Alfonso Prada, Director of SENA, talked about quality employment creation, appropriate training and entrepreneurship, anticipating to the Forum “Training, relevance and entrepreneurship: keys for employment”, which will be developed by Semana in Cartagena, Colombia.

SENA is a clear example of well-functioning public employment services in Latin America. By making use of professional management, it has generated high impact strategies in labour intermediation, training for employment and fostering entrepreneurship.

According to Prada, “demand depends on each region’s needs. In Casanare, people want to be trained in rubber production; in Huila, the focus is on coffee processes. On a national level, the most demanded programs are Occupational Safety, Systems, Administrative Assistance, Cooking, Accountant and Finances, Business Management and Occupational Health”.

When analysing the accomplishments regarding relevance, training and entrepreneurship, Salas gave the following explanation: in 2010, 50% of graduates were employed. Thanks to the articulation with the country’s labour demand and the relevance of training programs, by 2015, 65% of apprentices have a job. As regards entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneur Fund (Fondo Emprender) has delivered resources close to CLP 233.000 million, which has resulted in almost 3.000 new companies in the countries.

According to Prada, in the private sector only a few companies include entrepreneurship programs among their social responsibility divisions. “The business industry needs to change its idea towards entrepreneurship and start thinking of it as a real opportunity to generate added value in the country’s economy”.

Employment creation has become a top priority in Colombia. Prada held that “we are providing quality and relevant training to thousands of apprentices in order to fill job vacancies in the productive sector. In addition, we certify workers’ labour skills to make sure they stay in employment and improve their working profile. Furthermore, this year around 350.000 apprentices will have a training contract that provides them a salary, practical use of their knowledge and the chance of getting a job”.

In addition, Prada talked about entrepreneurship’s near future “we have just started a major national call of the Entrepreneur Fund, with a CLP 15.000 million budget to support business units in every sector. Soon, we will be opening a call in Atlántico, Bolívar, Cesar, Guaviare, Cundinamarca, San Andrés, North of Santander and Valle del Cauca. SENA’s entrepreneurs will receive counselling from the accelerator MassChallenge and the University of Texas at San Antonio, two major players of global entrepreneurship”.