors (TVET as well as Ministry of Tourism) at national level take an active interest and also NGO’s and civil society organisations are keen on working together (ECOBENIN). While structures exist as well as an interest in demand oriented vocational training, experience of collaboration lacked.

Structures: Private tourism business federations, national public TVET sector, civil society organizations.

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Strategy: The stakeholders decided to set up a National Steering Committee with strong decision making powers, which brings together representatives of private professional national federations (Investors & Hotel Restaurants owners) ; public sector representatives (Ministry of tourism and Ministry of education & TVET); both public and private training providers; Partners of HITT (FODEFCA (National training fund) who brings its experience in training organization and ECO BENIN, an NGO with national experience in tourism and knowledge on job analysis). A few informal workers are members as well. This committee has a strong decision making power, being involved in many operational matters. Task forces, grouping some members, have been organized around 4 topics (in grey in the scheme below) :

Organisation of the HITT Steering Committee in Benin Because of lack of interaction between the private tourism sector and TVET sector, the HITT programme brought the opportunity to help implementing the DACUM process in Benin, involving private actors in the whole process of defining the competencies chart for tourism jobs.

Outcome: By joining up with the governmental DACUM process, and facilitating its implementation, the Steering Committee obtained a great implication of all the members. For private tourism operators, it was also the opportunity of making their needs known and understood, by the governmental vocational training actors, but also by the TVET providers. Meantime, Hotels and restaurants actors could develop a better understanding of the curriculum design process.

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On the one hand, a strong ownership has emerged from this involvement. On the other hand, the habit of discussing every single point (as it is required in the DACUM process) by several actors sometimes slowed down the implementation of the programme when it came to reach the targets. The workgroup "curricula development" has been very much effective with participation of private sector and National Direction for competencies chart and manuals. A second workgroup "financing and durability" has been set up and key actors as certain TVET Institutes, national employment agency, Ecobenin, private operators are now working on a new project in the same sector. The constitution of workgroups, as presented in the graphic above, had several advantages:

- aroused the implication of all the members of the committee, considering their own skills and knowledge,

- facilitated deeper discussions and outcomes amongst smallest groups - strengthened the feeling of ownership of all committee members as the

meetings happen more often.

1.3. Nepal: encouraging informal TVET - private sector synergies per occupation

Context: In Nepal, tourism industry is open to development of vocational skills in the informal tourism economy. Its tourism industry is highly competitive and fragmented. The specialization of tourism actors makes them less available to spend time upon transversal programmes, but more keen on programmes that really tackle their own priorities. Besides, public actors are politically influenced. Therefore, private actors beware of being too much reliant on public sector. Moreover, in case of the constitution of a public-private Steering Committee, the political agenda is likely to take precedence over other issues to be discussed.

Structures: Private tourism industry and subsector business structures; private sector TVET structures; semi-public TVET structure

Strategy: Considering the lack of synergy and trust between private and public structures, national stakeholder collaboration was not seen as effective. The approach adopted favoured the formation of working groups, operating on ad-hoc rules depending on the sector/ occupation chosen. These groups consist on key actors,

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coming from different positions, who were involved in the development and implementation process of the HITT programme. The composition of each group thus differed from one occupation to another:

Trekking sector

Lodges & Homestays

sector

Small Restaurants

sector

Formal hospitality

sector

Professional associations

4 0 2 1

Private operators 11 1 16 9

Informal Workers 20-25 35-40 10-15 40-45

Other programmes / NGOs

2 2 0 1

Public authorities 0 1 3 1

Composition of working groups for each sub-sector tackled by the HITT Programme in Nepal

This approach consisted in developing synergies and collaboration between stakeholders, especially private business associations and TVET sectors, per occupation, on a per need basis. It highly relied on the tourism industry’s need for demand-oriented training, enabling them to improve their service quality through better skilled staff. The role of these working groups was different from one sector to another. These working groups were involved from the very beginning and all along the training design process, from needs assessment to curriculum formulation and validation. After the first step consisting in the needs assessment with the various relevant stakeholders for each occupation, a presentation of curriculum and training method based on the information collected was made to them. It was then discussed, updated according to their feedback and later validated in common. The main issue of this approach is to make informal workers part of the process, as they often lack representatives. To reach informal workers (in all their components, i.e. workers paid on a daily basis, workers paid on a monthly basis but without contract, part-time jobs without contracts), the team got in touch with professional associations and private operators, which are in the best position to give an accurate idea of their market. When they were representing businesses with a significant proportion of informal worker, they could provide representatives to participate to the process. With higher number of representatives than the other categories, informal workers could make their voices heard. In this way, the opinion and feedback from informal workers have constantly been taken into account and not only in the initial phase of needs assessment.

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Outcome: As such, these task forces appeared to be the most efficient way to achieve the stage of curricula development: they enabled to gather specialists required to focus on very specific technical activities, and even to develop standards for some professions (fast food restaurants), when they did not exist. They provided a strong ownership from the right stakeholders (eg. the real beneficiaries that are private operators), which enabled the sustainability of the training delivery. Most of the operators decided to continue deliver the trainings to their employees. They did the necessary lobbying to find other donors when necessary. The strong commitment of private sector in these task forces enabled also them to be part of the trainings, offering trainers, venues, internships in occupations of homestay and hospitality sector. This made the trainings really market driven and presented a huge added value for trainees.

1.4. Moçambique Hospitaleiro: a National Public/private committee, with specialized tasks forces

Context: In Mozambique the technical education and vocational training system has been slow to respond to the labour market demands in the formal sector. Employer surveys and labour market studies in formal sector enterprises point to a mismatch between the labour supply and the evolving needs of labour market, which requires more skilled workers. In 2004, the Ministers of Education, Labour and Higher Education and the Confederação das Associações Económicas de Moçambique (CTA) agreed to conduct an integrated TVET reform program. This partnership laid the foundation for the establishment of an Inter-ministerial Commission for TVET Reform (CIREP) and a National Public-Private Commission for TVET Reform (COREP) which was created by a government decree, in 2005 to facilitate the transition to a demand-led training system and provide the beneficiaries with more market relevant skills and improved economic opportunities. After 8 years of Professional Education reform and the adoption of Competence Based Training (CBT) as learner method, the results achieved so far are insufficient, and the TVET system still are not aligned with the market needs.

Structures concerned: Overall national public and tourism sector, local business sector, TVET sector, informal workers representatives and tourism workers union.

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Strategy: SNV, in partnership with National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (INEFP), and support of the Ministry of Tourism, strategically decides as first steps towards a successful implementation and sustainability of Hitt project the integration of HIT approach into :

an existing Tourism Platform, namely Maputo Observatory,

and into the development requalification agenda of Maputo Council Municipality (CMM) and Inhambane Council Municipality (CMI).

