#IDB survey

[nakeddeparture]

Bridgetown, Barbados. Felicia Dujon and her visible Disconnect with the History of Things in Barbados.

https://youtu.be/6pQXPAO4Vqs

What is suggested is not far fetched. Naked!!

[keynewssuriname]

Arbeidsonderzoek geeft inzichten in behoeften arbeidsmarkt

Het onderzoek ‘Skills and Employment Survey’ dat gericht was op de behoefte aan specifieke vaardigheden en openstaande arbeidsplaatsen in bepaalde districten is afgerond. Het onderzoek werd uitgevoerd door het onderzoeks- & adviesbureau ‘DOOR Advisory’ in opdracht van het ministerie van Arbeid, Werkgelegenheid & Jeugdzaken (AWJ) en onder leiding van het onder directoraat Arbeidsmarkt. De resultaten zijn op dinsdag 21 mei 2024 gepresenteerd aan AWJ en aan de vertegenwoordigers van het bedrijfsleven, de vakbeweging, de Suriname National Training Authority, het ABS, de IDB, AmCham en de werkarmen van het ministerie. Uit het onderzoek is gebleken dat 82% van de bedrijven, waar er een steekproef is uitgevoerd, vacatures heeft waarvan meer dan de helft van de beschikbare vacatures op het niveau van ‘medewerker’ voor reguliere taken zijn. Voor 15% van de beschikbare openstaande jobs is specifieke kennis vereist. Bijna 29% van de beschikbare vacatures is op het niveau van supervisor, management en directie. Uit het onderzoek blijkt voorts dat ‘discipline’ als prominente eis geldt voor de beschikbare vacatures op het niveau van ‘medewerker’. Deze vereiste vaardigheid verwijst naar het vermogen en de bereidheid van een kandidaat om consistent en nauwgezet werk te verrichten volgens de vastgestelde regels en procedures van het bedrijf. Andere vereiste soft skills volgens het onderzoek zijn: persoonlijk leiderschap, bereidwilligheid en leergierigheid. De vraag naar personeel op medewerkersniveau is aanzienlijk. Uit het onderzoek blijkt echter dat hoewel er gesolliciteerd wordt naar deze vacatures, de sollicitanten niet altijd over de vereiste soft skills beschikken. Ten aanzien van de vacatures waarvoor specifieke kennis is vereist, blijkt een grote vraag te zijn naar krachten met technisch inzicht en vaardigheden. Vooral in de sector hout en constructie is de vraag groot. In bepaalde technische sectoren blijkt dat specifieke kennis en vaardigheden aanwezig zijn, maar dat een laag arbeidsethos de productiviteit negatief beïnvloedt. Zo blijkt dat in de ICT-sector de technische vaardigheden van medewerkers heel goed zijn, echter ontbreken de soft skills wat een druk legt op het behoud van banen. Mogelijke redenen of oorzaken van eventuele tekorten aan vaardigheden bij werknemers zijn volgens het onderzoek dat het curriculum van scholen vaak tekortkomingen vertoont; dat de aansluiting van theorie naar praktijk ontbreekt; dat er weinig tot geen practicums worden uitgevoerd op scholen; dat praktische coaching op scholen onvoldoende is; en dat er nauwelijks wordt gewerkt aan soft skills bij de studenten. Uit het onderzoek is voortgekomen dat het wervingsproces relatief vaak uitmondt in een mismatch. De oorzaken zijn gelegen in hoge salarisverwachtingen, sollicitanten die verstek laten gaan bij het sollicitatiegesprek, concurrentie tussen bedrijven in diverse sectoren die aantrekkelijke salarissen bieden, kennismigratie die resulteert in een tekort aan lokale talenten, en gebrek aan noodzakelijke vaardigheden bij kandidaten. Dit leidt tot een beperkt aantal geschikte kandidaten ondanks de beschikbare vacatures. Read the full article

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

IDB revises Brazil’s growth projection in 2024 downwards

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the largest development institution in Latin America and the Caribbean, revised its projections for the region’s growth to 1.6 percent this year. 

In the case of Brazil, expectations were reduced from 1.8 percent to 1.5 percent, that is, below the region’s average expansion. The same would happen in the following year, with Latin America growing by 2.3 percent and Brazil by 2 percent and 2.1 percent in 2025 and 2026, respectively. 

