Finding the way forward

John P. Grierson and lain McKenzie

Between tradition and transformation

Self-employment is still a non-traditional activity for most vocational training institutions. It is likely to remain so. Relatively few institutions have attempted a self-employment re-orientation. The evidence of successful approaches and methods remains uncertain and anecdotal.

There is, however, sufficient evidence to suggest a range of possible self-employment re-orientation options, and within this range to give some guidance on how best to proceed. Vocational training institutes can elect to retain their traditional role, to effect dramatic transformational change, or seek a path somewhere between the two. While the middle ground is as diverse as it is unexplored the extremes are somewhat more clear. The traditional role of VTIs is, of course, training for modern sector wage-employment. The other extreme, VTI transformation, means abandoning this traditional role in favour of an exclusive focus on enterprise development.

The best known example of a transformational self-employment reorientation is probably the Malawi Entrepreneurs Development Institute (MEDI). MEDI was established in 1985, based on what had been since 1979 the Vocational Training Institute, itself an alternative approach to technical training for those unable to enter the formal technical education system (MEDI, July, 1993). MEDI has been instrumental in creating many new, small, productive enterprises. But, from the VTI perspective, MEDI is not an unqualified success. MEDI is no longer a VTI. It has gone beyond 're-orientation' and become an enterprise development institute, one which today gives very little emphasis to technical training of any kind (Nyoni and Havers in Hénault and English, Eds., 1995).

MEDI's clear mandate for transformational change, along with its full operational autonomy, generous long-term donor funding and the singular circumstances of its origins, are all unusual characteristics. Collectively they have made MEDI a unique case. This uniqueness, while engendering success in terms of MEDI's mandate, has come at a price. The approach pioneered by MEDI has not proven easy to replicate in Malawi or elsewhere. The factors which facilitated the creation of MEDI have in all likelihood insulated MEDI from the very forces that might have restricted the degree of re-orientation - and enhanced prospects for replication elsewhere.

To be sure replicability is not a simple function of the degree of self-employment re-orientation. Much less ambitious attempts at VTI re-orientation have also defied replication, but for quite different reasons. Awashti's description of the failure of the self-employment re-orientation attempt of the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) of India is instructive. The Indian ITI self-employment reorientation programme called for a relatively modest degree of self-employment reorientation together with an ambitious replication plan. The eventual re-orientation of 100 ITIs was envisaged. In the event, few if any were effectively re-oriented to self-employment and the replication plan was abandoned. Awashti's assessment of the causes can be summarised in three points:

a) misdirected resources;

b) severely constrained operational autonomy; and

c) the institutionalisation of unrealistic objectives at the design and planning stages (Awashti, this volume).

The latter point is the crucial one. Simply put, the design was faulty.

It may be useful at this point to recall the design and evaluation assessment framework offered in Part I.

Assessment Framework for Vocational Training for Self-employment
(1)	(2)	(3)
Selection	Training	Enterprise
Stage	Stage	Stage
Initial	Interim	Ultimate
Objective	Objective	Objective
Higher Education	Training for	Further Education
Wage employment	Wage employment	Wage Employment
Self-employment	Training for Self-employment	Self-employment

The basic design used by the Indian ITI self-employment re-orientation programme was a classic Stage (3) intervention: an entrepreneurial development package provided as an 'add-on' following conventional wage employment training. The target group 'consisted of those who completed the ITI programme and obtained a certificate' (Awashti, this volume). Self-employment interventions were added in Stage (3) to a programme that was otherwise fundamentally oriented to wage employment in Stages (1) and (2) . Bureaucratically simple and unthreatening, perhaps, and relatively modest in terms of the degree of self-employment reorientation, but logically inconsistent in practice. With the wisdom of hindsight it is all too easy to say that the result was predictable.

There are three lessons to be learned from these two forays out from the bastion of traditional VTI training: First, there are many approaches to self-employment re-orientation. Second, many different approaches will be needed. Third, the approaches adopted must fit the institutional and operational realities of individual VTIs in terms of both the degree of re-orientation attempted, and the extent of replication envisaged.