For the Policy issues and high level decision making, SNV and INEFP are having regular meetings with the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Education and the Presidents of Maputo and Inhambane Municipalities. In Maputo, the expertise and track recording of SNV creating Multi-stakeholders platform enabled the creation of Maputo Tourism Observatory in 2010. The Maputo Tourism Observatory works in a freely basis membership and is coordinated by the Ministry of Tourism and tourism industry. This group meets 3 times per year. The strategy was to bring up Hospitality as a product/ package ready to be used by private and public sector and not to see Hitt as another vocational training project. As a result, a Municipality Steering Committee (part of the Maputo Tourism Observatory) for endorsement and programme implementation through TVET’s management team had been set up. The composition of the Steering Committee and its role over time reflects the strategy adopted by SNV and INEFP.

Phase 1. HITT SC (Policy)

Ministry of Education, Ministry of Tourism, President of Maputo and Inhambane

Municipality, COREP, SNV, INEFP

Phase 3. TVET implementation structure – Technical working group - (technical group)

SNV, INEFP, Maputo and Inhambane Municipality, CEDARTE, ProFamilia, Arte

&Profissao; Academia de Talentos; APGTM, COREP

Phase 2. Maputo Tourism Observatory (enabling environment)

Phase2. Hitt SC (endorsement and validation group)

- MAPUTO (INEFP, INATUR, ASSOTI, SINTHIOTHS, SNV, COREP, CEDARTE, MAGAFORMAR,

ESSOR,Academia de Talentos; DINET,CMM,COREP,ENAV,CINTMOZ, ProFamilia,

Arte & Profissao, APGTM, Tropigalia)

INHAMBANE- INEFP, SNV, ADEI, DATHONGA, CIGARRA, DPTURI, DPMAS, GIZ,PACDE, ESHTI,

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The composition of the committee (phase 2) reflects the market driven approach with mixed actors from TVET (Academia de Talentos, Escola nacional de Artes Visuais (ENAV), CINTIMOZ, Arte e Profissao, Associacao Progissional dos Guias Turisticos (APGTM), Profamilia, Academia de Talentos), Private Sector (Tropigalia), Public sector (INEFP, DINET, DPTURI, DPMAS, ESHTI); community based organizations (ADEI) Non-Government organizations (CEDARTE, Profamilia, ESSOR), beneficiaries representatives (ASSOTI, SINTHIOTS). The role of the committee was decision-making (strategic decisions are taken related to project implementation, results and impacts to be achieved), to endorse and validate the information provided by the technical group (selection of occupations, topics, course duration, promotion of the results) and support the selection of the occupations to train (operational group).

Outcomes: This strategy came to create a shared vision based on participatory analysis and decisions taking, avoiding overlaps, promoting synergies and rising political interest. Over 20 organizations were engaged through the process, and currently, for the third phase (implementation), 14 are still actively engaged, covering the 3 sectors finally selected by the HITT project. Stakeholders shaped and committed to integrate a market driven approach into Municipality development requalification agenda and TVET system reforms are underway (COREP will approve the Hospitality Curriculum for the levels 1 and 2 – Elementary in tourism sector). It has promoted relevant debates, reflection and built the necessary critical mass among stakeholders to properly lead a market driven curriculum development to attend informal workers needs and support a wider economic development process, based on tourism micro-clusters. For instance, following finding of inception analysis, regarding the importance for tourism informal workers to speak English, CMI had decided to reintroduce functional English course to informal workers in Central Market in Inhambane City. This strategy has also strengthened the institutional capacity of the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (INEFP), Maputo Council Municipality (CMM) and Inhambane Council Municipality (CMI) to lead Hitt Mozambique program.

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2. Develop understanding amongst key sector stakeholders on opportunities & constraints in provision of TVET to informal economy

Introduction

In many countries, the opportunities and potentials of workers in the informal economy are barely recognized. Private sector sees informal workers as a risk and cost and not as a return or potential investment. Public actors mostly analyse informal economy workers from a negative perspective: they are unemployed, do not pay taxes, lack skills and capacities and are difficult to control. The same counts for most TVET sector representatives : from their perspective, informal economy workers are hard to train, have high drop out ratios in school, pose serious extra costs for training (since they face numerous constraints), and are not a profitable market. At the same time, several actors in civil society (NGOs, supporting organisations and associations) may demonstrate that informal economy workers are dynamic, flexible, energetic, productive and innovative. The interventions in this area are mainly related to creating understanding and building capacities of partners, public TVET sector and the private sector. Actually, many links already exist between informal and formal economy. Formal businesses often employ informal workers or pay for services of informal workers. What is new is to involve formal structures in the capacity building for informal workers, creating a cumulative benefit for both informal and formal structures. Through demonstration effects, actors may see the business value that training the informal economy may have (as a new service to add to their portfolios, as new clients, or as a way to improve services offered– in the case of Municipalities, private businesses, etc). Several examples of this awareness could be seen during the implementation of the HITT programme, that are developed in this chapter. The global strategy has been to increase knowledge and understanding of the reality of informal economy livelihoods: how they survive, which jobs they undertake, what capacities exist and are lacking and the potential they offer to the formal economy structures. In most countries, interventions focused on linking actors through multi-stakeholder approaches, and through examples convince them of the added value of working with informal economy.

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2.1. Mozambique – Making municipality take informal economy into account

Context The Maputo Municipality Council has started a requalification programme to make the city safer, cleaner, and better organized. While requalification sometimes implies reorganisation of the public space, changes will also affect informal economy.

Structures Municipality, TVET providers, National Institute for Employment and Vocational Training, Informal workers’ groups

Strategy The HITT team managed to involve the municipality from the beginning of the HITT programme in order to elaborate a strategy that could include informal economy in the city’s requalification agenda. In fact, requalification can also be about training informal workers, building their capacities, making them better contribute to the city image. The municipality thus took an active part to 3 major steps of the programme’s implementation:

- identification of key occupations to train - Mapping of several areas, called “micro-clusters”, where informal economy is

predominant and where tourism potential is high

- Elaboration of a Municipal brand, that could be used for informal as well as formal economy, to build a positive image of Maputo’s city :

Outcome This programme created an opportunity to strengthen the dialogue between informal workers and the municipality. For instance, informal moto-taxi drivers were empowered, through the TVET provider and the Tourism Municipality Committee, to request for an authorization to work and better understand the conditions of its delivery. Another example is the dialogue established between informal food and beverage vendors of the fish market with the authorities, which conducted to improve the waste management as well as the security of the place.

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From the municipality point of view, this experience showed up that it could be more advantageous to conduct requalification programme with consultation actions with informal workers. They started a dialogue and could find some solutions to smooth effects of rehabilitation (temporary replacement solutions for instance). Also, the municipality saw that encouraging training informal workers was good for its image, as this enable to improve the quality of hospitality services in Maputo city.

2.2. Benin – Raising interest of private sector to train casual workers

Context In Benin, during the HITT programme, private actors were very much involved in the definition of the training needs, the elaboration of competencies’ charters, and the development of curricula. Their main concern was the difficulty to find employees with good technical skills, especially for fresh graduates whose practical experience is close to nothing.

