F. Marhuendapage 1

WORK EXPERIENCE AS AN EDUCATION AND TRAINING STRATEGY TO COMBAT SOCIAL EXCLUSION: TWO CASE STUDIES IN SPAIN

Fernando Marhuenda

Dep. Didàctica i Organització Escolar

Universitat de València

Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Lahti, Finland 22-25 September 1999

INTRODUCTION.

This paper shows the progress of the Spanish strand of a TSER - 4th framework programme research project which reference is 'Work experience as an education and training strategy: new approaches for the 21st century, SOE2-CT97-2025'. The project is trying to find out information about the educational value of work experience. Some case studies have been selected and here the results of two of them will be presented, which have in common the benefitiaries they attempt to serve: ‘at risk’ populations. Some pedagogical features of work experience modules under these vocational training initiatives will be shown and discussed in the paper.

My approach will focus on the value of work experience as a mode of learning and indeed, as a way of dealing with training and delivery; therefore as a curricular construction. However, I see this mode of training/learning as one which is not new, but has persisted for centuries and, more important, which has resisted the historical transformations of different modes of production, from the artisan guilds into the industrialization and, as it is claimed by some, into the post-industrial era. To study these transformations by applying a similar analysis to that of Lundgren (1992) for the curriculum in the formal educational systems is a task worth undertaking, despite being too extensive for the purpose of this paper. However, it is necessary to develop it, in order to counter the world-wide idea that there is a challenge to educational institutions set by their failure to respond to the demands of the economic systems. That idea is simply false, as Lundgren shows, because that relationship was broken long ago, with the development of national educational systems, and it is other crises we are facing nowadays, which affect basically the capitalist mode of production, and it is the intention of those ruling it to make us believe education is to be blamed for its problems. This happens whenever educational success is measured by the effectiveness in finding a job and not by the extension to which individuals’ rights to cultural and personal development are fulfilled.

In the paper, I will consider the role of work experience in the light of the educational rationale and policies of both institutions. The weight work experience is given and the aims it intends will be the issues which I will try to address. It is my hypothesis that work experience and vocational education and training are a good educational offer for ‘at risk’ youth. The tacit nature of most of the teaching and learning in work experience make it an adequate choice for those who have had bad previous educational experiences under a formal format. Whenever there is an educational purpose in the provision of work experience, it will become clear not only through the experience itself but also through its curricular shape. In the construction of curriculum, work experience takes into account both alternative modes of training and learning; but also modes of production are incorporated into the educational intervention.

Because the two institutions dealt with in the paper are out of the educational system, they are in a very good position to approach the issue whether there is a crisis between the educational and the economic systems, as shown elsewhere (García, 1997; Aparisi et al., 1998; Martínez and Marhuenda, 1998). Because of their educational perspective, both institutions offer a chance to see how to approach quality in education from the perspective not only of finding a job but mainly of fulfilling human rights to education and to work (as detailed by Connell, 1997). That is considered by both institutions as educational success, and this is understood as a means towards social integration, also in terms of having a job.

THE INSTITUTIONS IN CONTEXT.

The Comunidad Autónoma Valenciana is one of the most dynamic and traditionally most exporting economies in Spain. The Valencian society, in spite of having its own history and culture, is badly affected by a lack of territorial and socio-economic integration. Valencia is Objective 1 region in the European Community.

Case 1. Associació S.F.L. prestadora de serveis a la joventut ‘Iniciatives Solidàries’. Social Guarantee Scheme ‘car maintenance mechanical services’.

Iniciatives Solidàries is a non profit organisation which basic aim is to provide vocational training to young people who are out of the educational system for several reasons. It has been working for more than 10 years now, with previous experience in the same field as part of a bigger association from which it dettached.

In order to accomplish its goal, it develops a wide variety of formative actions in different locations in Valencia and its surroundings, based upon funding from different Autonomic and European funds. By doing so, it has achieved to establish different itineraries for young people thus avoiding erratic pathways which don’t help reintegrating in society. The core of the actions is therefore located in the young persons themselves, taking all of the different actions as means which help these youth to get back into normality and to entry into the labour market or to re-entry into the educational system.

In the last years Iniciatives Solidàries, together with other associations and institutions, has actively lobbied the Autonomic authorities in order to introduce changes in the legislation which made it flexible enough to respond to the demands of the benefitiaries it is addressed to, as well as to facilitate their entry into the labour market despite their lack of educational accreditations.

