The Colombian National Apprenticeships Service (SENA) is launching a national strategy to promote innovation and ...
The Colombian National Apprenticeships Service (SENA) is launching a national strategy to promote innovation and technological development among businessmen -particularly SMEs owners and managers- to encourage them to invest in added value for their products.
Alfonso Prada, national director of the entity, highlighted two things of the program: the improvement of the joint financing percentage and the provision of direct resources to encourage regions to participate. The initiative has USD 22 million to be used in a three years period (2015-2018).
The national government is betting on innovation to strengthen the country’s competitiveness and productivity. In addition, it is taking concrete measures, such as diving the call into segments to equally distribute resources. Furthermore, SENA has approved SMEs to have joint financing for 20% of the project suggested. Previously, joint financing used to be of 50%, which caused difficulties in innovation. Therefore “if a project of USD 30.000 project was selected, the company had to provide USD 15.000. Today, SENA finances up to 80% of the project”.
For 2016 SENA’s budget has been estimated around USD 1.2 billion. The money will be used to train over 1.25 million people to get a degree, as well as to train 6 million people in complementary courses -3 million by using in-person education and 3 million by using virtual education-. Moreover, there will be investments in public employment agencies and in the entrepreneurship program that seeks to generate jobs.