Structures TVET providers, Private sector’s associations

Strategy The HITT programme developed trainings for waiters. Those trainings were designed for casual workers and fresh graduates, who are most of the time working on an informal basis whenever there is a banquet/ seminar. At first private companies did not want to send casual workers to these trainings, as they rather wanted their own staff to be trained. Then a trade-off was established and, while some full-time staff could attend the training, it was also delivered to informal workers.

Outcome Seeing the interest of the training, private companies decided to give priority to the recruitment of casual workers who had attended the HITT training. They are given the list of casual workers trained and they can call them preferably. For informal workers, being trained brings them an advantage on others.

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2.3. Mali - Raising interest of TVET providers for informal workers

Context In Mali, the HITT programme mostly worked with TVET institutions that were providing initial training and not continuous ones. Working with Informal workers was thus a premiere for most of them.

Structures TVET providers, informal economy

Strategy While delivering trainings to the informal economy, some TVET providers started to gain interest to this new target. TVET providers could find several advantages to train informal workers:

- Strengthening and challenging their trainers by changing their daily routine through confronting them to other professionals

- Bringing extra rentability for the institution and the trainers - Creating a network of small enterprises that could be as many internship’s places

for their future students

Outcome While several TVET providers saw the interest of going on with the supply of vocational training on top of their initial one, it is only the private institute that, until now, actually did it. Regarding the growing demand from informal cooks for cooking training, , it gained, with the help of the HITT programme, a contract with a regional fund to train some more batches in the HITT training. The local fund accepted not to fund only well-organised associations, but also individual workers who gathered to ask for training. The outcome is double: the TVET provider is now starting to develop a new market with vocational training focusing informal workers, and the regional fund is also bringing some flexibility in its criteria to better take into account informal workers’ specificities.

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2.4. Cambodia: create national understanding of the relevance of a specific approach to teach informal workers

Context: The TVET environment in Cambodia is driven by non-market funding (grants). TVETs are mainly NGOs that have emerged from a need to help the many disadvantaged youth and families in Cambodia. The TVETs are funded by private grants, donors such as EU, charitable donations, social enterprise activities, etc. and are of good quality and willing to collaborate, but lack good trainers and have no experience in market oriented tourism and hospitality training. The public authorities are engaged in the implementation of the ASEAN standard process, a process which aims to standardise the quality of tourism industry by applying ASEAN standards.

Structure: NGO TVET structures

Strategy: The strategy was to involve public and private actors from the inception analysis until the curriculum development, in order to tailor the trainings to the market needs. Local staff of relevant ministries (Tourism, and Labour & Vocational Training) as well as local provincial authorities were involved in the provision of data to the Inception Analysis. This phase led to select occupations with high incidence of informal workers, and where no curricula existed. The private sector in Cambodia, expressing much demand and interest in better skilled staff for those occupations, was involved in the curriculum design process. They participated to the selection of topics to teach, and public actors, such as the National Committee for Tourism Professionals (NCTP, the body responsible for implementation of the regional ASEAN competence standards for tourism) also brought their knowledge in, making those modules very much linked to the ASEAN standards requirements. Once the curriculum was designed, both private and public actors pursued their involvement. For instance, regional tourism departments, asked to be trained on the HIT approach so as to be able to deliver High impact Training. When NCTP trained industry- and TVET trainers on the implementation of the ASEAN standards, HITT provided additional days of training in order for the trainers to integrate high impact teaching methods when implementing ASEAN-based training. Private companies got engaged in the delivery of HIT trainings, sending their master trainers to be trained to train the rest of their staff in return.

Outcome: The intervention helped to create understanding in local government structures on the reality of informal workers and the relevance for short term trainings.

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Being part of the process from the beginning made the partners aware of the interest of the approach and eager to implement it. Thus, the Department of Tourism’s staff increased their technical and teaching skills, so as to be able to take the HITT trainings directly into small establishments and train the staff and owners on good service skills and technical skills. At a national level, collaboration with the NCTP, assured that HITT curriculum was aligned with corresponding ASEAN standards and gave a nice example to NCTP on how to design practical trainings integrating ASEAN standards. Otherwise, private sector associations are now becoming interested in such trainings, which represent new services that can offer to their members, creating incentives for new members to join the association.

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3. Strengthen structures connected with the informal economy to increase access to skills development

Introduction2

Another area of intervention in the enabling environment relates to the weakness of structures that are connected with the informal economy. Empowered people in the informal economy have better tools to defend their interests and rights. This empowerment has an individual and collective dimension: individual when workers increase their personal capacities (employability for example); collective when a community is organized to defend their interests (workers or small employers’ associations for example). A combination of stronger individual as well as collective structures will reinforce the impact and sustainability of the intervention: empowering a person by training her is more effective if associated with a formalisation of professional associations to favour access to work for informal workers. On the other hand, creating a link between the informal and formal economy is not a one-step process but a continuum allowing different degrees of formalization: training in itself doesn’t give a formal job to the trainee, but it leads him little by little, to a better recognition.

The goal of these interventions is thus to promote individual and collective empowerment. At an individual level, the best way to ensure outcome is to design relevant trainings, by developing a good understanding of trainees’ needs, and facilitating linkages between training and market access. The best practices of Ghana and Mozambique presented below will detail how, by strengthening a TVET institute, one can ensure concrete benefits for informal workers. The first Mali best practice will show how official recognition can empower informal workers. At a collective level, two kind of interventions can be envisioned :

- structure or organize a group of beneficiaries, or a group of stakeholders (TVET provider for instance)

- train other stakeholders so that they can take into account informal workers’ needs

2 Advices and finding on Stakeholders’ platforms are drawn from the Final report “Assessment of projects

selected by call for proposals targeting the informal economy 2011/278375/1”, wrote by François Eyrault and Pascal Annycke for the European Union.

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The second case study in Mali shows how these collective interventions could be effectively addressed.

3.1. Ghana: strengthening TVET providers to address training demands of informal street vendors

Context: In Ghana, in public as well as private TVET structures, vocational trainings are often tailored the same way for informal economy than for the other kind of workers. The local partner of the HITT programme in Ghana, OICG, is much knowledgeable in vocational training for industrial occupations. It also has some vocational skills training experience for informal workers through the implementation of a project in Kumasi (Ashanti region in Ghana), funded through GIZ (German Cooperation Agency).

Structures: NGO TVET structures, private industry;

Strategy: Considering the lack of structure experienced in training informal workers, the programme opted for strong investment in capacity building and hand-holding of the partner/training institute OICG. More specifically, their staff participated in the Inception data collection and analysis phase of the HITT programme, which increased their understanding of the informal tourism economy and especially micro-entrepreneurs (street vendors). They thus understood needs, but also constraints of their future trainees. A strong investment in the partner, allowing it to develop unique selling points with training methods and target groups (street food and beverage vendors) would eventually enable this curriculum strategy to become sustainable.

