Education Minister Andrés Navarro; Federico Dominguez Aristy, president of the Association of Free Zones (Adozona) and Luisa Fernandez Duran, executive director of the National Council of Export Free Zones (CNZFE), have agreed to implement training programs in manufacturing and competitive services for high school students in public and private schools. As part of the agreement, the Ministry of Education also committed to develop polytechnic schools in areas near the industrial free zones. Vocational training at the schools would be provided by the Institute for Technical-Professional Training (Infotep).
The agreement also calls for high school students near the industrial free zones to visit the industrial parks in their two last years of high school and for construction of day care centers in the nearby communities.
He said the agreement seeks to reverse the present situation in which 80% of high school graduates graduate without any specific skills that would help them get a job. On the other hand, polytechnic school grads, 19% of all graduating high schoolers, possess trade skills that are in demand throughout the country.
Navarro highlighted: “What we have to do is ensure that the country develops in a framework of comprehensive planning, in a framework of public-private relationships. Public-private partnerships today are key to the development of any nation. ”
Meanwhile, Domínguez Aristy, president of Adozona, considered that the agreement “is the most important that we have signed with the state as a public-private alliance, which we are sure will catalyze a revolution from the basic levels in public schools and private schools.”
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Hoy/
23 July 2018