Iniciatives Solidàries is an increasingly growing organization, which is closely linked to the resources of the local and regional environment, also conscious of European initiatives and with an important awareness of staff development. Therefore, there is a policy of quality assurance within the organisation including publications written by the members of the organisation. They are well in advance of the accountability procedures they are submitted to due to the public funding they receive.

Iniciatives Solidàries is a member of a European network coordinated by a similar organization in France. This network attemps to develop new and better mechanisms to address the needs of young people out of the school system and socially excluded for a variety of reasons, while at the same time works hard on developing new strategies to provide quality and appropriate training well focused on the benefitiaries as well as finding out new ways to allow these people to enter the labour market with certain stability. Health and safety at work is a very important module of the training provided by the institution.

Iniciatives Solidàries has developed a ‘Handbook for work experience’. The aim of work experience is to provide the necessary knowledge, both practical and theoretical, which training in the institution is not able to provide. It is, therefore, an enhancing as well as educational objective. Through the placement the institution also seeks to allow entry into the labour market to the young people, as work experience is understood as an intermediate step between education and the labour market.

Work experience has a length of 100 hours, usually within a month. Its contents are defined, as it is also defined the tutorial system, both in the company as in the institution. A daily plan is programmed at the beginning of each working day. There is a follow-up once a fortnight. There is a briefing process before the beginning of the work experience scheme, including visits to all the companies so that all the students get a light idea of the placements they might have access to.

There is a new search for companies every year as Iniciatives Solidàries attempts to get a contract for every person once they finish their training. This implies that most of the placements need to be replaced as companies cannot grow at such a fast pace. Companies are usually fully aware of the main treats of the young people, but they are sometimes not conscious about some of the disadvantages they may have wherever this may affect the company’s attitude towards the youth or the scheme itself. However, Iniciatives Solidàries is very careful about whom it is sending to a placement, as it attempts to cause a good impression in the company to show how despite bad educational careers most young persons can perform a job satisfactorily. Therefore, the contacts with the company are very well looked after and the conditions of the agreement and the follow-up procedures become an important compromise of the institution and play an important role in the teacher’s activities.

Pedagogical principles guiding the institution planning and educational behaviour are:

- activity, participation and guided discovery

- team work

- learning by doing in the educational environment; extensive use of simulated practice

There is an evaluation meeting with all the students every week. Through work experience Iniciatives Solidàries not only seeks learning knowledge but also acquiring working habits like punctuality, responsibility, communication, and other attitudes which these youth need to improve.

Interest, self-learning, good manners, patience and so on are other learning outcomes expected from this period within a company.

Case 2. ‘Integra’ European Initiative Proyecto ‘Labora’ I/1997/Esp/649. Generalitat Valenciana - Servigrup - Diputació de València. Specific Vocational Training Course ‘Catering Services Aid’.

European project Labora is funded by the European Social Fund, the Department of Social Welfare of the Autonomic Government, the Diputación de Valencia (Federation of municipalities in the province) and a private social agency which runs it, Servigrup.

The purposes of this experience are entry into the labour market and keeping the job once achieved. It is addressed to a very well defined group suffering from different forms of exclusion: women in monoparental families who find themselves in the process of getting out of social institutions like nursery residences, houses for women who are hiding from their partners, as well as women getting out of prison and living together in supervised flats. 60 women are the benefitiaries of this project, which is 60% of the potential benefitiaries in the Autonomic Community of Valencia. They are women with many family responsibilities (mainly child care) as well as getting the training to find a job. As they have been staying in different institutions they have to get ready for re-entry into society and into the labour market. They are low income low class women, coming from problematic families, lacking basic education, with a very low vocational qualifications. They also lack consistent social networks, which together with their monoparentality consitute a risk factor which may lead to social isolation as well as increased vulnerability.

The training they are getting is a very broad occupational profile in the sector of hotel business and tourism. This is considered as an area of flourishing employment sites by the European Union. Three different occupational qualifications are offered along the course: waitress and restaurant aid, kitchen women and plant waitress.