The degree of re-orientation ambition is important because of the effects on costs, on the 'institutional culture' of the implementing institutions, on curricula, on inter-agency support networks, and on a host of other factors. If the model of re-orientation attempted is not logically consistent throughout all three stages of the training for self-employment process the results are likely to fall far short of expectations, no matter how modest the degree of reorientation attempted. And if the degree of re-orientation is more than can be reasonably accommodated by the implementing institutions the prospects for replication will also be greatly diminished.

The extent of replication ambition is an important issue. Prospects for replication should be realistically considered. There is ample evidence to make national policy makers and VTI administrators wary of attempts at large scale replication, no matter how modest the models are in terms of degree of self-employment re-orientation. 'Large-scale delivery of standardised training programmes is not likely to be viable' (Middleton et al., 1993).

Each system and to a degree each institution will need to find their own formula, a process which will require much introspection, planning and experimentation. And though we are still very much in the early stages of learning about training for self-employment through VTIs, we are further along than the scattered evidence might initially suggest.

A growing body of knowledge and experience

The body of ground rules and guidance materials is growing. We have learned that emphasis should be on learning from traditional training methodologies, on clear target group identification; on 'complementary inputs', on 'integration with other institutions', and on 'follow-up services', 'replicability and .. economies of scale' (Fluitman, 1989). Harper counsels respect for the conventional wisdom; Farbman counsels closeness to local communities and markets. The many voices speaking in favour of technology upgrading and technology development counsel learning from local knowledge (Maldondo and Sethuraman 1992; ITDG, 23 March 1995).

Chilean and Colombian experiences have shown how supportive national policy allied with institutional networks can bring considerable resources to bear on the unemployment problem, particularly when VTIs have operational autonomy Corvalán, this volume; Ramirez-Guerrero, this volume). Nelson has given guidance on how these networking mechanisms can work in practice. The Ghana National Association of Garages programme, and India's Society for Rural Industrialisation are demonstrations of self-employment designs that manifest a noteworthy degree of logical consistency throughout the training for self-employment process (Abban and Quarshie, this volume; Awashti, this volume). The essential economy of enterprise-based training technologies is being increasingly recognised (World Bank, 1991; Ferej, this volume), as is the self-sustaining follow-up support that they help create (Grierson, this volume).

To be or not to be: making the re-orientation decision

The decision to adopt a non-traditional activity should not be taken lightly. While it is clear that 'every effort should be made to enable microenterprises to acquire skills more easily' (Maldondo and Sethuraman, 1992), it is also clear that these efforts will not come without cost. The decision to reorient a vocational training system, programme or institution to self-employment will involve many levels of change. There will be changes in the target groups to be served or, at the very least, changes in how traditional target groups are served. Most of these changes will have considerable institutional and methodological implications (ILO, 3 December, 1993c).

The overall degree of capacity and willingness to be involved in self-employment has yet to be determined. It should not, at this early stage, be assumed that it is a good idea for each and every vocational training programme to attempt a re-orientation to self-employment. And it must be clearly stated that there is little likelihood at this stage of discovering 'models' that lend themselves to widespread replication. Because of all of these factors it is thought most useful to offer guidance on how to proceed, rather than opinions on the merits of various approaches.

This balance of this volume is comprised of a planning framework to assist the process of self-employment re-orientation. Some of the hazards of doing so have been identified in this volume, though many remain hidden; a few key landmarks have been noted, and an array of alternative paths have been identified. While incomplete and embryonic, the framework that follows draws upon this evidence to outline a process that will help VTIs structure a balanced portfolio of pilot projects, assess a system or VTI, or merely begin to conceptualise the issues involved in re-orienting VTIs to self-employment.

Planning Framework for Self-Employment Re-orientation

The planning process that follows is based on the assumption that self-employment initiatives will draw on, coordinate with, and complement other self-employment initiatives, and that these initiatives are (or should be) themselves consistent with broad national development policies.

The strategy proposed here assumes that VTIs will retain training as their 'core competency', and that self-employment capacity will be built on this solid foundation. The planning framework neither assumes nor precludes the addition of 'packages' of self-employment support services. The opportunity is provided to consider many options.

