Workshop Schools in Colombia, a tool for inclusion and peace

Workshop Schools in Colombia are a training tool whose objective is to insert vulnerable youths to the labor market by providing training in trades related to the promotion and recovery of the country's cultural heritage, while at the same time they are an instrument for peace and socio-productive inclusion. 

The training programs last between one and two years, and include theoretical and practical education and soft skills (knowledge of responsibilities and risks in the workplace) and public interest and social work. These programs respond to the following thematic axis through the "learn by doing" methodology: 

• Training for work and human development (Sustainable Workshop Schools) 
• Cultural entrepreneurship (productive units)
• Management for competitiveness (Network)

The National Workshop Schools Program has been supported by the Ministry of Culture of Colombia since 1992, with the start of the alliance between the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID, for its acronym in Spanish) and the National Learning Service (SENA, for its acronym in Spanish). Since 1995, this program has been supported by CAF, Development Bank of Latin America. Currently it is a Government program working jointly with local entities in Colombia, seeking to insert youths in the labor market. It includes a cross-cutting concept of civic and moral values in the training provided to participants in order to educate responsible citizens both at personal and professional levels. 

Currently, the National Workshop Schools Program in Colombia has eight workshop school centers in Barichara, Bogota, Buenaventura, Caldas, Cartagena, Mompox, Popayan, and Tunja, of which 7 are self-sustained. In addition, it has 22 applications for workshop schools throughout the country, among them, in Guapí, Quibdo, Tumaco, and Timbiriquí in the Colombian Pacific. 

From the beginning until 2014 27,383 youths have been trained, with a labor insertion rate of 86 percent of the graduates.