Developing Capacity for Better Partnership for VET/LLL and Skills Development in Social Dialogue

Developing Capacity for Better Partnership for VET/LLL and Skills Development in Social Dialogue

A methodology note for use by social partners for developing capacity-building programmes, intended to enhance their ability to collaborate effectively with VET actors on policy design and delivery.

Short description of content:

Engagement with social partners is an important element of good multilevel VET governance. Ideally, social partners provide a voice for the employers and employees they represent. They offer technical insights in relation to constantly evolving skills needs, qualifications frameworks and course content. Moreover, they can be partners in both VET policy dialogue and delivery. No wonder then that the active engagement of social partners has been identified as a success factor for VET reform and innovation.

Nevertheless, engagement with social partners is only effective when there is an institutional settings that allow such dialogue and interaction to take place. In reality, social partners often lack a theoretical background, and have low organisational negotiating skills and insufficient knowledge of economic and social issues, as well as inadequate technological support and financial resources to modernise and improve their operations. For these reasons, capacity-building measures are often required in order to help social partners fully realise the role they need to play in aligning VET policy and service provision with the needs of the economy.

This report describes a methodology and provides a framework that can be used by social partners to develop the capabilities they need to fully contribute to VET-policy-related dialogue. It gives the theoretical foundations for this approach based on a four-layer ‘capacity building pyramid’ composed of tools, skills, staff and infrastructure, structures, systems and roles. It describes a competence ‘framework’ that can be utilised in understanding the capacity-building challenge, and a ‘methodology’ for social partners to use in mapping and analysing their own capacity-building needs. The report further outlines the process of applying this general framework and methodology. It illustrates the method based on an elaborated example of its application to the strengthening of VET Sector Skill Committees in Moldova.

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