It is a much more pessimistic forecast than that of the International Monetary Fund, which sees Brazil’s economy advancing by 3.1 percent in 2024 and 3.2 percent in 2025. It also goes in the opposite direction of analysts surveyed weekly by the Brazilian Central Bank — the median forecast for the year jumped from 1.6 to 1.77 percent over the past four weeks.

The IDB says Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed expectations thanks to more robust macroeconomic fundamentals, which helped the region reduce inflation and reverse sharp spending increases due to the Covid pandemic; the region would have grown 2.1 percent in 2023, exceeding initial estimates of 1 percent. 

Continue reading.

[thechasefiles]

The Anglican Bishop of Barbados has broken his silence on last month’s controversial Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) survey, describing it as an underhanded way of seeking information from children and a misuse of power that should never be allowed to happen again. And he wants to know why officials were gathering that information in the first place. A month after the October survey, which questioned 733 first-form students about their gender identity, sexual activity and drug use, Bishop Michael Maxwell said the administering of the survey without parental consent should be considered a form of disrespect to principals, parents and the students. The head of the local Anglican Church told Barbados TODAY that while some people believe that children were aware of some of the issues raised in the survey, “nevertheless, I still think that parental consent should have been sought before anything like this should have been given to our children”. “I personally know one or two of the principals of these schools and it shocked me and I was wondering how did my friend or this principal allow this to happen, to then hear by the way that not even the principals were necessarily aware of the content, and that it was the Ministry of Education’s officers who were sent in to administer this particular test. I was very disappointed with what happened,” he said. There was much public outrage after Barbados TODAY brought the test to the public’s attention through an October 4 article in which parents voiced their concerns about the invasive survey. Both the IDB and the Ministry of Education subsequently issued apologies indicating that the latter had objected to certain questions that were to be removed before the test was put before the students at five secondary schools, but the IDB had gone ahead with the original survey. In addition to veteran educators and academics and Barbadians generally speaking out about the issue, scores of parents, supporters and advocates marched from Kensington Oval to Independence Square in protest on October 22. Read the rest below 👇🏾 https://www.instagram.com/p/CkitZ9WApWAUXQf3nsCfRi_jPCdYfNCxYVqQbY0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[sounmashnews]

[ad_1] The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) needs to know what's the subsequent step in mild of the grave breach of privateness of scholars and their households by the alleged “Computer Science pre-test” carried out by code.org and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Deeming the pre-test “a survey, not a test” to collect information on Barbados’ inhabitants with first-form college students between the ages of 10 and 12 years outdated as unethical, DLP Education Chair Melissa Savoury-Gittens needs authorities officers to step ahead and converse up on how this might have occurred below the watchful eye of the Ministry of Education (MOE). Referring to the prime minister’s speech on the world stage just lately about morals and ethics, she asserted, “Yet this slide through your front door!” supposed this was a meals programme and it contained poison, how may ‘Sorry’ be sufficient? Acknowledging that within the apology issued by the IDB for “inadvertently” leaving within the questions earmarked by the MOE for elimination, Savoury-Gittems defined that she understands academics and different adults got the “pre-test” as a lot as three weeks in the past they usually flagged the questions as intrusive and out of line, but some have been informed “these are the answers they want”. Also, she stated that she was reliably knowledgeable that the scholars have been knowledgeable they needed to reply all the questions – “you must finish it”. Having re-read the IDB temporary assertion, which was issued final evening (October 5), Savoury-Gittens will not be happy with the truth that the assertion doesn't point out that in mild of the problems raised by rightfully so irate and irritated mother and father and guardians the info will likely be destroyed, however as an alternative, the IDB principally communicated that the questions which have been to be eliminated have been eliminated now and this means the subsequent cohort of scholars to take the “pre-test” won't be subjected to these questions. Noting, this not solely raises the query of ethics, however this might taint the info as one set of scholars wrote a distinct pre-test to others to return, she urged that this can't be the one resolution on supply to appease and placate mother and father. Amongst her different pertinent questions that she needs to listen to or see answered speedily, Savoury-Gittens requested the place have been the permission slips for guardians earlier than the survey was given? Why was the Ministry not aware of seeing the ultimate copy with the questions eliminated as requested earlier than it was administered? Why name it a check and never a survey? Will college students be deprived based on the responses? Will the info collected be used nonetheless? Is the info being bought internationally? Will nothing occur to the IDB? Is this story going to blow over in a couple of days and nothing is finished? Is this information assortment a part of the change between authorities and the IDB for the $40 million mortgage for schooling? Savoury-Gittens stated that for the six hours each day that college students are within the care of the MOE in school, mother and father need to know their youngsters’s finest pursuits are at coronary heart. They want to know that no hurt will befall their baby. They want to know their youngsters won't be traumatised. She stated, “supposed this was a food programme and it contained poison, how could ‘Sorry’ be enough?” She stated these questions on sexuality, gender id, despair, self-harm and even suicide may have poisoned youngsters’s minds and attitudes and have lasting repercussions relying on their personalities. [ad_2] Source link

