ESTADO DE INFRAESTRUCTURA Y DE DISEÑO

3.2.1. Guidance, counselling and referral practices for adults with low literacy or education attainment levels in the field of employment market training programmes

In practice up to now, the local and regional organisations of the employment government maintain counselling tasks connected to training adults of low education attainment level, especially concentrating on unemployed or endangered by unemployment.

A further step in this field would be that these organisations widen their field of activity for a wider selection of adults with low education attainment level. It has to be noted that it is not easy to deliver information on training possibilities to large numbers of the population with low education attainment levels. Whereas the employed staff has regular contact with employment organisations, and the organisations have clear identification of masses directly threatened by unemployment due to the compulsory report of planned mass reductions and can make contact through the employers, reaching people not yet threatened by unemployment is not that obvious.

Such techniques may be:

• publications, brochures, newspaper ads and other media reports on training possibilities and counselling on such training possibilities,

• involvement of local governments into training counselling,

• counselling at work places and training recruitment.

3.2.2. Mechanisms or processes for the assessment and recognition of skills, competencies and knowledge acquired through experience in firm-based training or other non-formal learning settings

An examination system connected to a credit system plays a major role in spreading lifelong learning. The individuals acquire a large amount of experience and knowledge equivalent to knowledge acquired on a training. The same applies for self training. Also to be noted is the possibility that home acquisition of knowledge will probably be more significant through the development of computer technology.

Therefore setting up an examination system evaluating knowledge and experience acquired alone is important. This could make it possible for individuals to acquire certain credit values of specific knowledge and experience, regardless of whether it was acquired through self training, life experience, or training by non-accredited education providers. (Such credit values would thus add up for different levels of professional, school or higher education diplomas, based on their professional content).

The development of an examination and credit system is a long process, although the examination system has the advantage that the 1993 Law on Vocational Training, and the National Note on Training (NNT) regulates training on a national level through professional and examination requirements. The length of the training is set by the institutions themselves based on the previous experience and practice of adults. Further developing this system will lead in part to examination based on full or partly self-trained study, and in part to organising NNT profession examinations into a credit system, in a short time. In the long run, by developing higher and secondary education credit systems, the whole process can be organised into a national credit system* .

3.2.3. Changes in wage determination practices that strengthen the link between skills, competencies and knowledge acquired in lifelong learning and wages/salaries

The wage determination practice used today is greatly designed on age and education level, especially in the public sphere and large firms. This wage determination practice however recognises formal, finished education level and formal, finished vocational training next to age and work experience. Some wage systems recognise and honour multiple education levels, e.g. in the case of teachers a second diploma gives right to a higher ordination of wages if the teacher “uses” it in his/her work, and the same applies to public workers if they hold a medium level professional paper next to average medium level training.

Recognising knowledge acquired through lifelong learning in wage determination depends to a large amount on the documentation of such knowledge, that is why an examination and credit system discussed earlier is important. In the case of such documentation the public sphere (public employees, public administrators, etc) can be the first to use such a wage determination system. Its spreading in the economic sphere, the greatest chance for this will be among large organisations, depends next to its documentation on whether employers deem such knowledge valuable and useful. This trust (of employers)

*

The supervision of the OKJ in 1998 was a step made in this direction, since its objective was to strengthen training organised in job families.

may be strengthened the previously mentioned accreditation, credit and examination system, which would naturally involve internal training of economic and social organisations. (So these trainings could be accredible and credible.)

3.2.4. Changes in industrial relations systems that facilitate changes in work organisation and occupational structure that allow more productive use of skills, competencies and knowledge acquired in lifelong learning

A more valuable use knowledge acquired in lifelong learning in the economic sphere can be achieved by asking their opinion on the contents and structure of supported trainings in lifelong learning.

Therefore representatives of employers should be present in the coordinating body of national tasks of lifelong learning. (And of course the representatives of employees.) It has to be noted that the control of the fund for employment market training is based on such tripartite (employers, employees, government representatives) system. The employee representatives in such a coordination body dealing with advice on using public resources of lifelong learning and development of lifelong learning can act as mediators who can promote economic use of areas of lifelong learning.

