Nearly a hundred businessmen, teachers and students participate in the I Conference on Dual Vocational Training (FP) in the Company organized by the Cabildo and the Chamber of Commerce. Tenerife Space for the Arts (TEA) fills its assembly hall with all the agents interested in this new model that is future, but also present. If the FP is not Dual, there is no FP, as determined by the State Law of last March. A new system here but with decades of validity in countries like Germany and others in the EU that aims to connect training in educational centers with work in companies. In a system of alternation in terms of student tutoring by both parties.
Raquel Pérez Triana is an English teacher and responsible for the fourteen children of the first group that arrives from the IES Barranco Las Lajas in Tacoronte –there are 29 in total, since there is another with 15 students–. Between 14 and 15 years old. Teacher and students have the same concern to know what exactly Dual Vocational Training is beyond political postulates or simple pedantry. Kadri, Modouy, El Hadji, Carlos, Guillermo, Javier, Patricia, Paula… He comes with the interest of knowing. Note the multiculturalism of the heterogeneous group.
The venue is full to listen to what the experts explain in the forum to inform, through real cases, of the opportunities and advantages offered by this training modality both to find employment and to adapt the qualified workforce to the needs of the Business.
Jesús García, professor of Image and Sound at the IES La Guancha, a benchmark in the island’s FP, is didactic: «This model was established a few years ago as an option but now it is mandatory. At least 33% of the contents in the two years of the training cycle must be practical, with jobs in companies, related to what is studied. From the first year, I don’t eat until now with the last three months in internships». This teacher sentences: «In three or four years all FP will be like this».
A bridge with the private sector
This is corroborated by Ardiel González, also a professor of Image and Sound, in this case from another reference center such as the Integrated Vocational Training Center (CIFP) César Manrique, from Ofra. But, in addition, Ardiel is a prospector. It is not about any dinosaur, but quite the opposite. His function, like that of many other colleagues in the Canary Islands, is to establish a bridge between the educational center and the companies. To do so, they have intermediate associations such as the ZEC, Tenerife Film Commission or the Canary Islands Audiovisual Cluster. He considers that the system works. He argues: “The three first-year boys that we approached the labor market stayed in the summer and then established a relationship in the second year to carry out works and services with the company.”
The importance of Dual FP is demonstrated by the decision this week by the Government of Spain to contribute more than 1,000 million euros to this model, 66 of them for the Canary Islands.
At the opening of the conference, with the motto For quality training and employment, the island’s Minister of Employment, Socioeconomic Development and Foreign Action, Carmen Luz Baso, values the new law and is convinced that “the implementation of Dual Vocational Training is going to help strengthen the economy, because it responds to the real demands of the productive sectors and the interests of the student body». Adds Baso: “It is a transcendental and strategic educational model for our society with which the doors of employment are opened to youth.”
Mary Luz Cruz, training director of the Chamber of Commerce, apologizes for the absence of the general director, Lola Pérez. She points out that Dual Vocational Training is “an opportunity for companies in Tenerife.” This day, she adds, “makes known its advantages for both parties.” Also because it means “the possibility of orienting studies to the requirements of business reality and thus increasing the chances of finding a job.”
In the presentation of the educational days, the person in charge of the VT area of the General Directorate of Adult Education of the Ministry of Education of the Canary Islands Government, Rosario Gañan. The different speakers developed their conferences to delve into the explanations and benefits of the system “which is no longer future but present”. They shared experiences and the positive results obtained. The Dual FP day is part of the strategy to connect young students with work in the company. Laudable goal with a long way to go.
