SPAIN: Salesian missionaries sign collaboration agreements with companies that will provide teacher training and technical assistance
(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries in Madrid, Spain have signed three collaboration agreements with the companies FeuVert, Analysis and Simulation (AyS Group) and Herco. These companies will provide training, technology and consultation to Salesian vocational training centers to improve offerings for students and the professional skills of their teachers.
The agreements were signed by Father Ángel Asurmendi, superior of the Spain Mary Help of Christians Province, Father Juan Carlos Pérez Godoy, superior of the Spain St. James Major Province and by representatives of the three collaborating companies.
FeuVert will offer training for teachers related to a course degree in vehicle maintenance management that is certified by the University of Salamanca. The company will also collaborate on projects for youth at-risk of social exclusion. The AyS group will provide training courses for teachers as well as technical advice and software licenses in the most advanced technologies.
Herco will provide Salesian vocational training centers with a wide range of mechanical instruments, tools and technical equipment for their classrooms and laboratories, chosen from among their catalogs, together with the necessary technical support and commercial advice.
These three signed agreements are the latest collaborations that Salesians missionaries have entered into in recent years to help bolster the education provided to youth in vocational training centers. Other collaborations have been established with Schneider, Hoffmann, Siemens and Festo.
Salesian centers in Spain operate close to 50 vocational training centers that employ 1,300 teachers and offer 17,000 students a chance to gain an education. In addition to these centers, the Pinardi Federation of Salesian Social Platforms and the Salesian Association of Technology and Innovation also offer vocational training courses. All Salesian vocational centers have the support of companies from a variety of business sectors to give students real-world work experience.
“With so many young people out of work and facing conditions of poverty in Spain, it is vital for Salesian workforce development programs to respond to market demand,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Students in these programs have a real opportunity to enter the workforce prepared both in terms of the skills they have learned and in their social development, ensuring a lifelong ability to retain livable wage employment and escape poverty. Partnerships with these corporations help ensure that teachers are trained and Salesian students have an easier transition from the classroom to the workforce.”
Close to 37 percent of young Spanish workers under the age of 25 are unemployed and a growing number of them can’t afford to buy enough food to live. Poor youth with few employable skills struggle the most to find and retain stable employment. Women in Spain face inequality in the workforce. They earn up to 14 percent less than men and represent only 34.5 percent of those listed as the highest earners in Spain.
Salesian missionaries have been working for many years to provide educational and workforce development opportunities for poor youth and women in Spain through residential and technical and vocational training programs.
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World Bank – Spain