[alittledizzy]

How did you get so immediately involved in dnp community for example, moderating and organising events and helping out with charity things etc?

It may seem like an immediate thing, but it wasn’t. 

Two tricks: notice the people that have ideas, and just put yourself in that circle (even if you just lurk for a while). There are niches in fandom that only want to talk about the content Dan and Phil make, but there are also niches teaming with creativity and a desire to use fandom to do something. Just make sure you’re hanging out where the people you want to be more like are. I find IDB to be that kind of place, though it certainly exists on tumblr, too! 

Second trick: notice when someone else has a good idea and back them up on it. People need confidence to get anything off the ground, so I try to never be afraid to be the first person to tell someone else when what I think they’re proposing has a lot of merit. For example: IDB wasn’t my idea, though I was on the original team that started it, but I was all fucking in when someone else had the idea. PhandomGives wasn’t my idea, and neither was PhandomWatch (both of which started as ideas on IDB) but I made sure they knew I supported what they were doing and when it came to a point where PhandomWatch needed assistance I volunteered. I’ll also be helping a little more directly with PhandomGives, but you’ll find out more about that in a few weeks. 

The same with the Phandom survey (which is happening again this year!) - I knew the original group of people that did it so I just joined in as people previously in charge cycled out of fandom. It’s really all about following people that have the same mindset of wanting to to create community. 

[phanomeheart]

Phandom Personality Test Survey Results

I got 120 responses, which is awesome, and way more than I was expecting! Thanks to everyone who filled out the survey and/or reblogged it! Obviously this is not representative of the entire phandom, and was just circulated on tumblr and IDB, but here are the results!

The tl;dr is that (this subset of) the phandom is incredibly introverted, turbulent, and generally similar to Phil and Dan’s self-reported types. 

Figure 1. MBTI types in the phandom (n=120). Three types weren’t represented (ESTP, ESFJ, ENTJ). Introverted types are represented in cool colors, extroverted in warm, and colors are consistent between two graphs. (INFP is what Phil said he was in the recent vid and Dan has previously said he’s an INFJ, the two most common types above.)

Figure 2. MBTI types of the general population for comparison. (There are a lot of sources that report slightly different numbers and ranges, so I went with the most consistent ones I could find, but these are estimates.) 

Figure 3. Enneagram types in the phandom (n=106). 

Figure 4. Enneagram types in the general population. (There aren’t really many statistics on enneagram types, so this should be taken with an even larger grain of salt.)

Under the cut I’ve broken stuff down a bit more, including percentages of each of the individual MBTI categories, enneagram wings, and people’s opinions on Dan and Phil’s types.

More Myers Briggs:

Figure 5. Turbulent or assertive in the phandom (n=118).

Figure 6. Percent of extroverted versus introverted types in the phandom (n=120) and in the general population.

Figure 7. Percent of intuition versus sensing types in the phandom (n=120) and in the general population.

Figure 8. Percent of feeling versus thinking types in the phandom (n=120) and in the general population.

Figure 9. Percent of perceiving versus judging types in the phandom (n=120) and in the general population.

More Enneagram: This data got super messy as soon as the wings were involved, and I didn’t think showing the percentages of just wings would mean much, so here are the top 7 types types including wing. There were 29 different types in all when wings were taken into account.

Figure 10. The seven most common enneagram types with wings by percentage of total (n=97).

