Volume 37, numéro 1 | <<< Previous page | Table of contents | Next page >>> |
By Gunter Rochow
In 2003, Capra International Inc., executed an evaluation of the Integrated Framework [IF] for Trade-related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries [LDCs], sponsored by the IF Steering Committee comprising representatives of: The World Bank, IMF, WTO, ITC, UNDP and UNCTAD, as well as bilateral donors (e.g. Canada and the UK) and representatives from the nineteen least developed countries participating in the IF (Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Nepal, Senegal, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda, Yemen)[1]. Key recommendations of the Evaluation are now being applied to other Least Developed Countries [LDCs], initially to Sudan, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and the Maldives, as reported in BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest (Vol. 8, Number 6, 19 February, 2004). Mr. Pierre Morin, President of the CVA, was a member of the Panel of Experts for this evaluation. The Evaluation Report comprised recommendations to deliver trade-related technical training, using DACUM as one of three approaches, the others being Action Learning and a focus on Personal Competencies.Action Learning
Action Learning is both a process and a powerful program that involves a small group of people solving real problems while at the same time focusing on what they are learning and how their learning can benefit each group member and the organization as a whole. The components of an Action Learning program are:
It is being widely recognized that workplace-oriented human resource development must focus not only on professional, technical and clerical skills, but also on personal skills. Personal skills can be classified in the following four broad categories: (a) managing self, (b) communicating, (c) managing people and tasks, and (d) mobilizing innovation and change.[3]
Main features of the DACUM Method
The evaluators highlighted DACUM, indicating that it is a total system for organizing, delivering instruction and managing the learning process, and noting that it had been developed in Canada in the late nineteen sixties and is now being used extensively in the education as well as in the business and industry sectors in several countries on all continents.
The following features of a DACUM functional analysis were noted in the IF evaluation:
The evaluators stressed that the competency-based DACUM approach is highly useful in the IF context, when local consultants aspire to participating in available IF related consulting. Since DACUM is capable of identifying sub-occupational or sub-professional skills, it is of critical importance when assessing the availability of qualified resources anywhere, and particularly in LDCs . The reason is that occupational or professional qualifications tend to be global and comprehensive, while sub-occupational and sub-professional skills tend to be segmented and modular. Certain locally available consultants may be excluded from selection for IF related projects, if the criteria of the selection process call for full-blown occupational or professional qualifications, whereas the local consultants might be included, if the criteria call for segmented or modular skills.
Planning
a DACUM Functional Analysis
The evaluators of the IF
recommended the following planning approaches. (1) organizing two workshops, of
three to five days' duration each, (a) to identify consulting research
functions, and (b) to identify IF-related management functions,
inviting 8-10 practicing functional specialists for each group and appointing
an experienced DACUM Facilitator for each group; (2) validating the functional
profiles that result from the workshop in a convenient manner, which might
include electronic polling; (3) soliciting approval of the validated profiles
by the Integrated Framework Working Group (IFWG); and (4) publishing the
approved profiles for use in consultant recruitment and in IF-related
management orientation programs.
Prior Learning
Assessment (PLA)
The evaluators also recommended the use of
Prior Learnin g Assessment (PLA), indicating that it is a system whereby individuals can use
knowledge and skills learned outside formal academic or training programs -
including on-the-job-experience, volunteer work, hobbies, or self-study - to
gain exemption from taking particular courses or for other qualification requirements.
Such a method could be used to assess - on the basis of the functional
analyses described above - the level of competence of entry-level local candidates for consulting
assignments.
Planning an Orientation Program
The evaluators recommended a Planning an Orientation Program that would involve:
1. The design a modular curriculum, based on the approved technical and personal competency profiles, for use in a variety of instructional environments, which could include traditional seminars and short-courses, corresponding courses, or internet-based study, all expected to require only a few days of effort;
2. based on the competency profile, the assessment of potential IF managers to determine the extent to which they already possess the required IF-related competency level, also using, if desired, the Prior Learning Assessment process;
3. the certification of persons who are already able to demonstrate the required level of competency;
4. the enrolment of potential IF managers who demonstrate IF-related knowledge and ability gaps, allowing them to select the preferred instructional method;
5. the certification of their competency upon successful completion of the instructional process; and
6. their appointment to the IF-related function once competency
has been demonstrated.
It was also noted that this
individual learning approach, can, upon its completion, be enhanced through
group learning, say at the level of the National Steering Committee, by
employing such approaches as Action Learning, which focuses on learning
by doing.
Capra International Inc. hopes that CVA members who have an opportunity to work internationally with Least Developed Countries [LDCs ], or other developing countries, will be able to build on the work already done in the context of the IF evaluation to promote the use of DACUM as a development tool. Additional inquiries may be directed to the author at grochow@capra.net.
[1] President, Capra International Inc. [http://www.capra.net/ ]. Capra is a corporate member of the CVA. The CVA collaborated with Capra in a major project in Brazil (1998-2002), introducing DACUM, training Facilitators, Trainers of Facilitators, and supervising the production of Level 3 profiles for about 300 occupational families, in support of Brazil's new Occupational Classification.
[2] http://www.integratedframework.org/ files/docs/IFSC_6_Rev2Add1.pdf
[3] Michael J. Marquardt . Action Learning in Action. Transforming Problems and People for World-Class Organizational Learning. Davies Black Publishing. 1999[4] The concepts are described in: Fredrick T. Evers, James C. Rush and Iris Berdrow. The Bases of Competence: Skills for Lifelong Learning and Productivity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998, 273 pp.
EXERGUE....EXERGUEAction Learning is both a process and a powerful program that involves a small group of people solving real problems while at the same time focusing on what they are learning and how their learning can benefit each group member and the organization as a whole.
