On Tuesday, 23 September 2025, Montevideo hosted the seminar “Training and certification for care work in Latin America and the Caribbean”, held within the framework of the Third Regional Technical Meeting of the Saber Cuidar Network: training and certification for care work, coordinated by ILO/Cinterfor. The Network brings together specialists and technical staff from 20 institutions in 14 countries across the region and benefits from the technical support of the ILO PARTNERSHIPS unit.

The seminar, held at the Training Centre of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) – Office of Spanish Cooperation for the Southern Cone – also received support from Uruguay’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MTSS) and the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (INEFOP). It focused on advancing the professionalization of care workers as a strategic pillar to ensure decent work, gender equality and quality services.

Opening session: cooperation and regional perspective

In the welcome session, Carlos Domínguez, Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of Spain in Uruguay and representing AECID, reaffirmed Spanish Cooperation’s commitment to professionalising the sector, highlighting progress in Spain and the continued relevance of the “5Rs” of care work: recognise, reduce, redistribute, reward and represent. For her part, Mariana Chiquiar, Deputy National Director of Employment at Uruguay’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security, stressed that care is a matter of development and gender justice, recalling that in Uruguay women devote twice as much time as men to unpaid work. Anita Amorim, specialist with the ILO Unit for Emerging and Special Partnerships, Multilateral Partnerships and Development Cooperation, celebrated South–South and triangular cooperation as a driver of innovation in care policies and presented the global South for Care platform as an example of exchange. Finally, Fernando Casanova, representing ILO/Cinterfor, welcomed the rapid consolidation of the Saber Cuidar Network and noted that Uruguay has become a point of reference on the subject.

Panel: “From the right to care to decent work: professionalising care workers as a social pillar”

The panel focused on recognising care as a right and on the need to professionalise those who provide it, transforming a historically invisible activity into a pillar of social and labour policies.

Paz Arancibia, Regional Specialist on Gender and Non-discrimination at the ILO Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, warned that gender inequalities in the labour market are deeply linked to care: “Today, 708 million women do not participate in paid employment due to care responsibilities, compared with just 48 million men.” She underlined that certification and training in the sector must enhance the social and economic value of these tasks, ensuring rights and quality standards.

Hugo Bai, Coordinator for Social Dialogue (Office of Planning and Budget – Uruguay), highlighted the role of social dialogue in forging broad agreements: “We started from a pension reform, but the debate led us to a much wider reflection on childhood, care and social protection.” He emphasised that the system’s sustainability requires the active participation of citizens, political parties and social actors.

Ana Güezmes, Director of the Gender Affairs Division at ECLAC, placed the discussion in the regional and international context and underscored the urgency of investing in care: “The region needs to allocate at least 5 per cent of GDP over the next decade to close gender gaps, create 31 million jobs and ensure the sustainability of life.” She recalled that care should be understood as a global public good and as part of a “care society” that places life and equality at the centre.

Collectively, the panel agreed that professionalization through training and certification is essential to open clear career pathways, dignify care work and ensure quality services. They also stressed that investing in the sector is not only a social imperative but also an economic strategy for inclusive growth and reducing inequalities.

Uruguay’s experience: Professionalising care work in the third phase of the National Integrated Care System

The session devoted to Uruguay’s experience showcased the progress achieved and the pending challenges to consolidate a sustainable, inclusive and quality care system.

Susana Muñiz, National Secretary for Care and Disability (Ministry of Social Development), recalled that Uruguay has trained more than 9,000 certified carers during the first two phases of the National Integrated Care System. She noted that the third phase will aim to review curricula, expand training towards advanced and specialised levels, and establish a national qualifications framework to ensure continuous learning pathways. “The challenge now is to move from basic certification to a training framework that supports people throughout their professional lives,” she said.

Mariana Chiquiar (MTSS) emphasised the economic cost of inequalities in the sector, warning that women’s exclusion from the labour market due to care responsibilities costs Uruguay around 12 per cent of GDP. She argued that care is strategic not only for social and gender justice, but also for its direct impact on productivity and demographic sustainability. She highlighted the importance of recognising prior learning and integrating care policies within a broader employment and vocational training strategy.

Miguel Venturiello, Director-General of the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (INEFOP), emphasised the impact of training on the personal and professional development of carers, noting that “each certification process opens new educational and employment opportunities”. He explained that training should be articulated with formal education cycles to enable access to tertiary studies, and he highlighted the role of social cooperatives in the sector. He also proposed bringing discussion on care-related working conditions to the wage council rounds.

Leonardo Slinger, Employers’ representative in Uruguay’s Social Dialogue, stressed that professionalization and formalisation are necessary to overcome the precariousness that still characterises care work. He noted that the employer community is increasingly aware of the importance of this issue, particularly in the face of population ageing, but warned that financing is a key pressure point in Uruguay given the already high tax burden. “Social dialogue is an opportunity to unify and make the care service offer more efficient,” he said, proposing also the inclusion of self-care training.

Finally, Carolina Spilman, Deputy Vice-President of PIT-CNT and Head of its Secretariat for Gender, Equality and Diversity, called for a qualitative leap towards a consolidated, universal and free system of training and certification that guarantees better wages and working conditions. She stressed that care must be recognised as work, a right and a pillar of development, and that educational institutions should offer specific technical and academic programmes in the field. She also criticised past shortcomings, such as insufficient coverage and inflexible schedules, and insisted that professionalization will only be effective if it translates into wage recognition and robust collective agreements.

Overall, the interventions agreed that Uruguay has made significant progress in building a care system, but still faces important challenges in terms of financial sustainability, quality improvement, recognition of prior learning and consolidation of tripartite governance.

In conclusion, the seminar showed broad consensus: the professionalization of care is essential to dignify those who provide it, ensure quality services and move towards more just and equal societies. Although the challenges are significant — financing, precarious work, the sexual division of labour — social dialogue and regional cooperation are consolidating as the main pathways to transform the sector into a driver of inclusive development