The Association of Vocational Training Centres FPEmpresa organised the Ordinary General Assembly 2023 this Thursday, 15 June, at the Ilunion facilities in Madrid. The meeting was held in a hybrid format, so that members were able to attend in person and follow it via streaming. The Association’s Permanent Secretary thanked those present and the 90 people who followed the event online for their attendance.

The Assembly was opened by Joaquín Leizaola, General Manager of Ilunion Formación, who expressed his gratitude for hosting this event. “We are very grateful to be part of FPEmpresa and, of course, we are delighted to introduce you to Ilunion, a special entity that belongs to the ONCE social group, and where we also present our honours to VET”, said Leizaola.

New additions to the Permanent Board

After watching the corporate video of Ilunion, the president of FPEmpresa, Luis García, intervened to start the Extraordinary Assembly where the modifications of the statutes were contemplated and gave way to the respective votes. “Today we have more than 560 centres associated to FPEmpresa, which means an increase in the demands on FPEmpresa and that it has the task of continuing to improve. This is why we have decided to increase the number of members of the Permanent Board, proposing 2 vice-secretaries”, said Luis.

In this way, Luis Jesús, FPEmpresa’s coordinating member in Andalusia, and María José Fernández, the Association’s coordinating member in Asturias, will become the new members of the Permanent Board, giving support as vice-secretaries.

Following the vote at the Extraordinary Assembly, the members voted in favour, which led to the approval of the proposed changes. At the Ordinary Assembly, the secretary of FPEmpresa, Sergio San Martín, presented and explained every detail of the FPEmpresa Activities Report. This report is a document that allows the members of FPEmpresa to know in depth all the activities carried out by the Association.

Likewise, the presentation of activities shows a constant increase in the number of initiatives in which FPEmpresa is present, highlighting among all of them the close collaboration with CaixaBank Dualiza. Together with its strategic ally, several key actions have been carried out, such as the VET Congress, the Dualiza Call, the Active Guidance Call and the EmpleaFP job bank.

Likewise, the activities document shows the Association’s constant commitment to internationalisation, joining different associations and international projects in order to share and extend its objectives and fundamental values.

FPEcompany committed to the SDGs

Afterwards, the Assembly continued with the explanation of the new Strategic Plan 2022-2025, the Closing 2022, the Budget 2023, the Congress document and the Action Plan 2023/2024. During the presentation of the action plan, Sergio San Martín explained the objectives and actions that FPEmpresa will carry out in order to continue to become the benchmark VET Association. Among them, FPEmpresa’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stands out. “We must ask ourselves how we want our activities to impact the SDGs. Obviously, we must continue to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, so we have identified 8 goals that will be related to each of our strategic lines,” said the secretary of the Association.

Likewise, FPEmpresa will continue to work to be the meeting point for all VET actors and to become a reference for companies and public institutions, in order to promote projects that provide added value. Furthermore, the aim is to promote the culture of innovation through agreements with technological entities. Finally, the focus will be on STEAM-related initiatives.

To conclude the event, the Permanent Board announced the approval of all the documents and proposals of the Ordinary Assembly.

FPEmpresa, member and new representative of EfVET Spain, has met with the EfVET Europe Committee on 10th of september in Brussels to propose a new work plan for the year 2023. FPEmpresa was represented by Carlos de Olagüe Smithson, International and Madrid coordinator of the Association.

The EfVET representatives that also has attend at the event were Professor Joaquín James Calleja (Malta); Stefano Tirati (Learningdigital.eu – Italy); Arja Flinkman (South Savo Education Ltd – Finland); Marta Almeida Santos (Ensinus Group – Portugal); Panagiotis G. Anastassopoulos (P- Consulting – Greece); Leif Haar (Denmark); Vibeke Holtum Norgaard (Technical Education Copenhagen – Copenhagen); Silvia Liuti (FORMA. Azione srl – Italy); Gaby Tinnemeier (Germany), Giorgos Giorgakis (Eurosucess Consulting – Cyprus); Paulius Cepas (Kaunas technical vocational education centre – Lithuania); Tibor Dori (Euro-Contact Business School – Hungary); Marloes de Vries (The Netherlands), Jussi Kajander (Luovi Vocational College – Finland), Luis Costa (ANESPO – Portugal) and Jon Harding (Bridgwater College – UK).

This meeting has been very important for all the members of EfVET Spain, including FPEmpresa. From now, Carlos Olagüe will be the new representative of the Spanish EfVET members, taking over from Nacho Camacho. “I will take over the position held until now by Nacho Camacho, from the company Incoma, as representative of EfVET Spain. He has carried out his work as a representative with great professionalism for many years and now it is my turn to take on this new challenge, which I am looking forward to”, says Carlos de Olagüe.

Points to discuss

The main point of the EfVET Council was to prepare the organisation of the next Annual Congress will take place at the end of october in Kuopio (Finland), under the slogan “The Future Skills Revolution for VET and CVET in Europe”.

Other important issues were also discussed, such as analysing the activities carried out during the year 2022 and proposing a new work plan and budget for 2023. “I called a meeting tha last 6th of september with the different members of EfVET Spain to pick up their opinions and take them to the assembly in Brussels. Once there, a new line of work for 2023 was created, including a new strategic plan 2022-2026 that will be presented at the Kuopio Congress. This will be the big moment when we all meet again to exchange views with each other”, concludes the international representative of FPEmpresa.