Recent dynamic changes in the economy have revealed contrasts between established traditions in training and employers’ requirements, which reflect the needs of the labour market for improvement of vocational training.

Today’s vocational training specialists want to go beyond the limits of pedagogical traditions and master new approaches to career education. The present accessibility of world experience in this area allows specialists to use its most effective models, among them the modular training system.

Since 1994 the ILO project, Further Development of Modular Skill Training Programme in Russia and CIS Countries, has been implemented with the financial support of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The project is implemented by the International Modular Training Development Centre, a non-profit educational institution, and its main partners are the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development of the Russian Federation, and the ILO Office in Moscow.

The main objective of the project is to introduce a modular vocational training technique known as Modules of Employable Skills (MES). It was developed by the ILO experts to meet the requirements of labour markets in flexible, cost-effective and individualised training and is being successfully applied in a number of countries of Europe, Asia and the Americas.

In contrast to the standardised knowledge-oriented training, the MES approach is aimed at acquiring the competency (or occupational skill) required to become employable after training, and building on those skills by additional training.

To design the contents of MES training programmes, a systems analysis of occupational activity the trainee will have to perform after training is carried out.

It results in identification of specific occupational tasks to be performed within this activity and the skills and knowledge to be learned to perform each of them.

The previous vocational training and work experience of the potential trainee is assessed in relation to the skill requirements of the MES training programme for which he/she is being selected. The information received is used for the preparation of the individual learning package for the trainee.

Every trainee has an opportunity to study on his/her own and in self-paced manner. Repetitive actions the trainee has to fulfil while learning and performing assignments, progress checks and phase performance tests ensure that he/she is skilled on completion of the programme to cope with the job correctly to the required standards and under given conditions.

The International Centre specialises in:

• organising and conducting instructor training programmes for introduction to the MES concept, designing and implementing modular training programmes and applying computer technologies in training material preparation;
• providing individual consultations for methodologists and instructors on different aspects of modular training;
• assisting institutions and enterprises in rating their in-house modular training application;
• developing, adapting and distributing modular training material for priority jobs and occupations in accordance with users’ requests;
• providing modular training courses on Occupational Safety and Health for managers and professionals from enterprises and institutions;
• providing modular training courses on Management of Environmental Protection at the enterprise level ;
• publishing training and instructional materials and information documents in several languages at users’ requests;
• conducting research to design innovative educational and employment promotion projects, select appropriate methods and media, evaluate and field-test these for relevance and impact.

Under the project, an active network of 34 regional modular training centres has been created, including ones in Moscow and its region, Yekaterinburg, Kostroma, Barnaul, Magnitogorsk, Norilsk, Bezhetsk, Tula, Donetsk, Tbilisi and Vitebsk.

The main regional activities are concentrated on implementing modular training programmes at vocational education and additional training institutions. Target groups for such training are staff from industries, the unemployed and the most vulnerable groups of population.

The network participants under the supervision of the project’s experts have devised training packages for 53 occupations and jobs in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Plumbing and Pipe Fitting, Building and Construction, Management and Staff Development, Trade and Services, Small Business, Agriculture, Social Rehabilitation of the Disabled, Banking, Ecology, and Computer Operation.

At the Centre, a database of training and instructional materials and information documents in all modular training subjects is being gradually formed, and a computerised communications system within the network (connection through modem, E-mail and Internet) has been set up.

S. Kainova, Director

tel./fax: (095) 434-07-65, 433-12-01