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SPAIN: Salesian vocational centers will receive teacher training thanks to partnership with German company Festo

(MissionNewswire) Teachers with Salesian vocational training centers in Spain will have access to additional training thanks to a partnership agreement signed between Father Juan Carlos Pérez Godoy, provincial of the Salesian Province St. James Major, and Dr. Xavier Segura, general director of Festo. An informal training partnership had already been established between the company and Salesian centers in Spain. This formal agreement solidifies Festo’s commitment to the Salesian centers.

Festo specializes in automation and industrial development. The company is a global supplier of automated solutions that use pneumatic, electronic and network technology for all types of processes and industrial activities. It supplies individual components and complete systems, as well as technological and commercial consulting and training.

In addition to offering technical consultancy and training to Salesian teachers, Festo will also provide access to its materials and educational equipment. Dr. Segura explained that Festo has always offered its services starting from an educational vision with the aim of ensuring that technology reaches people as quickly as possible.

The company’s vision is accentuated even more today with the ongoing advancements in technology and social change, which makes training essential, especially for youth. Dr. Segura said, “We must continue to enhance vocational training, a sector in which the Salesians have been, are and will be a point of reference.”

During the partnership agreement signing, Fr. Pérez Godoy noted that vocational training is at the core of what Salesian missionaries do and discussed the challenges that sometimes arise in keeping training updated to meet industry demands. He noted that partnerships like these significantly help Salesian centers and the youth they serve.

Salesian centers in Spain operate close to 50 vocational training centers with a total close of to 16,000 students and 1,000 teachers, as well as the Salesian Social Platforms that offer professional training. These training programs are thanks to the support of companies from different sectors. In recent months, the Salesians in Spain have signed collaboration agreements for professional training with other major companies including Schneider Electric, Hoffmann Group and Siemens.

Hard hit by economic troubles in Europe, Spain now has the greatest inequality of the 27 countries of the European Union. According to the World Bank, close to 25 percent of Spanish workers are unemployed and a growing number of them can’t afford to buy enough food to live. One in five citizens is living below the poverty line and poor youth with few employable skills struggle the most to find and retain stable employment.

“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.”

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Sources:

ANS – Spain – Salesians and “Festo” sign national collaboration agreement for Vocational Training