Making the difference for sinaloense vulnerable groups: inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all: a cooperative transversal practice to develop relevant skills for a decent job and self-employment

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Description

Intro

The mexican northwest Sinaloa State has 2,966,321 inhabitants and inequality gaps: 31% live in poverty, 40% suffer a vulnerable socioeconomic situation, in contrast to 29 % of sinaloenses neither poor nor vulnerable. Engaged with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, since 2017, the Sinaloa State Workforce Training Institute (Icatsin), has implemented a cooperative transversal practice with government and diverse organizations, to reach 5% annual increase of vulnerable people who can receive education for a decent job, self-employment or entrepreneurship. Currently, 29,547 are beneficiaries: female heads of family, inmates, older persons, indigenous peoples, and disabled persons into the poorest five municipalities.

Objective of the practice

The cooperative transversal practice goal is to reach 5% annual increase of attended people from vulnerable groups through an education aligned which contributes to meet with the individuals needs to get a licit, decent, well-paid employment or self-employment, as well as the demands of the productive and social sectors. On 2017, the Sinaloa State Workforce Training Institute (Icatsin) -composed of 19 centers and 7 Mobile Training Units- linked its mission to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by using the Michael Porter's Five Forces analysis model in the design of the Institutional Development Program 2017-2021 (IDP Icatsin). The IDP Icatsin includes the cooperative transversal practice to attend vulnerable groups by providing a workforce education aligned to meet individuals needs to get a licit, decent, well-paid employment and self-employment, as well as trends of the productive and social sectors. This institutional practice has the following elements: Vulnerable groups-targeted: female heads of family, older persons, indigenous peoples, inmates, disabled people or unemployed youth, throughout the Sinaloa state, mainly into the five municipalities classified as the poorest locations because 50% and more of their inhabitants live in poverty (Badiraguato, Cosala, Choix, Sinaloa, and Mocorito). A cooperative transversal strategy among Icatsin, government dependencies, town halls, private business organizations, and non-profit organizations to exchange diverse resources as a part of their agendas to empower vulnerable people with useful education for jobs and good income. It is enacted a coordination mechanism through legal agreements made by the Icatsin with the other parties. It includes formulating the co-responsibilities, to select proper places, to authorize a deadline to achieve through providing courses and specialties designed by petition or selected from a catalog- for developing knowledge and skills necessaries to prepare them to get a decent job, self-employment and entrepreneurship. Several checklist formats, academic supervision are used to evaluate each course. It is collected the information from government public or official reports of participating organizations; the Icatsin internal supervision reviews the reports and submit them to an external audit under mexican laws.<br />
Two indicators incorporated to measure the social impact of the Icatsin's strategic planning process. Firstly, to ensure that of the total Icatsin annual enrollment, the 5% it will be composed of vulnerable groups and the next year, it will be a new 5% increase. Secondly, the Employability indicator related to the persons graduated from Icatsin, who get a job or a better economic income as a result of the educational services received. <br />
About how Icatsin met the main challenges and overcame the difficulties, the solution was to detect and to report that the common risks. Vulnerable people who left the courses because they have to get another job to survive, or they deal with lack of money to continue the studies. In prevention, the Icatsin donate economic aid (scholarship), and the personnel of institution interviews the enrolled persons who want to leave to reincorporate them. Furthermore, there is a job exchange coordination to increase further opportunities, once the vulnerable people finish the courses.

Partners

In the State Sinaloa Government Development Plan 2013-2021, the vulnerable people are female heads of family, inmates, older persons, indigenous peoples, and disabled persons. The Icatsin partners are the town halls of the 18 municipalities of the state, Secretaries of Public Health, Education, Labor, and Security; the social and private organizations whom mission are vulnerable persons, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The method of engagement is the annual legal agreements to establish co-responsibilities and shared resources. The State Board of Directors (government, universities) validate the 2018 Icatsin outcomes: 37,535 training actions given to vulnerable people.

