Yaiza requests a vocational training center like Zonzamas in the south of Lanzarote and proposes a name

The City Council presided over by Óscar Noda approved this Thursday in plenary a motion presented by Unidos por Yaiza (UPY) that urges the Government of the Canary Islands to plan and execute the creation of a new Integrated Vocational Training Center (CIFP) in Lanzarote, which would be the second on the Island, “with the aim of expanding, diversifying, and territorially balancing the vocational training offer of the educational system and employment training”.

The local Administration is willing to cede land next to the IES Yaiza, in the town of Puerto Calero.

The motion, approved with the votes in favor of UPY, CC, and PSOE, and the abstention of the PP, even suggests the name of the newly created center, Timanfaya Integrated Vocational Training Center, “as an identifying element linked to the territory and the insular identity of Lanzarote”, however, beyond the name, the mayor maintains that “the essence of the initiative is to expand the affordable and quality educational offer, which is demanded by young people and the labor market, and we offer sufficient land in the vicinity of the IES Yaiza, a equidistant point to benefit the population of the center and south of the Island”.

Yaiza argues for the demographic growth of Lanzarote, the growth of the tourism-related services sector, and the increase in the programming and execution of sports, cultural, festive events, and others that require personnel. “This context has generated a growing demand for qualified professionals, with technical, digital, linguistic, and sustainability-related skills, which currently cannot be sufficiently met by the existing training offer,” explains the mayor.

In fact, with data in hand, the Chamber of Commerce of Lanzarote and La Graciosa states that the island, despite the population increase in the last twenty years, does not generate the workers that its economy needs, neither quantitatively nor qualitatively. In Lanzarote, as in the rest of Spain, Vocational Training is the only educational level that maintains a certain upward trend in the number of students.

Lanzarote only has a single Integrated Vocational Training Center, the CIFP Zonzamas, which at the time represented a significant advance in the modernization of Vocational Training in Lanzarote. However, the territorial concentration of the offer, along with capacity and infrastructure limitations, prevents the implementation of new training cycles demanded by the productive sector, the expansion or duplication of cycles with high student demand, and adequate training attention for the population residing in the south of the Island, who are forced to make daily trips to Arrecife.

Yaiza also details that the generalized implementation of Dual Vocational Training, mandatory for all cycles, requires greater proximity between educational centers and companies, as well as flexible organizational structures capable of integrating regulated training, employment training, professional certificates, and requalification actions (reskilling and upskilling). These functions are characteristic of Integrated Vocational Training Centers and are strategic for guaranteeing generational succession and the competitiveness of the island's productive sector.