Spain will launch a 600 million Euro educational program in the Philippines to provide scholarships for vocational training to address unemployment in the country, and will also use a portion of the funds to restore Intramuros.
Full article from the Manila Times after the jump.
Spanish project to benefit Intramuros
By Jayson Cruz Luna, Reporter
The Manila Times
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Spain is poised to launch a P300-million social program, called Escuela Taller, that aims to provide vocational training to young residents of Intramuros and contribute to the historic district’s rehabilitation, Madrid’s envoy to Manila said.
The program, whose name translates to “school workshop,” is part of Spain’s grand plan to reestablish a presence in the Asia-Pacific region, Ambassador Luis Arias told The Manila Times in an exclusive roundtable interview Tuesday. He added that Spain, which colonized the Philippines for more than 350 years, cannot look at the region without considering its “special relationship” with this country.
The Spaniards built Intramuros, which literally means “inside the walls,” in the 16th century. It is the oldest district in Manila, the Philippine capital, and is among the legacies of the colonial period.
Escuela Taller aims to take in 100 students for two years of training, Arias said, adding that the program was inspired by the similar one that worked well in Spain. (Taller, incidentally, is pronounced “talyer” in Filipino.)
“As part of addressing the problems during our democratic period in Spain, we started Escuela Taller to address the unemployment problem in the country,” Arias said. “We build something [and] at the same time we teach our people. We have started with this system, which proved to be successful.”
Participants in the program will be trained in plumbing, carpentry, sewing and other vocational skills, Arias said. The workshop will be carried out in cooperation with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the Intramuros Administration, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Department of Education, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
The skills development program starts in May. The participants will be selected with the help of the Social Welfare department and a steering committee comprised of members from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Intramuros Administration. Part of the program includes rehabilitating Intramuros.
“We feel that we need to do something on Intramuros,”Arias said. “It needs restoration. We are working with Filipinos little by little to restore Intramuros. After restoring it through the program, people will also benefit because they will be trained in different craftsmanship to earn a living.”
The government of Spain will be spending at least 600,000 euros (about P300 million) for the program.
Arias said most of the Spain’s projects have a social component, because they want to make an impact on eradicating poverty.
Spain may be 16,000 kilometers away from the Philippines, but the two countries are similar not only in language but also in their culture and history, he said, adding that because of this, Spain wants to develop closer ties with the Philippines. He added that 71 percent of their development cooperation work is in the Philippines.
The envoy said Escuela Taller is just part of a more bigger project of their government toward the entire region—Plan Asia.
The program aims to strengthen ties and friendship between Spain and Asian countries. Plan Asia also intends to identify the fields of interest where Spain can help developing countries by sharing technical expertise in aquaculture and fisheries, infrastructure development, the energy sector and others.
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