FPEmpresa VET Schools Association has celebrated the first meeting of the new Board of Directors in Santander. The new members were selected in the General Assembly 2022 of the last month of June. They have been working in their Strategic Plan 2022/2025 and have started to prepare the next Congress. Apart, they have visited the associated center ‘CIFP La Granja de Heras’.

The VIII Congress of the Association will be celebrated in San Sebastián the 26th and 27th of October. An event that will join the associated centers of FPEmpresa and organized with CaixaBank Dualiza, main strategic ally of the Association. Also, this congress will focus on the VET centers of the future and will mark the tenth anniversary of FPEmpresa.

Visit to ‘CIFP La Granja de Heras’

The second day of the meeting has taken place in the center ‘CIFP La Granja de Heras’, whose director is Sergio Silva, FPEmpresa’s coordinator in Cantabria. The center offers education cycles of the Agrarian Professional Family and works with more than 50 companies of the sector. Furthermore, it belongs to Agrocantabria.

During the activity, the visitors have covered the CIFP’s facilities, that has 70 hectares with different uses. Likewise, the managers of the institution have talked of some of the programs, like ‘Friesian goat’s recovery’. In addition, the center is leader in floral art and participates with an association created by the student body to promote the employment in the territory.

“Gather the coordinators of other areas in Cantabria boosts the VET of the community and shows our educative reality”, explains Silva regarding to the meeting of the Board of Directors and the visit. “We feel supported celebrating this event in a small community as ours”, adds.

Apart of the CIFP La Granja, there are other five associated centers to FPEmpresa in Cantabria: IES Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, in Guarnizo; IES Lope de Vega, in Santa María de Cayón; IES Alisal, in Santander; IES Valle de Camargo, in Revilla de Camargo, and CIFP Nº1 of Santander.

The Erasmus+ KA202 project, in which the secondary school Puerta Bonita (center associated with the FPEmpresa VET Schools Association) is a participant, has held its fourth mobility in St. Gallen (Switzerland). An initiative carried out from May 16 to 20 under the title “Creative Skills 21. Improving teaching and learning of 21st century skills for the creative industry”. The project arises with the aim of providing the participating teachers with tools to work “competences for the 21st century” with their students.

Throughout the project, the students have worked with a problem associated with the UN 2030 Agenda on which they have developed a communicative solution to raise awareness and have prototyped it. To do this, they have worked in multinational and interdisciplinary groups guided by two teachers.

Creative Skills 21 between Madrid and St. Gallen

In order to create a time frame that would achieve the objectives, the mobilities have been grouped by pairs of countries. The first mobility organized in Madrid has suggested the problem to the students, who have analyzed it and, consequently, have outlined the objective and recipient of the message, as well as a solid idea. However, in the second mobility, the idea has been prototyped and presented to experts in the field.

Gender inequality related to access to education and social exclusion was the topic proposed at the first meeting. With that idea, the groups have been able to work in St. Gallen.

On the other hand, the teachers have received training in the 21st century skills “collaborative work”, “problem solving” and “the blended learning methodology”.

“Creative Skills 21” has worked with a group of 50 people from 7 Vocational Training centers in Rotterdam, Ghent, Newcastle, St. Gallen, northern Italy, Jyvaskyla, Lisbon and Madrid. An initiative that has allowed members to create a great network of contacts while they have known the Spanish capital and the Swiss capital of the San Galo district.

You can learn about the extraordinary products made by the student groups, from applications for mobile devices to external marketing actions, on the website www.cs-21.eu and the Instagram profile @creative_skills21

The VET School Association FPEmpresa has celebrated the last Tuesday, 7th June, the General Assembly 2022. It has chosen a new board of directors with the presence in all the Spanish autonomous communities and cities. A meeting that has taken place in the events hall of IES Hotel Escuela from Community of Madrid, associated center of the Association. In addition, two years later of celebrate the General Assembly in a virtual way, the event has been hybrid. The members have been able to access physical or virtually. In this way, the Permanent Board has shown gratitude to the associated centers for “the attendance, support and confidence”.

From General Assembly 2021, the Association has grown a 32% in number of members, stablishing it in 413 associated centers at present. An increase of 100 members that have decided to join FPEmpresa. Sergio San Martín, secretary of the Association, has admitted that “is an important number and a success of everyone in favor of the Vocational Education and Training”.

CaixaBank Dualiza will continue to work with FPEmpresa

Juan Carlos Lauder, head of CaixaBank Dualiza, has participated in the Assembly with the purpose of the strategic collaboration that has with the Association. “We keep the desire to work with FPEmpresa. We have done many things and we have started new activities in the last years. We will have to adapt our activity for the new VET Law, but we will get a better VET. I hope you could assess the cooperation we have and, also, what we are going to have for more time”, has shared Lauder with the members.

In addition, the event has continued with the Permanent Board explaining the Management Report, the 2021 Accounts, the 2022 Budget, the Congressional document, the new Strategic Plan, and the renovated Board of Directors. Introductions which have been followed by the votes of the associated centers. The minutes of the results has announced with more than a 98% that the electors have approved the totality of the shared documents, just like the new Board of FPEmpresa.