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National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) of Mauritius
Published Mon, 08/10/2007 - 02:38 Tags:- Add new comment
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This briefing by Vimi Goorah concerns the work of the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) of Mauritius and details projects that are being considered in the field of Lifelong Learning. It follows visits by PASCAL Associate, Professor Erik Wallin and by PASCAL Co-director, Professor Michael Osborne.
The National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) is a tripartite body which became operational in May 2000. Since its setting up, the NPCC has advocated that economic development can be achieved only through higher productivity at all levels. The core objective of the NPCC is to develop a strong productivity culture which implies a fundamental change in mindset for Mauritius to anticipate change and manage it proactively. With this objective in mind, the NPCC has adopted a multi-pronged approach targeting both civil society and the corporate sector, to convey the message that productivity should be everywhere and that it is everybody’s business.
Key staff of NPCC with Professor Osborne in September 2007 at NPCC office
The vision of NPCC is Better Living for the Nation, meaning that every Mauritian should be better off tomorrow than today and better living results from a combination of productivity and social justice.
NPCC has recently reviewed its mission to be Make Mauritius Work. Together to reach a common set of objectives namely, sharing a common vision, mobilisation of resources at all levels and leveraging an element of trust that will pool on the network of relationships among persons, firms and institutions to cooperate, that is, to strengthen the social capital.
Basically, the role of NPCC is to be a think-tank, an awakener and a synergiser. In order to accomplish this role the following strategies have been identified:
- Promote innovation through building innovation capacity
- Promote entrepreneurship through networking
- Promote technology transfer through collaboration
- Develop competencies for empowerment through knowledge development and sharing
- Promote models of excellence through benchmarking
- Promote capacity building (skills and competencies) through a Productivity Academy
- Improve corporate productivity through better management - labour relations
- Promote civic responsibility
- Promote discussions on national productivity and competitiveness issues
- Promote teamwork and social values in education system and community
Projects related to LifeLong Learning & Strengthening of Social Capital
English Literacy using IT(ELIT)
The English Literacy using IT (ELIT) is a training programme to empower women aged 15 years old and above by raising their level of functional English, that is, to improve their independence and ability for taking decisions by developing their knowledge potential and communication abilities in using ICT as a tool. The ELIT project, partly funded by UNESCO, with a seed grant of US$15,000 is based on a learner-centred approach. The content developed based on the training needs analysis aims to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes not only in English language and numeracy but also to guide women towards securing a job or becoming a potential entrepreneur. Hence, ELIT focuses on the use of functional literacy to attend to the needs of the learners, giving attention to the local relevance, age group, gender issue and technological relevance. The scope of ELIT, based on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), consists of two main modules. First, creating the foundation for civic education including themes like communications, environment and finance and second, developing an entrepreneurship culture. The skills developed by women are reading, speaking, thinking, numeracy and computer literacy.
ELIT adopts a learning-by-doing approach. The ICT component in ELIT acts as a teaching support and in the process learners get initiated to computer literacy. The interactive multi-media software developed is to make learning more interesting and flexible. The ELIT programme has been scaled up in April 2007. NPCC has sought the collaboration of various institutions to deliver the ELIT course. The collaboration consists mostly on optimizing the use of existing computer labs for training of women. The programme is being conducted on a self-sustained basis with the participants contributing to meet the cost of the ELIT course. 17 women from the Entreprendre au Feminin Ocean Indien (EFOI) association successfully followed the training. Training of trainers on ELIT course has been conducted in Rodrigues Island (which is under the Republic of Mauritius) and ELIT course is still being conducted with collaboration of Municipal Council of Vacoas/Phoenix, Municipal Council of Quatre Bornes and CATs Pailles Social Centre
Mass Computer Proficiency Programme(CPP) and Internet Computing Core Certification (IC3)
In October 2002, a mass computer proficiency programme was launched by the government of Mauritius in order to bridge the digital divide. CPP is a training programme in ICT to provide the learners with proficient skills in ICT. The CPP course covered word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation and internet. The method of delivery of the course is cost-effective in the sense that secondary school labs are used after school hours to provide the course to all the citizens. The cost of the course is less than US$30 per participant. The programme has been replaced to Internet Computing Core Certification(IC3). As at October 2006, 45,768 Mauritians have benefited from the training under CPP and a further 400,000 Mauritians will be targeted under the IC3 in the next 4 years.
Women following ELIT can benefit from the IC3 course and hence increase their employability.
Issues to be considered for using Lifelong Learning(L3) to achieve growth and development
ELIT and IC3 empower women in the lowest strata of society and bridge the language and digital divide. It is an opportunity that will lead to the path of growth and achievement. The issues that need to be addressed after the ELIT and IC3 course are: Can L3 assist in empowering women to become entrepreneurs? Can L3 help to identify markets for women entrepreneurs? Can L3 make women active knowledge worker in the knowledge economy? Can L3 lead to innovation for these women? Can L3 give the necessary support to community development projects that will be self-sustaining and self-replicable?
