Original article

Quality of services from population training courses

0000-0001-8985-9054Yoandy Perdigón Rodríguez^{1  *}  , 0000-0001-7008-0331María del Carmen Rodríguez Domínguez²  , 0000-0003-4773-360XRamón Vidal Pla López² 

¹Dirección Provincial de Educación. Ciego de Ávila. Cuba.

²Universidad de Ciego de Ávila. Cuba.

ABSTRACT

The quality of services is a problem to be improved in society, therefore, Technical and Professional Education is in charge of developing training courses. This article proposes the design of a theoretical-methodological conception to improve the quality of services through training courses. With the use of methods such as observation, survey and documentary analysis, it was possible to determine the guiding ideas, relationships and contents, as well as the stages with their objectives, steps, actions and methodological orientations that allow the organization, planning, execution and control of courses to improve the quality of services.

Key words: Quality; Quality of services; Training courses; Services

Introduction

The changes originating in the country's economy, in particular those related to the approval of new forms of non-state management justify the need for preparation of the population and for this purpose it is required the implementation of courses that guarantee organized and structured training to these people.

The Technical and Professional Education (ETP) allows the projection of training courses based on its potential and experience in the formation of a qualified work force with the direct participation of labor entities and the facilities of the new forms of non-state management. These courses are developed in three cycles according to the economic, social and environmental needs and priorities of each territory with the main objective of training the population and the non-state sector that requires it to perform their labor functions in the occupations or activities approved by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

In all activities that provide services in any field, it is necessary to provide quality customer service. Therefore, it is necessary to contextualize these courses in order to improve the quality of the service provided to the customer and the customer's experience when using the service.

In the review of the literature, methodological and specialized assistance visits and comprehensive inspections carried out to the development of this training modality to the population and instruments applied, deficiencies in the training process are evidenced, demonstrated in the quality of the services:

• Insufficient diagnosis of the training needs of the youth universe, especially those linked to the non-state sector.

• Limited use of the existing potentialities in the polytechnic schools to respond to the greater number of activities approved for the non-state sector, together with the labor entities of the territory.

• Inadequacies in the planning, organization and development of courses in the teaching centers.

• Inadequate implementation of communication actions that allow the dissemination of the courses and a better response to the training needs of the population and the non-state sector.

• Weaknesses in the preparation of teachers who teach training courses to the population.

• The training courses have been conceived and delivered using only the experience of each teacher as a premise.

• Deficiencies in the quality of the services developed in the services branch.

These difficulties are caused by the following causal elements:

• Limitations in the polytechnic school - labor entity relationship to concretize an organization and execution of training courses to the population with the purpose of guaranteeing quality in the services they perform.

• Weaknesses in the design of the preparation of teachers, from the departments, in the educational institutions.

• Design of training courses without due attention to the needs of the territory and the population.

• Lack of a theoretical-methodological conception of training courses for the population.

Techniques such as observation, interview and survey to the population, to teachers who teach in these courses and to the provincial methodologist were used, whose results allowed diagnosing the problematic situation, and verifying the planning, organization, execution and control of the training courses that are developed for the population in order to improve the quality of the services provided.

The documentary analysis corroborated the regularities in the process of planning, organization, execution and control of the training courses for the population, in ministerial resolutions, elaborated programs, lesson plans, meetings of the Services department and methodological preparations and through the survey and the interview it was possible to identify the satisfactions and dissatisfactions that are presented in the development of the training courses and in the services provided by the new forms of management.

The purpose of the article is to design a theoretical-methodological conception that contributes to the planning, organization, execution and control of the training courses developed for the population in order to improve the quality of the services provided.

Development

Quality of services

At present, competition is increasingly palpable, the concern of self-employed workers in the service sector to achieve excellence and continuous improvement in order to achieve success, represents being at the forefront; this implies remaining in the market with quality services that result in customer satisfaction.

The new forms of non-state management allow comparison with others that develop the same activities, one of these is the quality of service, which has been given greater importance because it allows them to constantly improve and innovate the service provided, increasing customer satisfaction.

Various authors have addressed different aspects of service quality, and to understand this term, it is first necessary to conceptualize what is meant by service.

^{Grande (2005}) mentions that a service is "a performance, an effort or an action" (p.12).

The American Marketing Association (as cited in ^{Reyes, 2014}) coined the definition of services as "activities, benefits or satisfactions that are offered for consideration or provided along with goods". This definition was refined in 1981 in the following terms: "Services are essentially intangible activities that can be identified in isolation, provide satisfaction and are not necessarily linked to the sale of goods" (p. 10).

