SPECIALIZED TRAINING ON CHILD LABOR
FOR THE PHILIPPINE LABOR INSPECTORATE
MODULE 3:
Taking Action and
Educating
PROCESS DESCRIPTION
- DAY 1
- Welcome When participants return to class for this module, they may bring mixed feelings of excitement for having come this close to completion, and a certain amount of sadness if the training experience has been pleasant and would be something to miss. Additionally, they may come with fears and anxieties about the outcome of the training and the expectations that will be made of them upon their return to their respective offices. These often mean changes in the way they do things, even a change in roles and responsibilities altogether. The facilitator must be particularly sensitive to these as he welcomes the participants and proceeds with the workshop in general.
- Defreezing Exercise:
- Welcoming You in
- My Dialect In this exercise, participants turn to the person to their right. They greet and welcome that person using their dialect. Since participants will most likely not understand each other because of the different dialects used, they are asked to couple the greeting and endearments with a touch to the person. The facilitator must ensure that he rearranges and positions the participants so that those speaking the same dialect are not seated side by side.
- Review of Modules 1-2 The long absence from the classroom must be bridged with linkages and transitions that recall the learnings and insights gained in the first two modules. The subjects taken up in Modules 1 and 2 must be thoroughly reviewed and key points highlighted. Recall must also be done on the classroom activities they underwent together, the learnings shared, reactions and impressions. It would be very useful here if the facilitator can personalize and individualize the recollections by using anecdotes and incidents about what happened in the previous modules.
- ILO Training Guide, pp. 5-8
- Preview of Module 3 This session tackles what can be reasonably expected from the module. It must underline the continuity of Modules 1 to 3 and the logic behind the progression. Participants learn better if they know what is in store for them, allowing them to match their expectations with those of the workshop organizers, facilitators, and co-participants.
- ILO Training Guide, pp. 5-8
- Handout: Module 3: Taking Action and Educating
- Workshop Objectives Handout: Workshop Objectives
- Learning Roadmap Handouts: Learning Roadmap
- Workshop: Regional Exhibits
- House Rules and
- Other Arrangements
- global/National
- Efforts Revisited Thus far participants have acquired a sense of the total picture of child labor work in parts and segments (the child, context of child labor work, interviewing skills, etc.), and it is very useful to present it all again within the framework of the larger global and national programs. This session deals with the ILO-IPEC perspectives and goals, and situates the national, group, and individual initiatives within this framework. This is important in helping participants to clearly visualize where they are or where they should be in all this effort.
- ILO Training Guide, pp. 134-7
- Handouts: International Standards of Child Labor
- International CL Standards (diagram)
- ILO's Development Objective
- ILO's Convictions
- Intermediary Objective (Example #1)
- Intermediary Objective (Example #2)
- Immediate Objectives (definition)
- Immediate Objective (Example #1)
- Immediate Objective (Example #2)
- Magbalitaan Tayo:
- Sharing of Practicum
- Experiences Participants present their practicum findings via oral presentations and written reports. The oral presentations consist of their most significant experiences, findings, or observations about child labor in their respective regions, and a diagram of the child labor network operating in their area. In the network diagrams, participants are also asked to describe the degree and the extent of their interaction or association with the various players in the region, including whatever collaboration or cooperation has already been started, is/are ongoing, or will be forged in the future.
- The written reports consist of the completed observation guides, notes of interviews with children, sectoral assessments, plant layouts, and production processes of establishments visited.
- Handout: Magbalitaan Tayo
- Learning Reinforcement
Synthesis of the Day's
Learnings
- Evening Assignment Participants are asked to finalize their practicum findings and sectoral assessments for submission on Day 3. (These are actually practicum assignments they are asked to submit in Module 3.) They are also asked to identify six major hazards, and to prioritize these to come up with the top three most critical hazards. Those who are ready may also start setting up their regional exhibits.
- DAY 2
- Defreezing Exercise:
- Superlatives Using superlatives, participants share their most important feeling about people, places, events, children, etc. discussed during the program. They should use only one word and explain their choice in one sentence. The exercise is better conducted using the local prefix pinaka, meaning most.
