Given the scarce natural resources Cuba possesses and the potential of our educational system, the nation must necessarily bet on a future in which human resources are the main asset to boost sustainable development.
In the midst of the current context, in which shortages are worsening and innovation becomes the main way to get the country moving, the importance of having better prepared people to take on global challenges has been demonstrated: men and women of science, as Fidel would say while rightly pointing out the path that the Revolution should follow.
In order to contribute to the training and development of better professional skills in production and services,since 2019, Cuba has been working on an international collaboration project to strengthen technical and professional schooling, known as Profet, an initiative that should also contribute to the process of updating the current economic model.
Nearly 10,000 young people in 29 schools offering technical and professional training across the country are benefiting from this effort, meant to improve quality, an initiative that involves the Ministries of Education (Mined) and Foreign Trade and Investment (Mincex), as well as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
The project also proposes the printing, together with the Pueblo y Educación Publishing House, of a gender and inclusion strategy, which will help in the creation of an environment favorable in technical and professional education schools for the full development of men and women, and to give personalized attention to young people with educational needs.
Profet is scheduled to run until 2023 and it is currently applied in 23 municipalities in 15 provinces and the Isla de la Juventud Special Municipality. Beyond the basic training and pre-university preparation, it aims to raise the levels and skills of Cuban undergraduates to increase their opportunities and skills in the labor market.
IN GUANTÁNAMO
In Guantánamo, the technical and professional education schools Manuel Simón Tames Guerra, in Niceto Pérez; Julio Antonio Delgado, in Guantánamo, and Desembarco por Duaba, in Baracoa, benefit from the project, explains Lisset Barnet Alá, head of the Department of Technical and Professional Education (ETP) in the provincial authority of Education.
According to the specialist,the main changesin these centers are seen in the updating of the logistics base and the means for study with state-of-the-art technology, the creation of veterinary clinics, computer and language laboratories, as well as specialized classrooms.
"Above all, the resources it provides allow for the inclusion of practical subjects in the student curriculum to train them in skills they will need in the future. Therefore, in addition to computers, interactive whiteboards, tablets and flash disks, we have also received equipment to process vegetables and fruits at a mini-industry scale, work boots and clothes, tools and other inputs for daily use," she added.
Barnet Alá explained that, for example, the Desembarco por Duaba technical and educational school has the furniture to set up a room and carry out hotel accommodation practices; a restaurant, a barbershop-hairdresser's and a laboratory for the study of English, a skill necessary in the current labor market in Baracoa, with prospects for tourism growth.
These new facilities can also be used as the setting for upgrade course for workers in the state and non-state sectors, through agreements with institutions in Baracoa.
One of the most relevant outcomes of this initiative can be seen at the Julio Antonio Delgado Reyes construction polytechnic school, where students makehandles for masonry spoons and shovels, rulers and tools for local organizations, considerably reducing expenses.
"Profet’s key word is integration. It combines innovation, technology and the link between the work and education section,” said the head of ETP in Alto Oriente. She pointed out how the joint actions of institutions, teachers, students and families favor the full formation of the students of technical and professional education, and even contribute to the sense of belonging and pride of those who study technical specialties.
AN OUTSTANDING REFERENCE
In Niceto Pérez, Profet is implemented in the only technical and professional education school focused on agriculture, the Manuel Simón Tames Guerra Agricultural Polytechnic Institute. The center is a reference in
technical-professional education in the province, where students are trained in specialties such as veterinary, agronomy and forestry. In fact, this institution has deserved the triple crown of excellence awarded by the Urban and Suburban Agriculture movement in Cuba for six years.
"Thanks to the equipment donated by the project, today we offer classes with state-of-the-art technology, and we complement this knowledge with classrooms located outside the educational institution, and in the community," said Alexander Caldero Mejías, Master in Educational Sciences and director of the center for more than five years.
He pointed out that they have 24 computers connected to the Internet, so students can interact in the networks, search for bibliography, documentation for independent study. Their best acquisition, in his words, is the mini-industry where they can manufacture vinegars, pickled vegetables and fresh seasonings, which were previously produced in a rustic way, and now have better quality and finish.
"Unfortunately, the pandemic has prevented further progress in other works such as the veterinary clinic, which is still in the process of completion, and is vital for livestock education, but construction work continues with the brigade of the Education Logistics and Services Enterprise," he said.
Miguel Ramírez Osorio, deputy director of the school, spoke of the positive change in the training and motivation of the adolescents, who arrive each day to the classrooms more enthusiastic and interested in learning and contributing to the progress of the community through sustainable food production.
"From here they will be able to perform artificial insemination of species, as a service to cooperatives and producers, they also have the possibility of creating lines of biological control against native pests and diseases, perform surgical operations on animals, among other opportunities that make agrotechnical specialties more attractive and rise greater interest among young people to stay in school," added Ramirez Osorio.
Ana Elsi Jorge Quiala, a second-year Veterinary zootechnics student from Guantánamo, is grateful for the opportunity to work directly with the apparel, she will use in her work once she graduates. "Now I understand more about my career, and why it is important, both for production and balance in nature. I want to know more and I know I will be able to do so, given the access we have to new information technologies, free of charge."
Beralín Troitín Fresco, also a second-year student, confessed that he already feels like a veterinarian, and even helps the people in his municipality of El Salvador, an eminently agricultural area, where he believes that livestock farming should be another potential for development. With this premise, he walks the more than 22 kilometers that separate his native town and the IPA Manuel Tames, because he knows that his destinyis in the classrooms of this center, which is also that of his family and, therefore, his substantive contribution to the country.