Por otra parte, autores como ^{Vargas y Aldana (2006}), mencionan que la calidad del servicio es la “conformidad de un servicio con las especificaciones y expectativas del cliente” (p. 7).

This requires careful monitoring of customer preferences, increasing profitability by attracting new customers and maintaining existing ones. It is necessary that quality results can be measurable and that the attitudes of the people providing the service are directed towards achieving excellence. This is one of the most important factors at present with which a company or particular activity can add value to the goods or services it offers and with which it could have a competitive advantage.

These authors address the quality of services in a specific process from their work performance, but do not offer a broader view of this in terms of the service provided to the population from self-employment because this is a relatively new activity.

Training courses for the population

In Morón, due to the growing demand for both international and national tourism, work in the non-state sector as a dynamic employment for the socioeconomic development of the territory has a fundamental role to play in the training of the population from the polytechnic centers, for the provision of quality services.

Decree Law 350 of the ^{Council of State (2018)} states that training is:

A set of preparation actions, continuous and planned, in correspondence with the needs of production, services and the results of work evaluation, conceived as an investment, aimed at improving the qualifications and requalifications of workers, to fulfill with quality the functions of the positions and ensure their successful performance with maximum results.(p.52)

It can be inferred that training is the process through which individuals acquire the skills, knowledge and aptitudes that prepare them to face diverse situations in the work environment and will also help them personally.

Article 25 of Decree Law 350 establishes the fundamental principles on which training is based, which are as follows:

1. That the head of the entity is ultimately responsible for planning, organizing and controlling these activities.

2. that the plan corresponds to the diagnosis of the training needs, to guarantee the full integration of the employee to the entity, his adequate adaptation or re-adaptation to the position, the updating of his knowledge and skills and his continuous development.

3. that it is a planned, continuous, permanent, flexible and dynamic process that allows workers to acquire knowledge and skills during their working life.

4. that it constitutes an investment.

5. that it should take place in an environment conducive to learning and with the effective participation of those involved.

6. that the necessary actions are carried out to provide workers with knowledge, skills and values, as well as those that enable them to anticipate the changes that will occur in the entities.

7. that it is based on a close relationship between theory and practice, oriented towards the achievement of effective performance. (^{Council of State, 2018, p.55}).

Hay que tener en cuenta cuatro etapas en el proceso de formación:

1. Determinación de las necesidades de formación (DNC).

2. Planificación de los programas de formación.

3. Ejecución de la formación.

4. Evaluación de impacto (^{Alonso y Castillo, 2012, p.3}).

En la revisión de la literatura científica sobre el tema, se encontró que autores como ^{Ondal et al. (2019)} y ^{Vásquez y Martínez (2020)}, entre otros, han investigado sobre la capacitación, pero sin centrarse en los cursos de formación que se imparten a la población por parte de los centros politécnicos, por no ser el objetivo de su investigación. De igual forma, se consultó la normativa reguladora de la capacitación existente hasta el momento, evidenciando la falta de lineamientos en el orden metodológico, para la concepción y ejecución de los cursos en correspondencia con las necesidades reales del territorio y demandas de la población. Para la concepción de los cursos es necesario tener en cuenta las nuevas formas de gestión, los avances técnicos científicos y la prioridad de estos en las metas a alcanzar en los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) hasta el 2030.

Los elementos aportados por la ciencia sobre el tema y las carencias encontradas, determinaron la necesidad de diseñar una concepción teórico-metodológica que contribuya a elevar la calidad de los servicios desde los cursos de formación a la población, asumiendo esto como un proceso continuo, que permita la vinculación con la práctica.

Theoretical and methodological conception for training courses for the population to improve the quality of services.

The conception in the pedagogical context according to ^{Valle (2017)} is linked to:

(...) essential concepts to categories, but in addition to containing them in it are explained the principles that support it, the point of view or starting point that is assumed for the elaboration of the categories or conceptual framework, as well as a categorization of those transcendent aspects that undergo changes, making them explicit. (p.26)

"The conceptions, as a scientific result, allow to assume an object from a certain approach and to explain at the theoretical and methodological level, in a coherent and systemic way, the way in which a process should be manifested to obtain positive results" (^{Pla, 2007}, p. 4).

These authors allow clarifying the conception as a result, not only by the orientation in the elements to be included in a conception, but also the logic to be followed in this, also facilitates the understanding of which aspects deserve scientific explanation.