Opinions:

Phil’s MBTI:

INFP (17) *his type from the recent video*

Not INFP (3)

INFJ (3)

INTJ (1)

Phil’s Enneagram:

2 (2)

3 (1)

4 (1)

6 (1)

7 (1)

9 (1)

Dan’s MBTI:

INFJ (10) *the type he said he was in the past*

INTP (4)

ISFJ (4)

ISTP (1)

INTJ (1)

Dan’s Enneagram:

4 (6)

5 (2)

8 (2)

1 (1)

Thanks again to everyone who participated, I had fun! Let me know if you have any questions, see any mistakes, or just wanna chat about the results!

ETA: I did make mistakes of course– the equations for the individual MBTI characteristics got messed up when I had to move stuff around for fix the pie chart labels. Fixed those, and wound up adding a few more responses I got in the meantime. Survey is now closed, though, and this should all be correct!

[danandphilsurvey]

Inspired by alittledizzy on IDB: Can you show how the responses to the question about how survey participants perceive Dan and Phil's relationship have changed over time?

Click on the plot below to open an interactive version.

Correction: The original version of this plot had the labels "I prefer not to answer" and "Multiple options apply" switched for the 2018 data.

Full survey results: 2015, 2017, 2018

Submit a request for additional analysis here.

[bearni]

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[nakeddeparture]

IDB School Survey, Barbados. The March did not displace Kay McConney. What took center stage was the accusations leveled against Neil Rowe. So. What’s next?

https://youtu.be/Pmho5E6Nak8

“This was sent by a protester.

Friends, we have to do something about the decision Mia made not to move Kay, as she did others.

It is with deliberate intent to dismiss and negate the school sexuality debacle. Mia cannot be allowed to dismiss a sector of this nation which has a legitimate concern for their children.

We will not be dismissed and shaken off as irritants. It also is an attempt to declassify the March today at which the people of Barbados expressed their disgust and fear at what is happening in Barbados.”

[keynewssuriname]

Project ‘Labor Market Alignment with New Industries’ vordert gestaag

De vorderingen binnen het project ‘Labor Market Alignment with New Industries’ (Afstemming van de arbeidsmarkt op nieuwe sectoren), welke het ministerie van Arbeid, Werkgelegenheid & Jeugdzaken (AWJ) uitvoert in samenwerking met the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB), waren op 20 februari 2024 gesprekspunten tijdens een ontmoeting tussen minister Steven Mac Andrew, Adriana La Valley, IDB Country Representative en Yyannú Cruz-Aguayo, Team Leader IDB. Ook de onderdirecteur Arbeidsmarkt op AWJ, Naomi Esajas-Friperson, was aanwezig. Het project is veelal gericht op beroepsgerichte training voor burgers met de focus op persoonlijke en professionele ontwikkeling in de landbouwsector, ecotoerisme en de dienstensector, met nadruk op informatietechnologie. In dit kader worden samenwerkingsovereenkomsten met andere ministeries bekeken. Daarnaast wordt een ‘Skills and Employment Survey’ uitgevoerd. Het project vordert gestaag en met een goed uitgestippeld plan kijken partijen positief vooruit. Minister Steven Mac Andrew is hoopvol gestemd over de vorderingen die tot dusver zijn geboekt. Volgens hem zal Suriname middels dit project nog meer vooruitgang boeken richting duurzame ontwikkeling. Het ontwikkelen van een Roadmap for Training For Employment (TFE) welke gestaag vordert, is volgens de minister van belang om te komen tot meer beroepsgerichte trainingen voor de beroepsbevolking. Hij twijfelt er niet aan dat de Stichting Arbeidsmobilisatie en Ontwikkeling (SAO), de Stichting Productieve Werkeenheden (SPWE) en de stichting Suriname Hospitality and Tourism Training Centre (SHTTC), als werkarmen van AWJ een enorme bijdrage kunnen leveren als het gaat om gerichte beroepstraining. Vandaar dat zij ook worden betrokken bij dit project. Mac Andrew lichtte de IDB in over het landelijk trainingsproject 'Wroko Foe Mek Moni', dat thans in 5 districten wordt uitgevoerd door de SAO, middels het kosteloos aanbieden van verschillende vakopleidingen. De minister vindt dat personen binnen de samenleving landelijk de ruimte moeten krijgen om zich vanaf de basis te scholen tot het hoogste niveau. Net als de IDB is de bewindsman van mening dat met een goed uitgezet plan en een hechte samenwerking tussen alle betrokkenen de gewenste resultaten zullen worden bereikt met een goede basis voor verdere ontwikkeling. La Valley heeft aangegeven dat er progressie wordt geboekt door de lancering van de eerste activiteit binnen dit project, namelijk het ontwikkelen van een Roadmap for Training for Employment (TFE) welke eerder door de minister genoemd is, evenals de uitvoering van een ‘Skills and Employment Survey’. Zij vindt het belangrijk dat vooral in het achterland personen de nodige scholing kunnen krijgen om zich te focussen op landbouw en ecotoerisme. Zowel La Valley als Cruz-Aguayo, juichen een hechte samenwerking tussen partijen toe zodat de gestelde doelen binnen uitgezette tijd worden bereikt. Het onderdirectoraat Arbeidsmarkt fungeert als de directe counterpart bij de uitvoering van dit project. Reden genoeg voor de onderdirecteur Arbeidsmarkt op het ministerie, Naomi Esajas-Friperson, om de nodige invloed aan te wenden en de samenwerking tussen partijen naar grotere hoogten te brengen. Read the full article