The first step in the re-orientation assessment process is to determine the policy context and the range of complementary services offering network and linkage opportunities. Vocational training does not take place in a vacuum. Most VTIs are stable institutions that have evolved within a relatively stable educational policy context, even when the national macroeconomic policy has been much more fluid. Historically, informal sector training has not been the responsibility of VTIs. This is changing rapidly, as the informal sector grows in numbers and importance. In the most dramatic cases informal sector policy has made an about-face, from benign neglect or oppression to active encouragement. In a great many countries national economic, industrial, educational and social policy increasingly will address, influence and encourage the promotion of self-employment. Hence, the designers of self-employment programmes must have at the outset a clear sense of the policy context, of potential partners, and of informal sector goals. Determining the policy context is the first step in designing self-employment training programmes.

STEP 1:

Review the Policy Context and Determine the Extent and

Type of Available Self-Employment Support Services.

It is reasonable to expect that the policy context will be less than crystal clear. Nonetheless, the outlines of national economic, educational and social policy will be visible, and these will point towards specific development goals for self-employment. When the policy context has been determined the next step is to clarify the development objective.

STEP 2: Determine the Development Objective

The evolution of a programme design must be based upon a clear understanding of the development context, and a clear definition of the problem to be addressed or the objective pursued. King outlined many of the options creating a national enterprise culture, poverty alleviation, spreading the benefits of economic growth, and so on. Abban and Quarshie described a Ghanaian initiative to pursue a specific economic objective: the development of the motor mechanics sub-sector. Corvalán, described how VTIs can enhance productivity in small enterprises by improving management skills, again an essentially economic objective. Awashti described SRI, an Indian NGO that serves severely disadvantaged tribal minorities with noteworthy success, a clear example of a socially motivated poverty alleviation objective. Often the situation will be less clear than these examples might indicate. Nonetheless, any VTI considering self-employment must have a clear grasp of the development objective being pursued if they are to design an effective programme.

Broadly defined, there are three principal options:

OPTIONS
1	2	3
ECONOMIC GROWTH	POVERTY ALLEVIATION	ECONOMIC GROWTH AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION

• Option 1: Focus on Economic Growth. A economic growth focus normally involves programmes with a high degree of economic and technical complexity. Enterprises leading economic development require relatively sophisticated levels of technical and enterprise promotion assistance. Economic growth initiatives normally determine their target groups based upon largely economic criteria.

• Option 2: Focus on Poverty Alleviation. Poverty alleviation normally involves a high degree of socio-cultural complexity. The socioeconomic enfranchisement of disadvantaged groups demands a clear and specific understanding of local sub-cultures. Poverty alleviation initiatives usually require relatively modest levels of technical and business inputs, even though the service delivery mechanisms are often highly sophisticated in socio-cultural terms. Poverty alleviation programmes normally determine their target groups based largely on social criteria.

• Option 3: Multiple Focus: Economic Growth and Poverty Alleviation. If both foci are adopted it follows that a broad array of mechanisms and approaches must be used. There is then an imperative need to:

a) define the 'balance' clearly;

b) maintain a high degree of operational clarity; and,

c) assure that in all cases objectives and approaches are compatible.

Initiatives with combined objectives must deal with high levels of both economic and socio-cultural complexity. Client identification and selection must incorporate both social and economic criteria.

Designating the development objective is the second step in the process of designing a vocational training for self-employment programme. When the development objective has been determined programme designers must then consider the degree of self-employment re-orientation that will be necessary to enable their VTIs to pursue the designated development objective.

STEP 3:

Determine the Appropriate Degree of Self-Employment

Re-orientation Focus

Many self-employment approaches and variations have been described in this volume. Many other possibilities will present themselves to VTI planners and administrators. Most will fall under one of the following five principal options:

OPTIONS
1	2	3	4	5
NO FOCUS ON SELF-EMPLOYMENT	MINIMAL CHANGE	LIMITED INTERNAL RE-ORIENTATION TO SELF-EMPLOYMENT	SIGNIFICANT INTERNAL TO SELF-EMPLOYMENT	EXCLUSIVE FOCUS ON RE-ORIENTATION
	LINKAGES WITH SELF-EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMMES			VOCATIONAL TRAINING OPTIONAL
	OR	PLUS	PLUS
	SELECTION CRITERIA CHANGES	EXTERNAL OPERATIONAL LINKAGES	EXTERNAL OPERATIONAL LINKAGES

• Option 1: No self-employment activities. VTIs retain exclusive focus on their core activity, vocational training for wage employment.