The authors of the article assume the theoretical-methodological conception to raise the quality of services from the training courses to the population as: the system of guiding ideas that allow understanding and explaining the process of training the population, from the precision of the theoretical and methodological component, the statement of relationships to be established between the planning, organization, execution and control of the courses and the aspiration of a public servant, so as to raise the level of quality of services provided by the self-employed and the population in general with a view to meeting social needs in the provision of a quality service. Assuming training as a continuous process supposes that personal experiences that contribute to the development in its interaction with the client are present in it.

The concept has in its internal structure the objective, guiding ideas, relationships, stages for training courses for the population and the characterization of the aspiration of a competent public servant, as well as the contents and argumentation of a training program that reveals the practical value of the concept.

Objective. - To raise the level of preparation of the population and the non-state sector in terms of the quality of services through training courses.

Guiding ideas:

1. The characterization of a public servant that allows raising the quality of services.

2. The organization, planning, execution and control of training courses to improve the quality of services.

3. Proposal of a service quality training program.

Based on the stated objective and guiding ideas, it is considered essential to determine the relationships that must occur in the process of training the population to raise the quality of the services provided.

First relationship:

Between the content of the training to the population and the organizational stages and forms.

This relationship arises from the need for the contents of the training to the population to be projected in correspondence with the personal and territorial needs, as well as the integration of various organizational forms to take advantage of their potential to enrich knowledge, skills and attitudes. El atributo fundamental de la relación se concreta en la determinación de los contenidos de la capacitación a la población y la estructuración de etapas para organizar su tratamiento, así como su apropiación a partir de utilizar diferentes formas organizativas en el contexto de las relaciones escuela politécnica - entidad laboral.

There is a relationship of subordination between the contents of the training of the population and the stages; the former assumes the hierarchical role in the relationship, these are determined and selected on the basis of the objectives of the training of the population, its needs and potentialities. The stages through which the appropriation of the contents must pass favor the process of training the population and serve as a reference for the planning of the activities.

Second relationship:

Between training and the characteristics of the public servant.

The relationship arises from the need to include in the training courses the characteristics of this public servant as content, because it is a declared problem in his work performance, because it requires contextualization for the self-employed and because of the characteristics of this form of non-state management that distinguish it from other contexts of action.

The consequence, this relationship lies in achieving that the contents contribute to satisfy the expectations of the trainees, that they become public servants par excellence and that the quality of the services is raised by achieving customer satisfaction in terms of: friendliness and availability, hygiene and adequate environment; speed of service, level of updating of the technology used during the service, love for the profession, systematic information to the customer. Good listening skills and respect for the customer's judgment are demonstrated.

Based on the objective, the guiding ideas and the relationships, the stages are declared as a methodological component of the conception. These are structured by steps, actions and methodological orientations that reveal the practical value of the proposal.

First Stage: planning and organization of training for the population to improve the quality of services.

Objective: to organize training for the population based on potential and needs, promoting higher levels of professional performance.

This stage is characterized by the planning of the training process for the population, where the following methodological steps and actions are carried out:

• Step 1: identification of the individual and collective potentialities and needs of the population.

• Action 1: diagnose the content to be included in the training.

• Action 2: determine the potentials and needs of the training.

• Step 2: design the training program.

• Action 1: select the contents related to the quality of services to be included in the training of the population.

• Action 2: design the training program for the population to improve the quality of services.

• Action 3: approve the training program for the population to improve the quality of services in the departmental group.

• Action 4: develop tools for collecting the results of the process of training the population to improve the quality of services.

• Step 3: define the organizational forms to be used in the training of the population to improve the quality of services.

• Action 1: determine the organizational forms for training the population.

• Action 2: preparation of teachers to teach the training courses.

• Step 4: presentation of the training program to the population to the Provincial Department of Technical and Vocational Education.

• Action 1: submit the training program to the Provincial Department of Technical and Vocational Education.

• Action 2: rework the program based on suggestions from the Provincial Department of Technical and Vocational Education.

The trainees may propose other complementary activities to be developed in the training courses in order to improve the quality of the services they provide, in accordance with their potential and needs, while continuing to carry out the proposed activities.

For the training of the population, the training course, the training and the recycling or requalification were selected as organizational forms to be used. Assuming these does not mean absolutizing the use of these organizational forms for the process being analyzed, but rather that a variety of them should be used because the population should appropriate modes of action to assume the different forms of non-state management.

