The Cabildo will request the Government of the Canary Islands to convert the Zonzamas Secondary Education Institute (IES) into an integrated VET center, so that it can teach the Vocational Training qualifications contemplated in the 2013-2016 Plan and subsequent ones, as well as other training modalities. With this initiative, they intend that active professionals and the unemployed can go to this center "to improve and update their training", to "recycle themselves to access other sectors or opt for entrepreneurship".
According to the government group in a statement, the initiative was presented in plenary by CC, PSOE and Alternativa Ciudadana and was supported by the PP and the abstention of the PIL. In any case, the possible execution would not be immediate, since it is subject to the construction of the IES of Maneje. The intention is that the secondary school students of the IES Zonzamas move to the future center of Maneje, so we will still have to wait. In fact, the latest announcement from the Ministry of Education of the Canary Islands placed the start of these works in mid-2014.
"The unemployment problem is not going to be solved overnight, but at some point the first steps have to be taken and we understand that now is the time to request the construction of the Maneje Institute, when the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands is in the planning phase for the 2013-2014 academic year", said the island councilor for Education and Culture of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Emma Cabrera.
From the 2014-2015 academic year
The motion approved in the Cabildo states that the VET center in Zonzamas could be a reality "from the 2014-2015 academic year", but for this it also requires the Canarian Government "to comply with the provisions in the map of Secondary Education centers for Lanzarote and proceed with the priority construction of the new IES Maneje". In addition, they also urge the Ministry of Education to "carry out as many actions as are relevant in order to immediately transform the IES Zonzamas into an integrated VET center and to increase the new training cycles of different specialties in the 2013-2014 academic year".
According to the Cabildo, this initiative "is based on the difficult socio-economic situation that the island is experiencing due to the significant decrease in activity recorded in sectors such as construction or civil construction, as well as commerce and hospitality". A "complex" situation, they add, "that affects young people with and without qualifications, people over 30 years of age without academic-professional qualifications and the long-term unemployed".
Therefore, they consider that "this situation requires increasing the productivity and competitiveness of the business fabric, as well as promoting entrepreneurship and increasing skills such as the mastery of languages or communication technologies in professionals".
Demand from the employers' association
From the Cabildo they recall that both the educational community and different business associations have demanded "a revision of the training programs to adapt the qualification of professionals to the needs of the current labor market", and consider that in this way "that demand would be covered, "given the positive assessment with which the VET graduates have".
According to Councilor Emma Cabrera, "the IES Zonzamas would thus be authorized to offer both regulated training and VET qualifications, as well as other forms of occupational and continuous training aimed at workers in active employment and the unemployed who need to obtain the certificates of professionalism included in the National Catalog of Professional Qualifications".