Outcome: OICG developed a new way of training people, adapting its strategy to a new target group (street vendors) with a new learning method (active learning) and strengthened its institutional capacities. Furthermore, sustainable access to these training structures is enhanced: OICG is in the process of accessing the Skills Development Fund for the street vendor modules, by upscaling the intervention to a national level. The individual empowerment of a potentially large and relevant group in the Ghana tourism sector is facilitated.

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3.2. Mozambique: Making TVET providers adapt to informal workers needs

Context: TVET providers are not often keen of working with informal workers. They are not reliable, they have low skill levels (which can complicate the use of traditional methods relying on written tools), they are hard to find, and they have not much money/ time to invest in training.

Structures: TVET providers, informal workers

Strategy: HITT in Mozambique has done a deep work with TVET providers to make them aware of special features of informal workers. It associated them closely in the inception analysis phase, and then it invested a lot in the training of trainers. Each trainer attended a 5 days course on training methods adapted to informal workers, which aimed to make them understand and feel like informal workers trainees. Then, after a 7 days training on technical skills, which also tackles the choice of best training methods and training plan, they were mentored by the master trainer to make sure they really adapt themselves to the level of the audience. For the first time, some TVET providers had to abandon their classroom based trainings and full day courses to be able to grab the interest of future trainees.

Ouctome This investment was fruitful. Not only TVET providers adopted new training methods to reach informal workers, but also they spend time raising informal workers’ interest for trainings. Trainers had to visit micro-clusters and make door-to-door publicity for the trainings to gather enough trainees. For this, they had to develop a very good understanding of the audience needs and constraints, which they gained through long discussions, meetings, or even insertion in informal workers neighbourhoods. Then they adopted training methods that enabled informal workers to attend the trainings. The main issue is that informal workers are not paid while attending the trainings, whereas they still have to bring money home at the end of the day. By organising trainings on-site (where informal workers work), and by developing 2 hours time topics, TVET providers enabled informal workers to attend the training AND to do their job. Furthermore, this method has shown another advantage, enabling informal workers to directly practice the daily “lesson” in their job, favouring thus a good ownership and application of the learning.

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In the end, TVET providers had to adopt new strategies to address informal workers’ needs and constraints, and the trainees were so enthusiastic that many of them are thinking of duplicating these trainings in other neighbourhoods or provinces.

3.3. Mali : training as a step towards recognition

Context: Informal workers barely have diploma or official training certificates. This restricts their access to formal positions in the formal economy.

Structures: Public actors (National Direction for Vocational Training (DNFP), National Tourism Board), informal workers

Strategy: Actually, achievements in the empowerment of informal workers have been brought by two different strategies. The first one was to get official recognition from the National Direction for Vocational Training for the curricula developed. This was achieved by a close work with DNFP experts, inviting them to attend the training, writing curricula in their own templates, making them participate to the trainees’ assessment... The second one was to associate closely the national Tourism Board all through the training implementation process: from awareness, mobilisation, to training monitoring, assessments, closure ceremonies...

Ouctome: The first strategy enabled the assimilation of the HITT “Valorisation of National dishes” module, into the national program of “cooking and catering”. This HITT module weighs 4 credits out of 73. It will enable informal workers, who gained certificates on the HITT curriculum, to follow the other modules of the national programme in order to get the final diploma. The second strategy enabled the national Board for Tourism to develop awareness of informal workers’ realities. Thus the informal guides who have been trained by the HITT programme on the topic “English for tourism workers” finally obtained a formal agreement to work as tourism guides. Some informal restaurant owners also got accompanied by the tourism board to get formal agreements to develop their activity.

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3.4. Mali: empowering groups of beneficiaries to access training

Context: There exist in Mali several mechanisms designed to fund trainings for private sector. However, either public or private, they all are intended for a group of beneficiaries, and most of them for existing structures like associations. Yet, informal workers are not often organized, especially for the poorest ones who aren’t usually linked to any network.

Structures: Civil society organisations, financing structures

Strategy: In the perspective of creating a market for TVET providers that could offer trainings designed for informal workers, the programme supported the trainees to organize themselves. This was done through the TVET providers, partners of the programme, in a three-steps process:

- Making them aware of the potential market represented by informal workers if they could get help for funding the trainings

- Encouraging them to arouse the will of organizing themselves among the trainees, and to help the groups to achieve formal recognition (association).

- Training them so as to be able to help workers’ association to submit a training demand to relevant structures.

Being trained at the same time created a sense of belonging that led several groups of trainees, in the street food sector, to from an association in Kayes and Sikasso. This will was reinforced by the TVET providers, which enabled some to access an official recognition, which paves the way to a financing for other trainings. However, to make this happen, two requirements are necessary:

- the TVET providers should be in a position of being keen of offering new trainings, which for public TVET providers is not often the case as they are kind of prisoners of their status / direction

- The TVET providers should have necessary time, capacities, and resources for writing demands for the trainees’ associations, when sometimes the demands take a long time to approve and then to be paid.

Another intervention consisted in reinforcing existing networks. Through the provision of relevant trainings to their members, networks become attractive for new members who can measure the interest of become affiliated.

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Outcome: This empowerment is not only designed for obtaining more trainings but goes behind this, creating a platform where members can share views and find common solutions to empower themselves. The strengthening of existing networks enabled small isolated actors (especially from a geographical point of view) to join organizations that can bring them more than trainings alone and also allowed a few participants to formally have a license to operate. Thus trainings represent a good opportunity to encourage collective empowerment, as soon as the promoter of the training is willing to help this happen.

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4. Build capacity of training structures to design, revise and update market led and practical skills development programmes

Introduction

A next area where enabling environment structures should reinforce the implementation of TVET actions in this programme, refers to the existing structures for design and implementation of skills training programmes. These may be vocational training institutes, bodies that validate, certify or govern their curriculum design and implementation strategies and related public actors such as ministries of employment, industry or agriculture. It is not enough to limit activities to the reinforcement of the capacities of these existing structures. The supported institutions and related actions should link to processes of change. The goal of interventions in this area refers to raising awareness, building capacity and supporting to actually change the way traditional training structures design curricula. This traditional way in many cases is inflexible, bureaucratic, and not market-oriented. As a consequence, it does not serve the needs for the private sector. At the same time it is not accessible to informal economy workers. The major challenge at country level is to convince existing TVET structures that combining a market-oriented approach with targeted vocational training toward the informal economy is effective. Most countries have done this by demonstrating that the curriculum strategies fits into existing national or regional structures, provided there exists willingness to allow flexible curriculum building blocks and active learning approaches into TVET design, qualification and certification systems. Various structures can be used for effective strategies to design market led curricula: in Vietnam, collaboration worked through private TVET providers, whereas in Nepal it was possible to work together with public TVET structures that were strong enough already.