The contents of the training courses for the population to raise the quality of services to be worked by the different modalities in an integrated and contextualized manner are: definition of services, quality, quality of services, marketing, customer; service cycle; approaches to service quality; principles of service quality; communication with the customer; essential attributes for service operations.

The teachers should guide and control the course by using the different organizational forms of the training process, both in its methods and in its organization and control, and the polytechnic center should establish relations with labor entities and the non-state sector to allow an adequate implementation of the elaborated program by using the technological potentialities they offer.

Second stage: implementation of training courses for the population to improve the quality of services.

Objective: to develop the different organizational forms designed for training the population.

• Step 1: explain the characteristics of the course to the enrollees.

• Action 1: present the training program to the population.

• Action 2: exchange on the expectations of the trainees with the training.

• Action 3: start the training course to the population.

At this stage, a meeting is held with the trainees to explain the objective of the training course, the organizational forms, the contents of the quality of the services to be worked on, the means, methods and evaluation during the training process.

The training takes advantage of the potentialities offered by the polytechnic center as well as by labor entities and non-State management forms, so that the trainee appropriates a mode of action when performing the service, and the way in which the training process is organized must be demonstrated in order to promote continuous transformation, work improvement and customer satisfaction.

It is convenient to have a rigorous control of the trainees who will attend each meeting, as well as the materials to be used. Each class is prepared taking into account its organizational aspects, with the commitment to successfully meet the objectives, and the motivation for training, involving all trainees in a reflective attitude.

• Third stage: control of the process of training courses for the population to improve the quality of services.

• Objective: to monitor and evaluate the process of training the population to improve the quality of services.

• Step 1: gathering evidence of the process of training the population to improve the quality of services.

• Action 1: implement systematic evaluations and the final review.

• Step 2: process the results of the population training courses.

• Action 1: process the information gathered from the systematic evaluations and the final review.

• Action 2: assess the results achieved in the process of training the population.

• Action 3: evaluate the impact of the training.

Before the application of the systematic evaluations and the final review, a sampling should be done to check if they are in conditions to be applied and if they have the necessary and sufficient questions and activities. Most of these should be cases or situations that may arise on a daily basis in the management of their jobs, with an eminently practical character.

The information gathered during the process of training the population will be processed by the teacher, although he/she may be assisted by other teachers of the department's staff. In the case of the instruments applied in the systematic evaluations and the final exam, it is proposed that the guidelines offered in the current evaluation resolution be used. Whenever possible, it is suggested to leave graphic evidence to illustrate the results.

The intangible impact of the training courses on the population is assumed to be the level of client satisfaction, and the tangible impacts are assumed to be: the level of learning achieved by the trainees as a result of the training and their level of performance and socioeconomic impact.

The following indicators are proposed for impact evaluation: criteria of clients, employers or other users; results of the evaluation of learning content related to the quality of services and professional performance.

In the impact evaluation report each indicator should be closed with as much evidence as possible to achieve validity and reliability. It follows then that the report requires the closure of each indicator and variable with the inferences first of each one separately to then integrate the evaluation, at the end of which the strengths and weaknesses are specified.

The guiding ideas and the theoretical component of the conception are concretized in the methodological component because the latter takes into account the relationships in the conception of the courses to raise the quality of the services, starting from the contextualization of the training to the population according to the services provided.

The training is conceived from a pedagogical, scientific and humanistic approach, taking into account that the selected content related to the quality of services is aimed at improving them and customer satisfaction by achieving a pleasant atmosphere of respect, empathy, active listening, as well as updating their knowledge, conducting research on the subject, allowing the theory-practice linkage.

Conclusions

The theoretical-methodological conception becomes an effective way for the planning, organization, execution and control of the development of training courses for the population, based on the intentionality of the objective, guiding ideas, relationships, stages, steps, actions and methodological orientations designed, by assuming training as a continuous process in which personal experiences are present in order to improve the quality of services.

Referencias bibliográficas

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Consejo de Estado(2018). Decreto Ley 350 de 2017. De la Capacitación a los Trabajadores. Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba No. 13 Extraordinaria 13 de febrero de 2018.

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Vargas, M. y Aldana, L.(2006). Calidad y Servicio (1ra ed). Bogotá: Ecoe.

Vásquez Polanco, R. R. y Martínez Boza, M. (2020). La capacitación en gestión económica del municipio de Buey Arriba. REDEL, 4. http://revistas.udg.co.co/index.php/redel/article/view/2017

Received: February 12, 2022; Accepted: May 26, 2022

^*Autor para la correspondencia:[e-mail]