[thechasefiles]

President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Dr Ronnie Yearwood has described the recent Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Mia Mottley as “a swapping of incompetent ministers”. He said what was especially telling was that Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Kay McConney remained unscathed despite numerous calls for her to be sacked following the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) survey fiasco. Speaking at the Barbados Labour Party’s 85th Annual Conference on Saturday, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced changes to her Cabinet, effective Wednesday. She named Senior Minister of Social Sectors and Environment Dr The Honourable Jerome Walcott as Minister of Health and Wellness to replace Ian Gooding-Edghill who will head the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport. Senator Lisa Cummins, who is the current Minister of Tourism, was named Minister of Energy and Business Development with responsibility for International Business and Trade, replacing Senior Minister Kerrie Symmonds who will be the new Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. Additionally, Member of Parliament for the City of Bridgetown Corey Lane, the parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, will now serve in the Office of the Attorney General as Minister of State with responsibility for Crime Prevention. In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Yearwood said none of the ministers who were moved had performed well in their previous roles and he had little confidence they would succeed in their new positions. “Overall, I thought the reshuffle was done as a knee-jerk reaction to really what is a growing tide of dissatisfaction with the Government and the Government’s incompetence. I think at the core there is a competence issue with this Government. There is the inability to deliver even the most basic of things, so really all it was is just moving people around on the deck, but you moved one incompetent person to put another,” he contended. Read the rest below 👇🏾 https://www.instagram.com/p/CkIQd3guW0R-5sbIT6Et7NpBbBqv_CbFbFieq40/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[scholarshipja]

Did you loose your job? ・・・ About half of households surveyed in Jamaica have registered a job loss since the pandemic, according to findings of an Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, survey. Swipe up at the link in @jamaicagleaner Stories to read more or online at epaper.jamaica-gleaner.com. (📷: @taylor2nd) #GLNRFinance (at ScholarshipJamaica.com) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGQpqwnhGfD/?igshid=iff7avmthcgy

[alittledizzy]

Hello Mandy! I have a question about Phil and the recent IDB Phandom Survey results and I feel like you would have some great insights. Why do you think the portion of the fandom that only watch Phil's content is significantly older than the portion that watch only Dan's content? It just seems counterintuitive at first glance seeing as Phil's channel is regarded as the tamer family-friendly channel. I'm one of those who watch only Phil's content, by the way. Thanks!

I consulted with the lovely smart people who handed data analysis for the survey before answering this, and I can say that: 

The survey concluded that people who only watch Phil are not significantly older than people who only watch Dan, but the people who only watch one channel (whether it be just Phil or just Dan) are significantly older than people who watch both of them. That means that solo Dan viewers and solo Phil viewers are likely to be around the same age (obviously, averaging the 20k+ responses we had) and that age will be older than people who watch both of them. This could have to do with older people feeling distanced from shipping communities, or with older people having found one of them first and not the other and not been drawn in as much by the fandom mindset because they didn’t see themselves reflected in that community as outwardly? Idk. It’s interesting to consider. When we do the survey again in 2018, we’re going to clarify some of the language in the questions and hopefully that will give us a better idea of what appeals to who and why. 