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4.1. Nepal: including the private sector in identifying training needs and design of curricula

Context: Trekking agencies hire on a seasonal basis the high majority of their guides, which tends to create a distorted labour market where training can be counterproductive since guides can chose to go to another company once trained. The design of the curriculum and of the training delivery is crucial to make it efficient. Proposed reformulation: Trekking agencies hire on a seasonal basis the high majority of their guides, which tends to create a loose relationship between companies and workers. Instead of overcoming this mutual mistrust, training can appear as counterproductive for some companies since guides have the opportunity, once trained, to go to another company where they will get better professional and financial conditions.

Structures: Private businesses, professional associations

Strategy: At a very early stage contacts were made with the private sector to identify the needs of the company in terms of staff training. The most important and influential stakeholders of the industry had to be included in the process to ensure the acceptance and relevance of the training scheme. HITT Nepal reached key informants from the trekking industry who gave very valuable insights as to where and on what topics interventions should focus. They also allowed the programme to create fruitful links with key stakeholders. Trekking companies, as well as the professional organization of which they were members (NMA) have been integrated to the whole process of training conception and delivery. The training cascading system that was designed and implemented included the close collaboration of the private sector in:

Identification of the gaps in their staff’s qualifications

Curriculum design

Training delivery (first a Training of Trainers was organized by HITT Nepal to gather

the most qualified guides from several trekking agencies and then these trainers

trained the staff of their own company)

Collaboration with the professional organisations in charge of training trekking

guides in Nepal

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Outcome: The form and content of the HITT training was totally adapted to the industry’s needs, whilst the objective of reaching workers from the informal sector was fully reached (more than 70% of the trainees).

4.2. Vietnam: developing capacities through private service providers

Context: In Vietnam service providers exists for Training trainers or develop training materials, but there is a lack of experience with active learning techniques and new methods of delivering vocational curriculum strategies. The HITT programme started working quite closely with one service provider, the Academy for Responsible Tourism, ART.

Structure: Private TVET provider (commercial training and consulting company)

Strategy: The ART team was trained:

- To develop innovative High Impact materials such as flip files. ART staff used templates, and had to come up with ideas for applying Active learning methods for the courses they developed for Homestay Operators, Local Guides and Tourist Drivers for HITT.

- As Master Trainers in High Impact and Active Learning techniques; how to use them and where to apply them when developing training materials

ART was also engaged to pilot, test and review the materials they developed, before training other trainers on how to deliver them.

Outcome: ART has subsequently developed a deep understanding of Active Learning principles and methods, and how to infuse these into training materials. ART has developed itself into an expert on Active Learning in Vietnam and this has increased their value proposition in the Vietnamese market of vocational training suppliers.. This has been enabled through astrong relationship developed between the HITT team and the ART team, which led to sharing resources, lessons learned and other development opportunities as they arose, further strengthening the expertise of ART in Active Learning.

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As a result of their better market positioning, ART has been contracted by other related tourism development projects to develop materials, train trainers, and deliver training directly to beneficiaries. ART will offer a Train the Trainer course in Active Learning principles into the future.

4.3. Vietnam: training private TVET providers to make their offer more market led

Context: In Vietnam, three-month vocational training programmes to disadvantaged youth are currently offered by the programme partner, REACH. While REACH had established itself in the field of delivering Food and Beverage, and Housekeeping training, it had limited knowledge of flexible and market-led curriculum strategies.

Structure: NGO TVET provider

Strategy: The working relation with the programme partner REACH allowed the programme to build upon experiences accumulated, strengthen the capacities of this TVET provider and develop sustainable structures. Specifically, course structure, curriculum and teaching quality of the Food and Beverage course offered by REACH were improved. REACH adopted the HITT curriculum development approach which started with and analysis process. To understand the TVET supply market context, REACH embarked on detailed research to reveal issues or concerns emanating from their existing programme. Interviews were conducted with three stakeholder groups: industry employers who employ graduates, Food & Beverage (F&B) facilitators, and F&B graduates. The most significant discovery was that industry employers felt that the REACH graduates did not have nearly enough industry exposure or experience upon graduation, and they there were therefor not job ready. The REACH F&B programme was rewritten completely and included a weekly day-release system into industry. In addition to the extensive curriculum revision, capacities of the F&B facilitators were improved through three Training of Trainers workshops spread over a year.

Outcome: The successes are as follows:

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Curriculum restructuring: REACH is now using a similar curriculum restructuring approach for their other vocational training programmes and supporting structures. The HITT templates and methodology has therefore been extended to Housekeeping as well as other courses such as Online Marketing. Trainer training and support: REACH F&B facilitators have had extensive training in Active Learning methodology, leading to a real change in the classroom. Teaching is more engaging and focused, and more content is covered. Trainers have been introduced to a simple continuous improvement cycle whereby they can review their lessons and improve on them for each successive batch of learners. The simple steps are: While there were some initial challenges of securing industry placements for the day-release programme, the feedback from the industry has been positive. An additional outcome of the system is that students can build a relationship with the business where they are placed, leading to a higher possibility of employment (in that business) on graduation.

4.4. Nepal: building capacity of national authority of TVET for curricula development

Context: The Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT), under the authority of the Ministry of Education, is responsible for the management of the TVET sector in Nepal. In order to assure sustainability of training structures, this Council should approve training approaches.

Plan

Deliver

Review

Revise

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Structure: Public TVET authority, private TVET service provider and international donor

Strategy: Collaboration was set up with the Council (CTEVT) and the Employment Fund Secretariat (EFS), operated by HELVETAS Swiss, to develop curricula in the hospitality sector. CTEVT has been a strategic partner to develop curricula in the sector targeted by HITT, whilst EFS had the financial capacity and willingness to invest in the implementation of the project. HITT Nepal focused on the quality issue to reinforce the capacity of CTEVT and ensure the overall quality of the trainings under its responsibility. With the aim to help CTEVT develop curricula in line with market needs in the hospitality sector, responsibilities were shared between EFS and HITT. EFS provided financial support to CTEVT for the revision of the curricula but did not have any strategy for addressing quality issue raised by the industry regarding curricula developed by CTEVT. Thus, HITT Nepal, together with EFS, supported to build capacity of CTEVT in curricula development process, especially to upgrade and follow proper DACUM 3process for curricula development and ensured participation and inputs of the industry experts.

Outcome: EFS informed that CTEVT curriculum development experts are now using the upgraded DACUM process while developing occupational profile. This means that now, private actors are involved in the development of occupational profiles, in order to ensure their relevance regarding industry needs. The capacity building of CTVET enable, not only to develop 3 curricula more market-led, but also to make CTVET enable to reproduce the market-led methodology to develop new curricula.