• Option 2: Minimal Change. Design options would involve no changes in core activity or selection criteria, but the addition of modest self-employment re-orientation activities. Examples include: Stage (3) interventions such as network linkages with external self-employment services; and Stage (1) interventions to expand the selection criteria with a view to creating a self-employment stream. In all cases wage employment vocational training continues.

• Option 3: Limited internal change, supported by network linkages with external self-employment support services. Limited internal change might focus on Stage (1) (selection) interventions to identify and select those with entrepreneurial intentions, potential or need; on limited experimentation with enterprise-based training methodologies in Stage (2); or 'add-one' in Stage (3) to support self-employment following training. Wage employment focused vocational training continues, with the addition of self-employment training likely.

• Option 4: Significant internal re-orientation involving changes to selection criteria and training methodologies in Stages (1) and (2); and external linkages, and follow-up support in Stage (3). Option 4 initiatives might involve the introduction of enterprise-based training methodologies and self-employment support 'add-one', as well as extensive institutional networking. Wage employment vocational training continues, though self-employment training might be assigned priority.

• Option 5: Transformational change, re-orienting to an exclusive focus on self-employment. Option 5 initiatives imply a fundamental change in institutional emphasis from 'training' to 'enterprise development'. Option 5 initiatives can exclude vocational training altogether. Vocational training, if included, would be provided through network linkages with VTIs and other training programmes.

One of the five options above must be selected as the third step in the design process:

The re-orientation options above involve increasing degrees of organisational change. It can anticipated that many, perhaps most, vocational training systems will be unable or unwilling to undergo substantial institutional change. Indeed, in light of the relatively modest knowledge of the state-of-the-art, it would not be advisable to initiate a process of wholesale change. It can reasonably be expected that most vocational training systems will continue with their core activity, that a very few will undergo transformational change and become enterprise development institutes, and that a noteworthy pioneering group will undergo various intermediate degrees of self-employment re-orientation.

The process of re-orienting to self-employment has many institutional implications in the areas of staff development, curriculum development, and changes in the administrative, managerial and pedagogical aspects of training (ILO, 3 December 1993b). VTIs should be 'tested' to determine if they are, or are capable of becoming, appropriate institutions for implementing self-employment programmes. The next step in the self-employment design process is to test for system appropriateness.

STEP 4:

Test for System and Institution Appropriateness :

When a re-orientation option have been determined, the proposed implementing institutions must be tested to determine the extent to which they manifest the basic institutional characteristics needed to effectively administer self-employment promotion programmes.

Self-employment means micro-enterprises, typically informal sector ones. Self-employment is characterised by fleeting opportunities within rapidly changing, dynamic, local markets. These opportunities are necessarily market, rather than public sector created. Correspondingly self-employment initiatives are best based in institutions which manifest market-oriented, demand-led, decentralised institutional characteristics, and that have the flexibility to respond to ever changing local opportunities. Institutions that do not have such characteristics should strive to adopt them as part of the process of self-employment re-orientation. The following matrix is a simple test of institutional or system appropriateness for self-employment promotion.

INSTITUTIONAL APPROPRIATENESS TEST
	INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
TEST FOR:	BUREAUCRACY DRIVEN	MARKET DRIVEN
TRAINING SYSTEM BASIS	CURRICULUM	LOCAL DEMAND
AUTHORITY TO IMPLEMENT CHANGE	CENTRALISED	DECENTRALISED
TARGET GROUP SELECTION CRITERIA	CENTRALISED, ACADEMIC CRITERIA	LOCAL, NEED OR ABILITY BASED
TARGET GROUP ASPIRATION	WAGE EMPLOYMENT, FURTHER EDUCATION	SELF-EMPLOYMENT, SMALL ENTERPRISE
LEARNING VENUE	CLASSROOM	WORKPLACE
LEARNING FOCUS	THEORY	PRACTICE
PRINCIPAL OUTPUT MEASURES	QUALIFICATIONS & CERTIFICATION	EMPLOYMENT & SELF-EMPLOYMENT