Implementation of the Project/Activity

The implementation methodology, used by the Icatsin to attend the vulnerable groups, is based on the government administration public policies. The 5% annual increase was formulated to educate the vulnerable people through workforce training courses, specialties for job and entrepreneurship assessment. Then it is established a plan of action supported by a legal agreement between the Icatsin and other Parties (governmental dependencies, town halls, non-profit organizations). The reports are generated every three months to monitor the enrolment, and accreditation of the courses and assessment proposed through legal agreements. The evidence includes a students' signature list of attending classes and instructions, teacher reports, photos of people in the performance of the expected skills, and so on. April and September, an official report is published by the Icatsin and delivered to the Board of Directors from the state government, universities, and government legal department. Statistics are analyzed to know to what extent the goal is achieving. Also, the common risks are detected and reported: vulnerable people who left the courses because they have to get another job to survive, or they deal with lack of money to continue the studies. In prevention, the Icatsin donate economic aid (scholarship), and the personnel of institution interviews the enrolled persons who want to leave to reincorporate them. Furthermore, there is a job exchange coordination to increase further opportunities, once the vulnerable people finish the Icatsin courses. As a part of the Icatsin Institutional Development Program 2017-2021, twice a year, the institutional self-assessment is implemented. The purpose is to obtain a detailed diagnosis of strengths and weakness of the execution of the program: academic capacity (teachers, courses), institutional linkage (legal and educational arrangements to organizations and communities). It is useful to evaluate how to go forward with the traced goal. Also, the plans of actions and legal agreements documents allow to identify the components of how to plan, to execute and to evaluate to be ready if another organization wanted to transfer the practice.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

The practice started on November 2017, and a date of completion will be on December 2021. Thanks to the legal agreements, the Sinaloa State Workforce Training Institute (Icatsin) reports a total of 80,000 training actions for jobs reached from January 2017 to December 2018 (4,400 more training actions than expected to achieve in 2021). The training actions were distributed in the following form: in 2017 the 28,159, while in 2018 37,535. Focused on the five poorest municipalities, part of the last amount contains 1,315 vulnerable people attended in Choix; 950 in Cosala; 169 in Mocorito (103 to inmates and 66 to disabled persons); 1,160 in Sinaloa (72 to female heads of family, 71 to indigenous peoples, and the rest to persons with lower income); 785 in Badiraguato (34 to female heads of family and the rest to persons with lower income). However, considering the 18 municipalities, in 2018 data are the following: 6,233 training actions to educate female head of family; 494 training actions to help indigenous peoples; 2,074 training actions addressed to the elder people, 9,110 to the inmates, and 689 to disabled persons (motor disability and mental disability, respectively). The main longer-term goal is qualitative: to transform the Icatsin from an educational institute to a social development agency. Besides, the Icatsin met the governors of indigenous peoples, as a first step to offer its educative services; at the same time, to set the conditions to create the Icatsin Regional Indigenous Center of Education for a job. However, the lack of money has stopped the project, and the alternative was to propose to the government to get financing. About deliveries in a timeframe, here are they enlisted.1st, Deliverable: 28,000 training actions to attend vulnerable people in all municipalities, 2017. 2nd, Deliverable: 37,535 training actions to attend vulnerable people in all municipalities, 2018. 3rd. Deliverable: 40,000 training actions to participate in vulnerable people in all municipalities, 2019. Notably, there will be more training actions directed to indigenous peoples because, in the first semester of the year, Icatsin will install the Regional Indigenous Center of Education for Work.

Enabling factors and constraints

The three enabling conditions that are helping the practice to succeed are a) the strategic planning alignment, b) the use of guidelines of evaluation based on results, c) the political capital of the Icatsin General Director. The first one means that the strategic planning process was designed taking into consideration the international policies about inclusive and equitable quality education which bring skills to a decent job; the state policies which command to implement projects to improve the economic income of vulnerable people and their families which live in social disadvantages; the institutional mission which states to provide the workforce education, courses; the entrepreneurship to increase the people opportunities to get licit, decent employment and self-employment. In this way, the political priorities are matching among public dependencies, facilitating with it the Icatsin proposed activities. The second one means that activities proposed are guided with indicators with technical specifications, supported with internal evaluations and quarterly written reports to monitor the advances and obstacles which could mislead the course of the plan. The third one means that General Director is a recognized politician with a public career which allows him to build networks of people in key positions in both, public and private sectors. In consequence, the practice has a more accessible route of implementation. Also, it is important to remember the kind of resources that are needed to attend vulnerable groups. For this cooperative practice, the investment is about USD 4,338,429.00 per year, and it is necessary to look for more financing to accomplish the next goals related to construct the building for the Regional Indigenous Center of Education for Work and transform the Sinaloa State Workforce Training Institute (Icatsin) into a social development agency. The specific constraints which needed to be overcome were four, mainly: to deal with the fact that the enrolled vulnerable people dropped out of the course; the financial costs to hire a qualified teacher, to set the rural places for delivering the courses and workshops combined with the expenses of traveling to distant places throughout the Sinaloa state. After all, to prevent that vulnerable people could leave the course, the teacher reports the third student's absence to class, and the Icatsin personnel go out and look for the person to know the causes and find a solution which leads to the student reincorporation. Also, the Icatsin directive team look for financial aid from the government and donors to alleviate the costs involved in delivering education.