3 Design A CUrriculuM : International methodology to develop a curriculum

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5. Develop mechanisms to track trainee performance, income and employment post training

Introduction

One of the major challenges of introducing new approaches to vocational training, refers to the justification of efforts in relation to the expected results. In order to demonstrate that a private sector led approach is effective, trainees satisfaction as well as their post-training performance (in terms of their access to jobs and income) should be traced. On the other hand, most vocational training institutes lack the means and capacities to create databases and maintain them in order to track effectiveness of invested resources in vocational training over time. The global strategy of HITT has been to design a global online monitoring and tracking system per learner. This system can be transferred to participating TVET institutes or associations. In each of the countries, this strategy of knowledge transfer has been influencing different structures. At the same time, at country level, trainee performance has been traced through various mechanisms, to avoid building large databases and expensive maintenance structures: Option 1: making use of private business structures. This may be done through integrating tracking mechanisms within their own quality control systems (e.g. client satisfaction forms) using their own staff to monitor services of trainees trained. The case studies of Vietnam and Nepal are interesting examples. Option 2: TVET providers: adaptation and inclusion of some better methods and tools developed by the programme in existing systems and databases. In Mozambique an interesting example can be seen of linking a global M&E system to local habits and tools. In Mali, qualitative tracking structures have been created in a collaborative manner with TVET institutions. Both options will be further elaborated in the coming paragraphs.

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5.1. Nepal: tracking performance with on-the-spot anonymous checks

Context: The Food Hygiene and Service Excellence project was implemented through the professional association Fast-food Association Nepal (Fast-fan) and in collaboration with the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) of the Ministry of Agriculture Development and 2 municipalities (Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office and Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City). A monitoring system was set up to control the changes that the training was due to bring about.

Structures: Professional associations, ministry department and municipalities

Strategy: A system of information collection and management was put in place:

- A mystery audit is conducted by the TVET provider and the Fast-food Association in the restaurants where employees participated in the Food Hygiene and Service Excellence training to check if proper measures have been taken regarding service improvement and if food hygiene is up to recommended standards.

- Collected data will be analysed by a Joint Monitoring Committee composed of DFTQC, Fast-fan, and the 2 municipalities, and corrective actions will be taken if necessary. Furthermore, those restaurants who are able to comply with the developed hygiene standards will receive hygiene certificates from DFTQC.

Especially in the field of hygiene, the enforcement of standards has to be monitored. This control gives a valuable feedback on the results of the training but also on food safety for clients.

Outcome: Data have been collected, a database has been created that has been put to the service of the industry and the performance of restaurant managers and employees is monitored, which gives margin for further improvement and adaptation. The incentive, created by the possibility to receive hygiene certificates from DFTQC (or that it could be removed), makes the training attractive for the Fast-food restaurants, and ensure their willingness to implement changes. Note that such a certificate should be associated, as it is the case here, to a monitoring system in order to ensure its continuous value.

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5.2. Mali: creating new monitoring structures in a collaborative manner

Context Currently, the structures for tracking performance of trainees are weak. This does not allow institutions to improve their trainings and make them more market-driven and effective. In Mali though, stakeholders were very much insisting on the importance to develop not only quantitative monitoring, but also qualitative one.

Structure: TVET providers

Strategy: Despite its lack of budget, HITT Mali decided to strengthen mechanisms for monitoring, by developing, with the support of TVET providers, a qualitative monitoring system for program beneficiaries. This monitoring aimed at:

- reinforce training effects through providing of on-site tailored advices - check the way lessons learnt have been implemented by trainees in order to

revise the training plan if needed, - identify further training needs

Based on the monitoring guideline developed, HITT team and different TVET providers conduct visits to workplaces of selected beneficiaries. All subjects taught during the training are discussed.

Outcome: This monitoring will eventually allow TVET providers to develop better services. They can provide support to beneficiaries who request it. In the case of Mali, the first qualitative monitoring allowed to see the relevance of the training, to stress the importance to follow-up training’s recommendations with beneficiaries, and to adjust a few topics in the training strategy. However, such a follow-up has a cost, given that it involves on-site visits to beneficiaries. One possibility to finance it is to ask for a contribution for trainees, a kind of “coaching fee”. First trials in Mali showed though that it is unlikely that every trainee is able to afford this kind of individual coaching. Thus such a cost should be included in the training budget.

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5.3. Mozambique: improving databases of national vocational training system

Context The HITT program developed a global M&E process that aimed to ensure consistency and back up of training data. This system had to be implemented in the seven countries of the programme, but it was also the opportunity to raise awareness of local actors about M&E stakes.

Structure: Public TVET actors, TVET providers

Strategy: In Mozambique, the team decided to build up a system based on the HITT M&E process, but also on local partners knowledge and best practices. The development of a common understanding of M&E issues and realities enabled to increase the sustainability of M&E mechanisms. Also, as a programme partner, INEFP (national institute for Employment and Vocational Training), was in charge of the monitoring of the trainings. Thus the M&E process also comprised a follow-up of TVET providers’ activity, involving a very close participation from INEFP experts.

Outcome: Owing to the local expertise, changes have been brought to the local implementation of the HITT M&E process. For instance, team decided to preserve the habit of adding a picture and a national ID to the registration form, which enabled both trainers to better remember trainees at the time of the follow-up, and HITT team to better monitor trainings. Also, a daily post-training evaluation form was added to the M&E process. This daily form, very simple and visual, is easier to use for the trainer, as they can receive a quick feed-back on precise lessons, rather than collecting satisfaction at the end of a 12-days course. On the other hand, training providers, which had not really accurate tools to follow the trainees and were not used to do pre & post evaluation of trainees’ situation (income/ employment), develop an interest in doing this. Some of them understood it could be a powerful tool to better understand their trainees and thus better respond to their needs, and are taking good care of the quality of informations provided (which was not the case at the beginning of the programme). At last, doing the monitoring of the HITT trainings enabled INEFP to develop a close relationship to TVET providers. From the point of view of the TVET providers working in

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the HITT programme, INEFP is no more seen just as the institute which is delivering accreditations to TVET providers, but as a useful supporting partner.

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6. Devise mechanisms to link up with industry for the provision of practical experience to informal workers

Introduction

The most crucial constraint that informal economy workers face while building their vocational skills, is demonstrating them in a real-life setting in private companies. Similarly, there are limited examples of TVET providers that are well-connected to their industry, which enables them to allocate students in placements and practical experience internships. As indicated before, the private sector is not keen on accepting inexperienced staff. If coming from the informal economy, this barrier is even higher, whereas in practice, informal economy workers often have more working experience and entrepreneurial skills. Potentially they have a lot to offer to the private sector, provided they are allowed to demonstrate their skills. The global strategy was aiming at including several private industry partners that could allow informal workers to get experience on the job. The approach of designing flexible modular-based curriculum strategies has been very effective in this. Many curriculum strategies included short industry exposure or internship moments, which may be adjusted per country and occupation, and as a consequence enable different ways of private sector and industry participation. Sometimes, industry exposure is not only needed for trainees but also for trainers. This has been experienced in Cambodia and related below. Case studies of industry exposure are also presented from Ghana and Vietnam.