Also, my personal addition to the topic, not entirely in response to you but just in response to seeing Phil termed as more childish or ‘family friendly’ over the years: I feel like there’s a disconnect here between what ‘family friendly’ actually means. Family friendly isn’t content for kids; family friendly is just content that happens to lack swearing and sex. Lots of things intended for adults, that appeal to adults, don’t contain swearing and sex. In fact it kind of makes sense to me that adults who are out of their ‘this is edgy and I’m old enough to watch it teehee’ phase appreciate Phil’s type of video equally as much as Dan. Dan brings the wit and sarcastic humor, and Phil brings fifteen minute chunks of fluffy escapism. As an adult, I am equally a fan of both and don’t view either as less interesting or appropriate.

[jonaspcv]

Applying the brand manifold to Salvadoran tourism

This week, without the benefit of a case for which we could provide our very best ex post rationalizations and critiques, I’ve decided to take a different approach. When I spent roughly a year in El Salvadoran working alongside the US government and the Interamerican Development Bank to develop a regional tourism development strategy for northwest El Salvador, I recognized that my task was perhaps less about gimmicks, promotions, and the mass marketing for which they had initially contracted me and more about defining a brand. While the article on brand architecture was interesting, it felt less immediately relevant than that on brand manifold; as a potentially compelling exercise, I’ve decided to apply the brand manifold framework to analyze my own previous professional experience.

To provide a little bit of color and context for the underlying theory: brand manifold refers to the multidimensionality of brands in terms of both time and constituencies - at its core, this means that brands are dynamic and evolve over time, and brands are the aggregation and approximation of many different stakeholders’ own perceptions (termed “embodied value”).

The challenge I faced in El Salvador was not that no brand existed - they had worked with the Ministry of Tourism to create the Ruta Fresca, loosely “Fresh Air Trail”, prior to my arrival - but that the community leaders and regional tourism authorities were wed to the antiquated idea that advertising was the lynchpin of any successful strategy moving forward. What follows is an assessment of the Ruta Fresca brand, based on various benchmarks referenced in this week’s reading:

Brand communications: moderate. There was an intense focus on advertising and promotions through newspapers, television media, and radio; however, this was guided by serious marketing myopia - narrow definitions of business based on what specific services the association provided. The quality of external communications often lacked professionalism as much as tailoring to desired segments, and for months it appeared that internal communications were themselves not terribly cogent regarding the vision for their brand.

Brand embodiments: moderate. Those that opted to visit the Ruta Fresca often handily enjoyed their experience, while other segments complained that they weren’t sure else what there was to do. Customer service was fairly high, which led to a sense that expectations (including those developed by brand communications) were met or exceeded upon visiting.

Brand equity, financial: weak. With many tourism operators treating their hotels and inns more as part-time hobbies than real work, occupancy rates and resultant cash flows for each business were low. Thus, if you were to sell all the assets that collectively comprised the Ruta Fresca, it is likely that it would not fetch much more than the market value of the physical assets themselves.

Brand equity, behavioral: weak. As determined by surveys and interviews (formal/informal), customers did not see the Ruta Fresca brand as being something remarkable; rather, people visited different destinations within the Ruta Fresca - like El Pital Mountain - because it had an intrinsic tourism value itself and happened to be co-located within the region. 

Embodied value: weak. While many leaders in the association could articulate what products and services they offered and the unique value of their own establishments, few could broadly identify what the Ruta Fresca stood for - even with, or despite, the existence of an overly inclusive, 7-line mission statement.

Exchange value, customer: medium-low. The Ruta Fresca brand, with some individual exceptions (including 2-4 higher end hotels) was fairly accessible/affordable to the average domestic (and particularly international) traveler.

Exchange value, management: medium-high. If we assume that affordability/pricing is a key lever in generating a broader base of consumers, then we can say that Ruta Fresca - with a wide variety of lodging and dining options, many of which were in fact affordable - had a competitive exchange value.

Exchange value typology: commodity-mass market. While company equity is relatively strong, customer equity is relatively weak. Compared to other tourism destinations in El Salvador - or even worse, compared to other tourism destinations throughout Central America, including neighboring Guatemala and nearby Costa Rica - the Ruta Fresca destination was not something for which most customers would pay a heavy price premium.

