The President of the Republic of Ecuador, economist Rafael Correa Delgado, presents a weekly accountability report each Saturday on the television programme Enlace Ciudadano. During the broadcast of No. 420 of 18th April, the president, along with economist Andrés Arauz, Minister-Coordinator of Knowledge and Human Talent, presented the National Professional Qualification System, which will make it possible to have public and private employees trained and certified in job skills.

The system is made up of 21 professional families that correspond to the sectoral committees of the Ministry of Labour. There are five qualification levels, which are linked to corresponding training levels: Level One and Two are non-formal; Level 3 corresponds to a Technical Baccalaureate, Level 4 corresponds to an Advanced Technician, and Level 5 to an Advanced Technologist.

Rafael Correa stressed that the country “did not previously have a catalogue of qualifications for training, and now we have all of this organised”. And he stated that there will be a greater impact with the boost being given to SETEC (Technical Secretariat of Training and Vocational Training) and the courses being given by the SECAP (Ecuadoran Training Service) and the IAEN (Institute for Higher National Studies), in addition to universities, technical and technological institutes. There will also be private operators, such as labour unions, trades, and industry chambers.

Now that there is a catalogue, the certifiers, who validate the knowledge and experience of workers, must also be considered. “We have people who can train and certify; if you received training, you should be able to earn a better salary”, stated the president.

In light of this, Minister Arauz confirmed that if a person has experience “he or she shouldn't attend training but rather should take the exam for the certification that recognises the experience”. In the second step, hiring of personnel by the productive sector will be facilitated. “It will no longer be necessary to complete lengthy trial periods; now there will be a database of qualified and certified workers that will make it possible to hire people knowing that they are capable of doing their jobs”, explained Arauz.

Moreover, President Rafael Correa offered some details of the meeting held with the Ministers and Secretaries of the Knowledge and Human Talent Sector of the Sectoral Knowledge and Human Talent Bureau on 16th April at the National University of Education (UNAE) for the purpose of aligning strategies for strengthening human talent.

The project to promote a National Professional Qualification System dates back to 2013 and, in this framework , the EUROsociAL Programme of the European Union has provided broad support through technical assistance for building the Catalogue of Qualifications and the strategic roadmap for achieving the system as such. This support was led by the Programme's Active Employment Policy area, in which the IILA and the OEI take part.

Image: Presidencia de la República de Ecuador (CC-BY-NC-SA)