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6.1. Cambodia: involve large companies in providing trainers with technical skills

Context: In some areas in Cambodia, it has been complicated to source trainers to train the informal sector businesses. This constraint was seen by the provincial Department of Tourism (DoT) who approached the HITT programme with a request to train their staff to become trainers. These trainers would be able to deliver training during the programme duration as well as to additional beneficiaries in the future. However, the DoT staff had low technical skills so they needed a Training of Trainers intervention that would strengthen their technical skills as well as their training skills.

Structures: Cooperation between large private companies and provincial government

Strategy: HITT engaged with a large, reputable four-star hotel, and arranged for the DoT trainers to participate in a Professional Development Placement with them for seven days. A programme was developed which listed the skills and knowledge they had to acquire while rotating through various departments. After participants had completed the placement, the DoT staff attended a six-day HITT Train the Trainer course, which included a day on the HITT learning methods. HITT then engaged with a second private company, a highly regarded five star resort hotel to assist with teaching the HITT technical materials for Food and Beverage skills to the DoT trainers. The resort staff had previously been trained to deliver the HITT materials to their own casual and full time staff, so they were familiar with HITT methods and materials. The five star resort agreed to seconding their Food and Beverage supervisor to train the DoT staff for two days.

Outcome: A team of DoT trainers was put in place who had improved their technical skills and knowledge, as well as their training skills, through direct involvement and support of large employers. In turn, the DoT trainers will be deployed to improve the skills and knowledge of smaller, informal enterprises in the coastal resort town. It was a cascading system of sharing skills and knowledge:

Large businesses Department of Tourism Trainers

Small businesses trained trained

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6.2. Ghana: providing technical experience for informal workers

Context: In Ghana, hotels have difficulties finding reliable and well trained staff. So the challenge is to tackle scarcity of qualified staff in priority occupations, to improve service quality, and reduce “poaching” of qualified staff.

Structures: Private tourism actors, Private labour market structures (recruitment structures)

Strategy: Increasing the quality of service can be done through training. The HITT programme developed, with private hospitality actors, a training programme focusing on core hospitality skills in Food and Beverage Service and Accommodation Operations. This training programme should be delivered through on-job-training by in-house trainers as well as through TVET service providers who have established strong linkages with the private sector. It should target not only formal staff, but also, for at least 30% of trainees, informal staff.

Outcome: By offering private companies an accurate means to tackle the issue of service quality, HITT could bring their interest in training informal workers as well. The cost of including some additional casual staff to a training is minimal, and it is also a good way for them to constitute a reservoir of skilled staff in case of “poaching” from their regular employees. For the casual workers, this strategy is increasing their employability and can contribute to increase their self-confidence, as they are considered by the company “worth to be trained”.

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6.3. Vietnam : Providing industry experience to trainees

Context: Reach, the implementation partner of the programme, is providing three-month, full time courses to disadvantaged youth. While revising its curriculum, REACH realised that Industry partners found out that REACH students were not work-ready, regarding their lack of technical experience.

Structures: TVET providers, tourism industry

Strategy: The HITT programme worked with REACH to improve the quality of its training. Besides improvements brought to its curriculum, a major change was made in the provision of technical experience to trainees. REACH used to place its students in internships after the training, the new curriculum was based on a alternated placement programme : the trainees are trained from Monday to Thursday and spend their Friday working in the industry, thus providing an immediate opportunity to apply their new knowledge and skills in a workplace.

Outcome: While there were some initial challenges of securing industry placements for the day-release programme, the feedback from the industry has been positive. This alternated release in industry was supported by a Work Practice guide for trainees to have a clear worksheet of what they should practice and do on their industry placement days. It enables improved monitoring from the trainers, who each Monday facilitate a debriefing session on what has been practice the previous Friday. It also links up very much the classroom-based training and practical experience, deepening both of them.

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7. Develop or link to interventions with funding mechanisms to ensure continuation/expansion of TVET activities

Introduction

One of the most challenging ultimate goals of a vocational training intervention like the HITT programme is to arrange linkages and connections that will bring successful curriculum strategies to scale in a sustainable manner. When one come to train informal workers, it is unlikely that the trainings can be paid by the trainees. While one contribution can be done, one needs most of the time to develop partnerships, with industry, donors, or national training funds. Ideally, during the programme implementation period private and public actors, as well as TVET providers and civil society should be convinced of the potential of curriculum innovations proposed and be willing to invest resources to mainstream these investments at regional or national level. Interventions with funding mechanisms that ensure this continuation are zooming into two different types of strategies:

To ensure the sustainability of curriculum strategies, methods and content by embedding these curricula approaches into validated and monitored formal TVET systems

To ensure sustainability of the training implementation, by developing funding mechanisms to allow TVET providers to keep on delivering the trainings.

As a global approach, HITT started working on both strategies from inception phase onwards. In all countries, HITT staff has invested in building relationships and developing a good understanding of the tourism sector as well as the TVET regulation landscape. As a consequence, by knowing who is doing what and searching to explore partnerships, good connections could be made with employment programmes and capacity building funds. HITT offers a new method and cost-effective approach to TVET that is potentially interesting and relevant to private actors, public agencies, or civil society’s structures. Through linking the lessons learnt, especially public-funded, longer-scope programmes could benefit from the demand-driven approaches to vocational training. Stakeholder platforms were crucial in the process of achieving sustainability of trainings, both on the level of formal accreditation for trainings and on the level of sustainable financial mechanisms. The connections and partnerships established with the steering committees, as well as the ownership developed by their members regarding the HIT approach and its results, have proven to be the most effective way to bring in sustainability mechanisms.

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7.1. Nepal: making the industry see the added value of trainings in improving their services

Context: In Nepal, small scale tourism and trekking companies continuously face the challenge of training their staff in basic skills and get frustrated seeing them often leave as soon as they are properly trained. The curriculum had its flaws and was not up to the expected standards, compared to what exists in other countries and taking into account that trekking services are highly demanded in Nepal, especially by foreigners. Besides this, the official national training organisation lacks capacities to train a sufficient number of trekking guides each year, therefore transferring this responsibility to the trekking companies themselves.

Structure: Private sector companies and national professional associations

Strategy: The strategy focused on the establishment of strong interactive linkages with the private sector and on ensuring training certification through the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), the organisation in charge of training and certifying trekking guides at the national level. Trekking companies were involved from the very beginning in the design and delivery of training to their informal workers, in order to make sure their needs were identified and fulfilled. A common analysis was conducted on clients’ expectations in terms of service quality and security standards, where it appeared that there was a significant demand for improved skills. The curriculum was designed accordingly and a complementary strategy consisted in having this training recognized and certified by the NMA. On one hand, trekking companies manage to fulfil their needs and respond to the evolution of their industry (higher expectations from their clients and from their foreign partners like travel agencies or insurance companies) through improved services. On the other hand, the validation of the trainings by the NMA through the assessment and certification of the trainees ensures the reinforcement of professional qualifications on the long term and drives the other agencies to implement trainings for their trekking guides.

