oriented interventions discussed in the previous section. The issues are therefore much the same. The general view is that the more distinctively nonformal is a programme, as opposed to being enterprise-based, the less likely is it to be cost-effective (Bas, 1987). The following account of a programme in Thailand, which draws on Marsden (1984), is representative.

The Department of Industrial Promotion (DIP) in Thailand: The DIP employs about 1,000 staff and engages in: training, extension and advisory services in the light engineering fields through Industrial Service Institutes in Bangkok and Chieng Mai; similar services for textile producers through its Textiles Industry Division; training for handicrafts and cottage activities through its Handicraft Promotion and Cottage Industries Divisions; conducts business-skill seminars and training courses through its Industrial Productivity Division; and operates a loan programme for small-scale enterprises through its Small Industries Finance Office.

Marsden's evaluation illustrates graphically how large a gap can exist between programme design (in this case, aided by ILO and UNIDO experts for several years) and impact: "Considering the size and relatively long establishment of these government programmes, the services available were remarkably little known to the enterprises visited. Most had never heard of the Industrial Service Institutes or the DIP.. .The impression left behind after discussions with the principal officers and division heads of the DIP, and visits to their workshops, classrooms and offices, was that some of the functions described above existed more on paper than in reality... No courses were being carried out at the time of the survey. Although about 1,000 persons had participated in training programmes during the previous financial year, most of these programmes had lasted for only a few weeks. A significant proportion of the trainees were the DIP's own extension staff." To some extent these shortcomings could be attributed to low salaries for instructors, the consequent recruitment of inexperienced instructors, and inadequate budgets for operating costs, particularly materials, and hence they were potentially remediable. But Marsden concludes that the effects of inadequate finance masked the deeper-seated and more intractable problem of providing relevant technical expertise to a heterogeneous.clientele: "The problems experienced by small firms are specific to the products produced and the materials and machinery used. Rapid changes and innovations take place in all three areas. Advisers must be familiar with these developments and be continuously involved in the industries concerned before they can make reliable diagnoses of problems and suggest appropriate solutions which carry conviction with established entrepreneurs, who have mostly gone beyond the stage when advice based upon general principles or theoretical knowledge is of value -to them... since the range of expertise required to cover the needs of all types of small-scale industry is very broad, institutions such as the DIP cannot afford to hire or retain a qualified staff of specialists to cater to more than a fraction of the trades in which small firms are engaged." The inability to deliver technical expertise was compounded by a more general lack of know-how, which manifested itself in a willingness to accept at face value problems described by entrepreneurs and "too ready an 69 -

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