Termination of the era of state-regulated planned economy brought up the problem of low employment prospects for adult persons at the labour market, especially for the specialists who have lost their position and are trying to regain the status of competent professionals and find a job. The number of people confronting this problem is steadily growing. The solution to this problem is in development of a flexible system for staff training and retraining, providing stability of results and employment after training.

The ILO project "Development of modular skill training programmes in St. Petersburg", financed by the Flemish Community of Belgium, was launched in 1995. The project’s partner agencies are the International Labour Organization (Geneva), ILO International Training Centre (Turin), Flemish Service for Employment and Vocational Training (VDAB) and the ILO Moscow Area Office. The project is supported by the municipal and regional employment services and committees on education.

The project’s objective is to introduce an educational technology of modular training for adults, known as the ILO’s MES1-concept. Under this name it became well-known and wide-spread in the world.

A package of modular training materials is developed to form the skills and each of the trainees is provided with an individual set of learning materials. Each person has the opportunity to study at his/her own pace, sequence and in the most convenient form. The training process can be finished as soon as the trainee proves that he/she is able to perform the task.

Priority areas of the project’s activities are as follows:

• assessment of the needs for project’s training services in St.Petersburg and region;

• seminars for training of trainers in development and implementation of modular training programmes and management of vocational training centres, introducing modular approach;

• methodological support for pilot implementation of modular training programmes for staff training/retraining in the sectors: administrative, commercial, services, catering;

• informational and technical support, providing access to learning and methodological materials on all aspects of modular training;

• monitoring the quality of modular training programmes conducted by the training centres, using feed-back from employers and trade-unions.

A team of competent national specialists working at the project includes experts in development of modular training and methodological materials, management of training institutions, introducing modular approach, computerization of the training process. The project’s Documentation Centre provides technical support in computer design of modular learning materials which are entered into the project’s database. The Centre also publishes and disseminates catalogues and information bulletins on the latest developments.

The ILO project is introducing modular approach at the different levels of vocational education and training. The project’s beneficiaries are the most socially unprotected groups of population (unemployed adults, young people, the disabled). Today the project co-operates with 15 institutions of initial vocational training, 10 centres for vocational training of adults, 3 specialized training centres for the disabled, State Russian Pedagogical University, Marine Technical University, other technical universities of the city.

Leading teachers and instructors of VET institutions of St.Petersburg and region have access to the project’s computer database through the regional computer network. It is also possible to get information about the project and its activities at the Internet site:

http://www.ilo-project.spb.ru.