- Learning Diary
- Sharing of Insights and
- Learnings
- Review of Day 1
- Preview of Day 2
- Identifying and
- Prioritizing Hazards The six most important hazards which partici-pants observed in the course of their training are identified using a suggested criteria sheet as guide. Participants are then asked to prioritize the three most critical hazards. These are then presented to the rest of the class, after which commonalities and differences are noted to make tentative conclusions with regards to hazards commonly seen in a sector or region.
- Regional Exhibits As in Module 2, participants are asked to conceptualize and mount a Regional Exhibit for their region. Participants themselves judge the exhibits, and vote on the first, second, and third place winners.
- Handout: Distributed with Learning Roadmap to allow time for early set-up
- Framework and Process
- for Taking Action Critical to the success of the training is the ability of participants to appreciate that action must be taken only after a careful, thorough, and deliberate process of data-gathering and observation, diagnosis and evaluation, and after using a framework for identifying problem areas, formulating objectives, and testing possible action for its feasibility from the economic, cultural, social, and political standpoints. This session suggests such a framework.
- ILO Training Guide, pp. 115 - 150
- Handouts: Targeting the Most Vulnerable Groups
- Factors Relating to the System of Work
- Envisaging All Possible Solutions
- Criteria for Evaluating Action
- Cultural Factors to Consider
- Information and Educating Opinion
- Distinguishing among All Possible Solutions
- A Well-Written Objective is...
- Action Planning This is probably the most important portion of the entire training program: when participants plan what to do for the child, given the skills and perspectives they have gained from the program. This is also one of the most difficult because formulating objectives requires the discipline of being specific and focused, and participants generally have difficulty taking the time and the discipline to plan in such a manner. The facilitator must ensure that he goes around the class and helps the participants individually in writing and revising their objective statements and action plans. Participants must also be reinforced often since they experience a lot of strain thinking in this prescribed manner.
- Ideally, the action plans must target the priority areas identified as most critical to the well-being of working children. However, where participants have difficulty locating themselves in such an effort, the plans can focus on simple, do-able steps that they can do immediately and quite easily. Collective effort can come later, after participants would have seen that they can make a difference amidst their present backdrop, with or without changes in the understanding, support and encouragement that they require.
- Handouts: Identifying your Priority Areas Back-Home Planning
- Learning Reinforcement
- Synthesis of the Day's
- Learnings
- DAY 3
- Defreezing Exercise:
- Superlative Wishes In this defreezing exercise, participants are asked to choose a trait or characteristic that struck them the most about the person to their right. Using superlatives, they then tell this to the person and explain why they chose the particular trait. They also say a wish for him, adding a physical touch as they say it.
- Learning Diary
- Sharing of Insights and
- Learnings
- Review of Day 2
- Preview of Day 3
- Refining Action Plans The action plans drawn up on Day 2 are revised during this session, taking into consideration whatever comments and suggestions have been received from their facilitators and co-participants.
- Action Plans:
- Presentation Participants present what they consider the best of four action plans that they have done. The plans are critiqued, and key learning points highlighted.
- Learning Reinforcement
- Synthesis of Program
- Learnings
- Evaluation Evaluation is rather simple in this module. By this time there are already many indicators of program success or failure seen during the conduct of program, since there have been two evaluation exercises at the end of Modules 1 and 2. For the evaluation in this module, participants are asked to write a love (or hate) letter to any of the facilitators and staff involved in the program. Participants are encouraged to be honest, specific, clear and focused, and reminded that their comments are very valuable in improving the quality of the training program, particularly those run by the same team.
- An alternative way is to have participants write a letter to another labor inspector, encouraging him/her to attend or not to attend the same program. In the course of the letter, participants will have to write the good and bad points they have seen in the program, and these comments should give a general idea of points and issues that merit attention for the next round of training.
- Closing Ceremonies Guests are usually invited to the closing rites to talk, distribute certificates, pin ribbons, or just encourage by their mere presence. The facilitators and staff are reminded to observe protocol, particularly in introductions and assignments as to who does what.
- Certificates of Recognition are not mandatory, and the benefits of giving them should be strongly assessed and weighed vis-à-vis not giving them at all. If certificates must be given, however, they must be awarded only to the truly deserving, and for the right reasons.
- Pledge of commitment This is a highly meaningful ceremony where participants pledge their commitment to advancing the cause of the child. The ceremony must be planned very well and way in advance, in order to enhance its meaning and significance particularly to the graduates who are, in many ways, commissioned to be advocates of the child wherever they may be.
- Handout: Pledge of Commitment