Argentina - "Laboratory students begin to arrive ... mostly poor": "San José" Vocational Training Center

28 March 2018

(ANS - Salta) - When the afternoon is about to end, after the noise of the backpacks being dragged has stopped resounding on the sidewalks and the parish has said farewell to the faithful of the 7.30 pm Mass, a few blocks from the center of Salta, in calle Caseros 1250, the lab students begin to arrive. They come from different neighborhoods, most poor and some have not finished school, but they are there because they want to do something with their young lives.

The "San José" Vocational Training Center (CFP) operates in the structures of the "Ángel Zerda" Salesian Institute and offers free vocational training to young people and adults in situations of social marginality. Like the other 13 centers of the same type, distributed throughout the country, they conceive of education as a tool for transforming reality and a channel of and for social inclusion.

The purpose of this project, approved and supported by the Planning and Development Office of the Salesian Province of Northern Argentina (ARN), is "to reduce the unemployment and job insecurity of those people who, due to their socio-economic vulnerability, do not have access or have not completed their basic education, nor have they obtained professional qualifications," as reported by the same office.

The "San José" CFP offers a socio-educational proposal for non-formal education that provides a quick entry into the world of work. In this way, it fully fulfills the Salesian educative-pastoral proposal, which works to support and promote the poorest. Furthermore, the formation and support proposals are completed by the offer of a snack to all participants.

The opening of the "San José" CFP in 2015 was a response of the Salesian Family to the difficult working conditions in the province of Salta, and is in line with Pope Francis's request to be an "outgoing Church": a Church that is inclusive, that shortens distances and engages in concrete works and deeds to accompany the most needy.

Since its opening, hundreds of young people and adults have already passed through this school and have managed to challenge themselves to improve their self-esteem, safety, spirituality, job opportunities and their quality of life.

For the Salesians, the education and formation of the young are the essence or reason for life: without them, the Salesian vocation loses its true horizon. 

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