Forthcoming projects:
L3 initiative by NPCC in collaboration of COL to empower Small Scale Farmers
COL has developed a project framework on Lifelong Learning (L3) Farmers Project, by which an attempt is being made to empower small farmers in Africa, South Asia and Small Islands. Using Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the project aims at building the capacity among farmers and extension officials which could help them in developing value-added farming, encourage more sustainable use of natural resources, strengthen their ability to face globalization, and ensure food and livelihood security. The concept envisages a global and local partnership between research institutions, extension agencies and farming communities.
The NPCC, based on its field experience at grassroots, is in a position to help identify the business strategies, evolve networks, undertake capacity building process and provide appropriate linkages at national and international level. The NPCC has also been involved in gender issues and women’s empowerment programmes. In particular, it has started focusing on cognitive and structural social capital issues. NPCC has also been designated as a major player in the National Empowerment Programme (NEP)
In this context, a partnership between COL and NPCC has been agreed to enable NPCC to evolve perspectives for L3 in Mauritius and integrate it with NEP. NPCC is presently working on the Action Plan for this project which consists mainly of:
- Value Chain Analysis
- Stakeholders Analysis
- Social Capital and Institutional Analysis
- Learning Need Analysis
- Project Management and Deliveries
Possibility for sharing of experience for L3 at community/grass root level
Setting up of a Productivity Academy
The setting up of a Productivity Academy is a major milestone in the enhancement of the Productivity Movement in Mauritius. Over 6 years of operation with a view to develop a productivity culture in Mauritius, the NPCC has been focusing, for the initial two years, on sensitizing people to change their mindsets with regard to the ways they have been conducting their activities and to continually improve them . This triggered a number of demand-driven actions with an in-built training component on productivity improvement both at grassroot level (associations of women, youth, social workers, schools and community) and at the corporate level (both private and public). NPCC alone cannot respond to this growing demand for structured national capacity building. The training / capacity building aspect has always been an integral part of NPCC’s intervention strategies to empower people. However, as the demand for sensitisation, as an on-going activity, and for productivity interventions have been increasing, the need for upscaling the capacity building in productivity improvement is increasingly felt.
A formal and dedicated mechanism for such capacity building is hence required at national level. In the absence of any institution that specialises in training in the field of productivity in Mauritius, the Mauritian Productivity Academy will therefore fill this gap and contribute to the building of the human capital that the country needs for enhancing productivity.
Possibility of consultancy for setting up of the productivity academy
Model Companies
The cooperation between the Japan Productivity Center for Socio Economic Development (JPC-SED) and the NPCC will focus on preparation for Model Companies (Pilot Factory Consultation activities) and capacity building of NPCC staff. This project is situated in a broader context of an APO – PAPA collaboration to boost up the Productivity Movement in Africa. In order to create successful show-case examples of Productivity Movement at company level in each participating PAPA African country, namely South Africa, Botswana, Kenya and Mauritius, fact finding research will be conducted at the candidate sites identifying prior 5S, Kaizen issues. Four to Five Companies will be assessed for implementation. Research results will be shared with NPO staff and debriefing made at NPOs.
Possibility of sharing experiences for learning organisations
Social Entrepreneurship
The National Productivity and Competitiveness Council has been propounding Civic Action Teams (CATs) at different levels and strata of society since its inception. CATs is one of the productivity tools which the NPCC has been using to strengthen social capital by bringing people to think and act together to boost civic responsibility.
With its redefined mission “Make Mauritius Work. Together”, one of the main thrusts of the NPCC remains the promotion of civic responsibility.
The project Empowering Community for Social Entrepreneurship” is a project within NPCC’s overall strategy of strengthening social capital and providing platforms for the community to work together for the welfare of the nation. The NPCC wishes to give a new dimension to the project by using it as a tool to promote social entrepreneurship.
The overall aim is to strengthen social capital and promote social entrepreneurship. The project will be executed in four phases namely; awareness- raising, capacity – building and project implementation which will culminate in a national convention. The implementation strategy will be based on pilot show-casing of successful initiatives of social entrepreneurship at community for replication.
The NPCC wishes to organize the CATs project at community level through a partnership with the Ministry of Social Security, National Solidarity and Senior Citizens Welfare & Reform Institutions through the social welfare division
Possibility of consultancy in measurement of social capital and sharing of experiences of L3 at community level.
Dr Krishnalal Coonjan, Director of NPCC with Professor Osborne in September 2007 at NPCC office