Step 4 in the self-employment re-orientation process is for VTIs to test system appropriateness. Few VTIs, whether NGO, private or public sector, can be expected to be exclusively 'market driven'. They may not need to be strongly market driven if they are providing a well designed, specialised training service in close coordination with complementary programmes and institutions. In general, it can be assumed that the greater the degree of institutional networking, the greater the degree of focus on the core competency of training, and, hence, the less need for significant institutional change. Nonetheless, any institution that is involved in self-employment promotion must be alert to the need for market responsiveness, and must strive to make their institutions as market oriented as is practical and possible.

STEP 5:

Evaluate Institutional Appropriateness Test Results and Determine How to Proceed

VTI planners must evaluate the degree of institutional appropriateness manifested by the proposed VTI, and determine the degree of institutional change needed to respond to the target groups that have been determined by their development objective. There are three basic options.

OPTIONS
1	2	3
SYSTEM OR INSTITUTION MARKET DRIVEN:	SYSTEM OR INSTITUTION BUREAUCRACY DRIVEN:	SYSTEM OR INSTITUTION BUREAUCRACY DRIVEN:
PROCEED WITH IMPLEMENTATION	RESTRUCTURE BEFORE PROCEEDING	IDENTIFY NEW SYSTEM OR INSTITUTION BEFORE PROCEEDING

A final word

Current enthusiasm for self-employment notwithstanding, it must be recognised that few VTIs are likely to implement a significant self-employment re-orientation. Most VTIs will and should continue to concentrate on providing much needed training for those who aspire to be skilled wage earners in both the formal and informal sectors. It should not be deemed negative if a vocational or technical system or institution determines that it is not appropriate to attempt a re-orientation to self-employment. It is important, however, that any re-orientation attempted be done as efficiently as possible. The self-employment re-orientation assessment system provided here is not intended to indicate either 'pass' or 'fail'. Rather it is intended to offer a systematic means of determining the degree to which a VTI or vocational training system might be prepared to embark on the process of re-orientation to self-employment, and to help VTIs implement the process efficiently. It might be helpful to review the array of re-orientation options:

1. no focus on self-employment;

2. minimal change;

3. limited internal re-orientation to self-employment;

4. significant internal re-orientation to self-employment; and

5. exclusive focus on self-employment.

If any of Options 2 through 5 are chosen the decision will soon be followed by the institutional and methodological realities of implementing the option chosen. The degree of capacity and willingness to re-orient to self-employment will ultimately be the determining factors, rather than the need to respond to political pressure or demands from the informal economy.

It may be useful to be reminded, as King and others have repeatedly stressed, that self-employment is but one of many options for vocational and technical institutions, and for many institutions it may not be one of the best. There is a small but growing body of resources to help designers and administrators determine whether or not a re-orientation to self-employment is likely to succeed. A pioneering work by the Commonwealth Secretariat, Designing Entrepreneurial Skills Development Programmes: Resource Book for Vocational and Technical Institutions (Rao et al., 1990) offered early, if optimistic, guidance on re-orienting VTIs to entrepreneurship. This volume hopes to add to the growing body of self-employment knowledge by presenting an overview of efforts to date, along with a number of conceptual tools to help policy makers, planners, and VTI managers determine if and how to proceed.

The 'crisis of vocational training' is essentially the problem of how to respond to the changing labour demands of dynamic global markets and rapid technological change. A broad-based self-employment re-orientation by VTIs would merely serve to avoid rather than face this growing problem. And as a result, the crisis of vocational training would very likely worsen. The appropriate reorientation for most VTIs will very likely be found to be a re-orientation to the economic and technological changes in the modern skilled wage sector. A number of VTIs will also respond to the need for vocational and technical skills for self-employment, and a very few will recreate themselves to become self-employment institutes. This volume is offered to help VTIs determine how best to match their strengths and their capacities with the needs of the communities they serve, and to re-orient themselves accordingly.