Outcome: The strategy was the optimal way to ensure active participation of private sector actors. The tourism industry is open to development of vocational skills in the informal tourism economy, provided it solves their direct problems in terms of staff capacity. The design of practical training methodologies enabled trekking companies to appreciate the link between on-the-job training for informal workers and their own

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business success. They agreed to train their staff and invest their own resources in it. They were also aware of the importance of an official recognition of the training scheme and they strongly advocated for the involvement of the NMA. The NMA has endorsed the Mountain Leader training scheme and is dealing with the registration of participants and assessment. They see the training as a new line of business for their members and they wish to ensure the sustainability of the training and assessment scheme. A potential downside of this strategy is that its reliance on private sector companies entails the risk for a trade-off between training not only informal workers but also their permanent staff, which they usually wish to promote in priority. However, the understanding and integration of the cascading training model within the companies and the needs for training new staff should benefit the informal sector in the long run.

7.2. Benin: assuring formal certification through tight collaboration from inception

Context:

In Benin the TVET system is quite developed for the traditional segment of professions (carpenters, welders, mechanics, plumbers, hairdressers, tailors,..) with curricula, training methods, modules and certificates based on the DACUM approach and sanctioned by official approval. However, this is not the case in the tourism sector, where TVET is still very little developed. Professional education in tourism sector is generally theoretical, with little focus on practical skills and in spite of recent change, very much criticized by tourism industry as not adequate. For short vocational continuous training, there is no national framework at all. There is considerable need and interest for competency based, market oriented training through short courses. Since certificates and diplomas are important for labour market entry in francophone Africa, it has been a major focus of HITT Benin to assure some alignment with the existing system. However existing system of curricula development proved to be expensive – too expensive for the HITT program – very time consuming, and a closed shop sector.

Strategy: The objective was to stay linked-up with the existing approved DACUM process. The programme has focus on two curricula, based on the “competencies charts” developed in accordance with the DACUM approach. For the occupation of cook, the program has used the competencies chart developed by the Ministry of Secondary Education, but for the occupation of waiter, the competencies chart didn’t exist. The programme had to developed it, in close collaboration with the Ministry.

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All this process of developing competencies chart, on which curricula could then be anchored, was done by the support of the Steering Committee. It was a long, long process, but in the end the product was not a “HITT product”, but belonged to all Steering Committee members. After the prioritization of the skills, done by the industry stakeholders, the HITT programme then developed curricula, still in a collaborative process, involving main public and private stakeholders. These curricula were directly linked to the competencies chart to ensure an easiest footbridge between the HITT trainings and the national diploma.

Outcome: This strategy enabled the linkage between short vocational trainings (that the programme could afford to develop) and national curricula for the targeted occupations (which will be developed gradually by the Ministry of Secondary Education). Trainees trained in the HITT curricula should then be able to get credits, in advance of the national diploma.

7.3. Cambodia: linking informal TVET into existing industry standards on vocational training

Context: In Cambodia, the actors present in the multi-stakeholder platform, were willing to start a process of linking ASEAN standards as part of the national programmes.

Structure: Public TVET sector, International regulations Agencies

Strategy: Foreseeing this trend, the HITT materials were developed in order to include the content the ASEAN standards’ materials. The HITT materials therefore become a supporting tool for the uptake of the ASEAN standards in Cambodia. In addition, when the organisation responsible for the implementation of the ASEAN standards in Cambodia, the National Committee for Tourism Professionals (NCTP) conducted training for ASEAN trainers and assessors, HITT contributed to the training by adding on an extra two days in training on HITT Active Learning methods. The objective was to infuse Active Learning methods into the implementation of ASEAN training, leading to a higher standard of training in the institutions and businesses that will be implementing the ASEAN training in Cambodia.

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Outcome: A national recognition for TVET modules is unlikely to be achieved without a national training programme. Given the fact the training programme were not existing yet, the best strategy to ensure the sustainability of the HITT training modules was to embed international standards, that are going to be widespread in the tourism industry in the coming years, in the training curricula. By doing this, the HITT team ensured that the curricula were of some interest for industry actors, as well as for public actors, seeking for some concrete and practical examples of the way to apply ASEAN standards in their daily work.

7.4. Vietnam: raising interest of development programs to keep on funding HITT trainings

Context: In Vietnam, the HITT team identified three occupations to train: waiters, homestays’ operators, and local guides. While developing the training materials and initiating the training of beneficiaries, interest was raised amongst the donor community about this innovative way of training informal workers.

Structures: TVET providers, Public authorities, Civil society (donors and development project) INGOs

Strategy: The strategy followed by the programme was to invest a lot in the quality of methods and materials for the 3 selected occupations. The team spent a lot of time building capacities of local service providers in order to obtain satisfactory levels of quality in material writing, material design, and training of trainers. The results reached so far seduced other TVET support programmes. Outcome Several donors/ development projects have asked for using HITT materials for their own programmes. For instance, Caritas decided to fund other batches of homestay training, integrating these trainings in its approach to support rural tourism in Vietnam. ILO, after seeing the interesting results of the homestay training, requested the HITT team to develop additional training targeting tourist drivers. This was done by ART, the local service provider which has been selected and trained by the HITT programme to develop HIT trainings, with the support of the HITT team.

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Through a co-operative agreement, the EU funded ESRT programme invested in the design of the HITT materials, and has engaged ART to deliver an additional 12 training courses to another 300 beneficiaries in other geographical areas not reached by the HITT programme. In addition, several other projects and organisations such as WWF and JICA have expressed interest in using the materials in their own tourism development projects. Reach, the programme partner, is using the HIT approach to revise several other courses to make them more market driven. The choice to invest in the quality of the training materials and courses has raised interest of many stakeholders, which now guarantees the sustainability of the approach.

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Conclusion Enabling the environment to strengthen impact of vocational training programme is not a one-day process. There is no user manual to follow. As one can see in those examples drawn from the HITT programme, there are as many interventions as there are different contexts and issues. The 7 interventions presented in this document can be classified in 3 main categories : establishing or strengthening a dialogue between main stakeholders, building capacities, and seeking for sustainability. However, one could imagine different ones, like providing impartial informations on the markets for instance. But yet, what is common to all these interventions is the way they are connecting different actors to work together or understand each other. They all aim at developing an ownership of the TVET activities from the stakeholders, which is the only way to bring in some sustainability to the actions. Whereas no predefined step by step process exists to undertake enabling environment interventions, the HITT experience showed that a common frame, giving the direction to follow, was a useful guideline in the implementation of a TVET programme. In the HITT programme, this frame consisted in core values, that were embedded in all the programme‘s activities: market driven, employment focused, adapted to the context, encouraging local ownership, and linked to the formal TVET system. This approach, strong but flexible, enabled 7 different teams in 7 different countries to develop their own interventions, but focusing on the same goals: impact and sustainability. By adopting a holistic approach to implement a TVET programme, one can develop original and innovative ways of collaboration between stakeholders that in the end benefits very concretely to the workers trained and the economical sectors to which they belong.