Sustainability and replicability

The elements that are in place for social and economic sustainability are the current public policies both, educational and financial. They demand that every institution with public financing must to include transversal strategies to attend vulnerable groups to help them to reach a better welfare level and access to social equality; on the other hand, an Icatsin's strength is its personnel trained to make legal agreements with organizations, to promote the courses and entrepreneurship among population. That last aspect means that in every Icatsin center and mobile training unit, the Institute has a person in charge to make the linkages, to go to workplaces, community places, and public offices to let the people know the benefits of enrolling on Icatsin courses; besides, Icatsin has a strong team of social communication who publish the good news. The adoption of the cooperative transversal practice in other contexts implies to consider the following aspects: the government promotion of public policies to protect vulnerable people; the lobbying with the town halls; the use of strategic planning process (Michel Porter 5 forces model) to obtain a clear overview of pros and cons as a prior step in planning. Moreover, a robust training scheme to personnel devoted to making the linkage among parties and the visits to places where vulnerable people live. About resources implied, there are two resources to keep in mind: Financing, to the reproduction of material to deliver the specialized theory knowledge for job performance; acquisition of materials to different workshops of sewing and tailoring, mechanics, repairing conditioner airs devices, cake shop, handicrafts, imitation jewelry, class of beauty salon, just for mentioning some of them. Payment of roster, light, water, teachers' accreditation; costs of traveling to rural places to bring training courses to community places.Staff/technical expertise. Staff to conduct the workshops or to make the first contact with leaders of the selected communities or groups; the expertise personnel to implement the assessment methodology for entrepreneurship; the auditors to evaluate process and results of the execution of the actions planned to attend the vulnerable groups.

Conclusions

The cooperative transversal practice was made to make the difference for sinaloense vulnerable groups by ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education to develop the youth and adults' relevant skills for a decent job and self-employment. Through legal agreements, the Sinaloa State Workforce Training Institute (Icatsin) achieved a total of 80,000 training actions reached from January 2017 to December 2018 (4,400 training actions more than those expected to fulfill). Main results indicate that in 2017 the 28,159 vulnerable people were attended while in 2018, they were 37,535. In a broader view, on 2018, the Icatsin obtained excellent results in the five poorest municipalities: 1,315 training actions in Choix; 950 in Cosala; 169 in Mocorito (103 to inmates and 66 to disabled persons). Also, 1,160 in Sinaloa (72 to female heads of family, 71 to indigenous peoples, and the rest to people with lower income); 785 in Badiraguato (34 female heads of family and the rest to people with lower income). The lesson learned in this first year of implementation is that all effort is not ship nor expensive but worth when we are talking about persons who need an opportunity to improve through education for a job which leads them to obtain relevant skills to access and success in a decent job and self-employment.

Other sources of information

https://icatsin.edu.mx/

SDGS & Targets

Goal 4

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Deliverables & Timeline

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Resources mobilized

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Timeline

13 November 2017 (start date)

17 December 2021 (date of completion)

Entity

Sinaloa State Workforce Training Institute. Instituto de Capacitacion para el Trabajo del Estado de Sinaloa (Icatsin)

SDGs

Region

Latin America and the Caribbean

Geographical coverage

State educational coverage using 19 centers and 7 Mobile Training Units of the Sinaloa State Workforce Training Institute (Icatsin). Northwest of Mexico. Geo-reference 25Â°00â€²10â€³N 107Â°30â€²10â€³