Work placements are looked for and provided specifically for each of the women, also due to the different family situations they are going through. However, the main criteria for the selection of placements is the possibility to hire the person once the vocational training is finished. Work experience is a very important part of the long lenght specific vocational training they are acquiring. It is related to the other areas of training provision: Active techniques for employment seeking; short courses for personal development, socio-cultural activities, self-management activities and information-dissemination-consciousness raising activities. Equal opportunity is therefore a very important feature of the scheme.

Project Labora is part of a transnational Europen project named FACE (Formation Adaptée Contre Exclusion) in which other partners are:

- Co-op Multiservici (Italy)

- Lollandsprojeket (Denmark)

- Federazione Trentina delle Cooperative (Italy)

- RAIDS (Belgium)

- WJEC (Wales)

- Centre Communal d’Action Sociale (France)

The aim of transnational cooperation is the exchange of knowledge and experience of the professional teams responsible for each of the projects in relation to social and employment integration of socially excluded groups.

Professional teams are also developing an employment support service, they are offering a course on training of trainers for professionals who want to qualify for work in socio-educational intervention with at risk groups. There is an external evaluation of the project run by a Consultancy Team. Publications are being prepared including case studies of women participating in the project, in order to disseminate and transfer results.

Three publications are under way:

- monitoring of vocational courses for at risk groups

- proposal of individualized pathways into the labour market for the benefitiaries

- guide for the management of a European project (together with the European project IUE-Living Quality-NOW run by the University of Oviedo).

A webpage of the project is also under construction.

Project Labora fully assumes the aims of the INTEGRA European Community Initiative which intends to improve access into the labour market and employment possibilities for the most vulnerable people and groups in society. These aims are those stated by the White Book on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment.

Although the work experience module is an intensive one, there is a follow-up service of the young women. There are also other modules which support briefing and debriefing of the work experience: vocational counselling and active employment seeking.

There is a very good relation with employers within the sector; they have played an active role in dissemination conferences and ‘open gates days’ when these have taken place. There are both small enterprises as well as international hotel chains involved in the programme, varying from bars and restaurants to 5-star hotels.

Summarising both cases, we see in both of them non profit organisations with an emphasis on lobbying education, training and social policies, with a European background and support, supporting different initiatives in different locations, having the persons attending the training as the core of the curriculum rather than the qualification to which it is addressed. They both intend to be for their benefitiaries a space beyond the classes. Staff development is an importan part of the institution’s development policies, and this is compatible with relying also on the contribution of voluntary work assisting professionals in the performance of their own work.

Their training provision depends upon several departments within the regional government: education, employment, welfare. But their constituencies are private ones. They offer no official qualification, because of the ‘low’ level of qualification, and they are based upon accreditation of succesfull attendance. Few adults are in charge of the apprentices: a teacher and an expert in the educational side, and a worker in the workplace. They have few disciplinary divisions, which allows for an integrative curriculum. Work experience happens not at the end of the initiative thus allowing for a debriefing, though this not only takes place once work experience is over but also during its extension. This is looked after through different means attempting for both sharing experience and reflecting upon it. The sequence is as follows: observing, working, telling, listening, writing.

Work is understood as content and as process. It comprises tasks, organisational features as well as social relations. Because of the pedagogical mediation, not only vocational skills are developed, but also working discipline, personal autonomy and matureness are fostered.

The tutorial system is very important in the schemes, with daily plans, follow-up sessions once a fortnight, briefing process including visits to the different workplaces, and weekly meeting with the other apprentices at the educational institution. These serve as evaluation meeting in which the formative dimension of evaluation is well looked after, because of the educational perspective on work experience.

The tutor is the vocational education teacher in the workshop in the educational institution, and one of the most important tasks to develop is to select who will attend work experience schemes if not all and to decide on the matching of apprentices and placements. If anyone is left out of the work experience scheme, they remain in the workshop at the same time they take part in every briefing or debriefing session, which are seen therefore as an educational means rather than a mere management issue.

The tutor’s mediation role is that of focusing on the process side of work experience rather than upon the product itself. Attitudes towards norms -company and safety regulations-, towards personal relations and towards decision taking and problem solving are part of the mediation role as well.

On the employers’ side, daily supervision is expected as well as a weekly report on the student progress and on its professional behaviour, which is a special focus given the kind of population, as well as an added measure for the success or failure of the initiative. Task allocation procedures make the apprentices think of the instructor more as a colleague than a teacher at work.