Here the importance of involving internal training of social and economic organisations into the accreditation, credit and examination system has to be noted as well. (So that such trainings could become accredible, credible.)

3.2.5. Changes in tax policies that strengthen the incentives for individuals and/or employers to invest in lifelong learning

In the cost distribution of close of funding gaps the burden of individuals and employers are as follows:

Billion HUF Percentage

Employers’ costs of gap closing 136 19%

Participants’ (individuals’) costs of gap closing 374 51%

Public costs of gap closing 220 30%

Total costs of gap closing 730 100%

It is evident that the growth of priority and incentive by government in lifelong learning necessarily yields that the government takes direct or indirect burden from employers and individuals in the form of direct support and/or tax exemptions.

The elements of such an incentive and tax policy by government in favour of continuous adult training and lifelong learning can be:

It is probably an important reason for low domestic participation rate in continuous and adult training is that it puts a great burden on participants in training and their employers, but the role of government is relatively low. It is therefore a basic precondition of widening continuous and adult training that there is a positive change in favour of participants in training and their employers.

The economic-political approach to partly accepting expenditures by government is that continuous and adult training decreases unemployment in the long run, and thus decreases costs expenditures of government connected to unemployment, and that it has a share in the growth of output of economy, the GDP. With the fact that it has a share in the growth of the GDP and the long-term prospect of a decrease in tax burdens, it is an interest of every tax-paying citizen that the government spends on continuous and adult training from today’s taxes, or even from an increased tax amount.

The most practical method of assuming in part the costs of participants in continuous and adult training by the government is that the government makes it possible in the tax system that every active taxpaying citizen, or a part of them, can deduct the tuition fee of their training, or a part of it, from their taxes in given time intervals.

The development of the details of such a personal tax exemption should be part of the education policy of the state connected to continuous and adult training. To achieve personal tax exemption of personal costs of continuous and adult training, such a system is advisable, with a low government budget and involvement of personal assumption of costs, which:

• applies for economically active, thus employed outside of the public sphere,

• allows for a decrease of base of personal income tax,

• by a certain amount (e.g. 50%) of vocational training tuition fee once, at most one year long term in 5 years,

• if the vocational training is closed with a professional paper recognised by the government. The problem with tax exemption is that it does not count as support for people in the lowest (tax free) income class. Since this category usually includes people with the lowest education level, maintenance or widening of direct government-supported retraining programmes are advisable. The other element of government education policy concerning the financing of the spreading of continuous and adult training would therefore remain state-financed employment market trainings, primarily in the categories of low education level. For this it would be important to turn a greater portion of the Employment Fund for training support. Moreover, the possibility of training support provided by the Employment Fund should be opened from the circle of only unemployed to untrained workers of especially threatened by unemployment – regardless of whether they are unemployed or not.

A method to ease the burden of participants in continuous and adult training is tuition fee loan. This may primarily bring aid in employment categories of higher income to bear the burden of costs involving participation in vocational training.

The economic policy base for government tax policy to ease the costs of employers of people participating in continuous and adult training can be, similarly to the previous, that continuous and adult training decreases unemployment in the long run, and acts in the direction of increase growth of economic output, the GDP. This approach may here be added with the fact that continuous and adult training is an interest of the employer as well, if it acts in the direction that employees get used to the production capability and production circumstances and their improvement. This approach justifies sharing the costs of vocational training between the government and the employers.

Calculations seem to prove that a great portion of the costs of vocational training is taken by the employers and participating individuals. Therefore such a government tax policy correction is needed in which gives tax exemption on the basis of employees participating and successfully finishing vocational training accepted by the government. There are several possibilities to set up tax exemption, such as refund of a certain amount received after employees successfully finishing a government-recognised vocational training program, or reduction of tax base after profit. The sum of refund or tax base reduction should be set in such a way that all the costs of employers connected to adult training would be reduced.

CHAPTER 4.