Brand manifold, temporal factors: moderate. In the town of La Palma, there was an incredible history involving the country’s most famous art, the recent civil war, and a strong cultural identity that could be (and often attempted to be) leveraged for the benefit of a brand identity. However, what efforts the regional tourism association had made were almost exclusively to define a static brand rather than to “reinterpret the past in terms of the future, or in a complementary manner, to interpret the future in terms of the past.”

Brand manifold, multiple constituencies: weak. The leaders and tourism operators of the Ruta Fresca had only ever conceptualized the brand as being something it was responsible for defining, curating, and communicating to consumers, but did not take an expansive view of what other organizations (including the IDB, the Ministry of Tourism, other domestic tourism destinations, investors, employees, and local residents) might believe about what the brand was or should be. Given aforementioned challenges associated with a lack of a cogent vision from management (see “Embodied value” above), this meant that the brand was fragmented and inconsistent, destining itself to its commodity-mass market position for the foreseeable future.

[ericfruits]

Solving Latin America’s skills crisis

IN 1961 a 16-year-old youngster, with only primary schooling and experience as a shoe-shiner and warehouse assistant, enrolled to train as a lathe operator on a course at Brazil’s National Industrial Training Service (known as SENAI). For Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, it proved to be a life-changing step: subsequent jobs at metal-bashing companies led to him becoming a trade-union leader and eventually his country’s president.

Half a century ago, SENAI and its counterparts across Latin America offered the poorer and less educated a route to upward social mobility, while providing the skills that new industries demanded. Now the region faces a little-noticed skills crisis. New technology is changing work everywhere. In Latin America a lack of people who know how to harness that technology is slowing its diffusion, says a new report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). In surveys, a growing number of employers complain that they can’t find qualified workers. Already hampered by slower productivity growth than in East Asia, the region risks falling further behind.

It has made big strides in expanding education. Today, primary schooling is almost universal, and three out of four children are enrolled in both pre- and secondary school. Over 40% of the relevant age group get some higher education. Unfortunately, Latin American students don’t learn enough: international tests show that many can’t perform basic maths and language tasks.

These shortcomings—and the need to fix them with better teachers and a longer school day—have become a staple of the policy debate in the region. Yet focusing just on education leaves out most Latin Americans who are adults and are already in the workforce. Sadly, most have little chance to acquire the skills they lack.

Latin America’s labour markets are characterised by high job turnover, low pay and meagre investment in skills both by firms and workers, according to the IDB. Manufacturing firms in the region are as likely to train their workers as those in East Asia. Yet overall, only around 10% of Latin American workers receive some training each year, compared with around half in developed countries, according to a study last year by the Inter-American Dialogue, a think-tank, and Laureate International Universities. Most workers are in small service businesses, such as restaurants, that have little incentive to train them.

All this means that a young adult’s future can be determined shortly after leaving school: a study in Chile found that workers with secondary education saw their wages rise by almost 20% over seven years if they were employed in a large manufacturing firm, while in a small service firm they rose by only 6%.

Not surprisingly, those with less education tend to be in worse jobs, often in the informal economy. So the deficiencies of the education system and lack of opportunities for training interact to reinforce inequality and low productivity. Yet governments are doing little to prevent many of their citizens from being thrown on this human scrapheap.

Skills training in the region is an ill-thought-out patchwork. National training institutes, such as SENAI, continue to exist in many countries. They are financed by payroll taxes (to the tune of 0.3% of GDP in Colombia, Jamaica and Panama, for example). They mostly train workers at large firms. Many private training centres do a similar job.

Several countries have youth-training programmes involving subsidised internships at firms. These seem to work, but are limited in scope. Less common are apprenticeship schemes. A shining exception is Weg, a Brazilian company that is one of the world’s biggest makers of electric motors. Its training school at its biggest factory, at Jaraguá do Sul, takes on some 200 young people for a course of up to two years that combines daytime shop-floor exposure to mechanics and electronics with night school. They are paid a wage and are guaranteed a job. The payoff for Weg is that its workers stay an average of seven to eight years.

Apprenticeships apart, when it comes to training, policymakers have much less evidence than in education as to what works and what doesn’t, says Julián Messina of the IDB. Few training programmes have been evaluated. Rectifying that is a first step. The second is to draw up a comprehensive skills-development system, in close collaboration with employers, perhaps borrowing some ideas from Germany. For those who need to, such a scheme should include more incentives to return to school. It should never be too late for Latin Americans to acquire the skills they lack.

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "A human scrapheap"

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