Job placement alliance” “

Vocational training courses for electricians addressed to young people in the Ferrol region at risk of social exclusion are held with the support of Caritas and Endesa Foundation, which thereby promote access to the job market and further the personal development of young people. The course, which includes a theoretical and a practical part, will be held in the heat production plant of “As Pontes”. The initiative is envisaged in a Caritas-Endesa Foundation agreement regarding the whole of Spain. In Galicia, the course held in the region of Ferrol is the first ever experience of this kind. The initiative falls within the scope of the Foundation at local level, implemented through the As Pontes plant and the port of Ferrol. A new opportunity. The purpose of the course is to encourage youths with a background of failings in school to continue their studies with targeted learning programs. The agreement adopted by Caritas and the Endesa Foundation provides opportunities to obtain professional qualifications. Moreover, the initiative equally promotes traineeships along with support for entry into the job market, once completed the training program. The students from Ferrol and Naron will attend a four-hundred-hour course to gain skills as electricians. Lessons will be held by educators working with the staff of the Endesa team in “As Pontes”, in whose plants the young students will also be imparted practical courses. The “Gandara” centre, where most of the courses will take place, has been made available by the municipality of Naron. The experience with the unemployed in Huelva. Caritas and Endesa Foundation 400-hr courses will also be held in Huelva with the purpose of providing unemployed youths with the necessary skills for the installation of electrical and telecommunication systems in buildings. The course, which began in the month of June, is ongoing until September 24. Also in this case the final goal is the job placement of unemployed workers, once completed their training. The initiative is addressed to men and women comprised in a 20-50 age bracket. Lessons envisage technical training for the installation of low-voltage electrical facilities and telecommunications in buildings, as well as specific learning programs on the prevention of occupational and environmental hazards. The initiative includes training modules in various fields, useful for employment. The unemployed who participate in this activity will acquire specialized theoretical and practical knowledge – the organizers explained – that will open new doors in the labour market in times of job crisis. These same people have already attended preparatory courses as electricians, funded by the European Social Fund, during which they acquired basic knowledge prior to specialized training. Caritas’ commitment. Job placement initiatives represent a pillar of Caritas’ commitment within the crisis response program. Vocational training and traineeships involve every year tens of thousands of people, with whom Caritas develops a model of employment “based on the participation of the individual as the protagonist of his own life”. The purpose is “to provide guidance, training, job brokerage and social employment”. Endesa Foundation: social programs. The Endesa Foundation was established in 1998 as an independent, non-profit body, active in Spain and in Latin America. Since then it has worked closely in the illumination of artistic monuments and in the promotion of cultural activities. With the worsening of the economic crisis it has focused its efforts on social programs that include initiatives in the region of Ferrol and Huelva.