The activity, organized by the Regional Corporation for Productive Development, brought together educators and representatives of educational establishments from the three provinces, along with productive unions and government authorities, who discussed the strengthening of technical education.

The Regional Government, together with the Regional Corporation for Productive Development (CRDP), organized the “Seminar on Opportunities and Challenges of Technical Education”, which brought together more than 200 people from all provinces in the Gabriel González Videla Hall of the Regional Administration.  

One of the speakers of the day was the Rector of the University of La Serena, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, who in his speech referred to the general aspects, work stages and foundations that should be considered to form the Training Center
State Technique that will be implemented under the auspices of the ULS. “The creation of a new State CFT is more than adding a new actor in the process of training technicians for the region or the country, it is conceiving a new Integrated State Training System, thought from the perspective of its main beneficiaries: the students, capable of satisfying not only their training needs, but also their employability needs and development routes,” Avilés emphasized.

Furthermore, the highest university authority added that “it is not about defining a location, a set of careers or an infrastructure, it is about building a model and a value proposition for the development of current and future regional human capital. A value proposition, publicly evaluated under a significant number of metrics.” 

In this sense, the executive secretary of Technical Training of the Ministry of Education, Marcela Arellano, who spoke at the conference about the development model and role of the State in technical training, explained that the project to create the regional CFT will seek the best space so that the State's offer is interesting for young people who want to train as the future qualified technicians that the country needs.

Deputy Daniel Núñez participated in the meeting, highlighting the incorporation of the community in this meeting and the creation of the next regional CFT. “This seminar has had a massive attendance that demonstrates the interest in technical education. The announcement of the creation of a free State Technical Training Center for the population opens new possibilities in our region and has opened the debate on the need to strengthen technical education,” he commented.

During the meeting, the Minister of Education, Pedro Esparza, pointed out that “the challenges of technical education are multiple, and it should be noted that it has a relevant space within the educational reform. A very important milestone is the constitution of the Intersectoral Roundtable that involves actors from the public and private spheres, with the specific task of developing the first State Technical Training Center in the Coquimbo Region.”

For his part, the manager of the CRDP, Cristian Sáez, stated that the main challenge is “to have advanced and quality technical human capital to improve the competitiveness of the region, with emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship. Therefore, our mission will be to work so that our technical high schools, CFT, the institutes, plus the trade school offer proposed by Sence are articulated with our productive sectors. For this reason, we are developing a study of gaps and demand that ends in February, and we have also organized national and international innovation meetings; because we are convinced that the education-business articulation is what will allow us to compete as a region.”