SENA surpassed its 2 million-student goal
December 2003

Bogotá, 30 December 2003 - The National Training Service (SENA) concluded the year 2003 achieving its objective to make available to more Colombians free integral vocational training for work, innovation and enterprising activities. It accomplished 103 per cent of its goal of training 1,950,000 students.

It is estimated that by December the institution will have trained 2,100,000 students -- its general director, Darío Montoya Mejía, announced-- specifying that, even if ambitious, all goals had been achieved. With respect to degree training (conferring the diploma of skilled worker, technician or technologist), SENA had aimed to include 179,000 students. "This goal was surpassed a month ago, when we had reached 102 per cent of its fulfilment", Montoya Mejía indicated.

Regarding occupational training (addressed to unemployed persons), the institution had attained 109 per cent of its goal by November. In 2002, SENA trained 1,076,000 persons, thus doubling in 2003 the number of Colombians benefiting from free integral vocational training offered by the Government through SENA.

A huge organization with a greater potential

The public official explained that SENA's countrywide presence accounts for such coverage. "We have 167 centres of our own and we were working at more than 900 municipalities, but next year we are going to guarantee permanent programmes at all 1,099 municipalities of Colombia, owing to agreements set up with the mayors", he said.

"These figures corresponding to free integral vocational training were actually real thanks to such immense co-operation," he stressed.

Indeed, the institution's purpose for next year is to do much more through strategic alliances. Its general director announced for 2004 the "modest" goal of a total of 2,450,000 students to be trained at SENA's programmes.

Among the big transformations experimented by the organization, Montoya Mejía highlighted full concertation with entrepreneurs and virtual training. The goal for this latter modality was to train 400,000 students, but only 42,000 were included, due to connectivity restrictions existing in the country.

The public official pointed out that SENA's virtual training differs much from some other modalities offered in the market, consisting of a package which enables the student to get along with the computer. "Here each one of the 42,000 registered students has a tutor behind, following him up strictly in his virtual training process ", he claimed, after announcing the goal of 500,000 trainees through this methodology for 2004.

SENA's process of change

The general director, Darío Montoya Mejía, informed that the decree for restructuring the institution is ready and is currently being reviewed at the Republic's Presidential Office.
Such restructuring, he affirmed, "will facilitate everything we have done so far, and the President is very willing to sign the decree next week".

Furthermore, he underlined the savings achieved up to date, prior to restructuring. "Just by reorienting investments since the day we took office, we have succeeded in assigning nearly COP (Colombian Pesos) 200 thousand millions for SENA's new objectives", he said.
In 2004, the organization plans deeper changes in its training programmes. "We will not feel satisfied unless we guarantee the country that, by the end of next year, SENA's offer is completely targeted toward labour competencies, in new training frameworks and in full concertation with the productive sectors", he added.

Today, the 177 training programmes on labour competencies offered by SENA are the outcome of concertation with entrepreneurs at 34 sectoral tables. "Productive sectors --he indicated-- are starting to recognise ever more the importance of specialised training on labour competencies for the skilled worker, the technician and the technologist in this kind of institutions, under SENA's leadership".

Source: News from SENA's web site: http://www.sena.edu.co/downloads/comunicaciones/Boletines/Enero.zip

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