Teachers and professionals from Tarapacá are trained as mentor guides with a new free diploma

The Rural Youth 4.0 project, executed by the SEK University with financing from the Innovation Fund for Competitiveness (FIC) of the Regional Government of Tarapacá, began a new free diploma course in the region.

This is “Training of Mentor Guides”, a training initiative that is taught to two groups of teachers and professionals from Tarapacá who have already started with virtual classes that will allow them to develop their capabilities in entrepreneurship methodologies in social innovation, so that they can guide rural youth in the design of creative solutions to the challenges of the area.

Rubén Villanueva, one of the students, said that he applied for the diploma motivated to learn about the creation of entrepreneurship in youth environments. He said he “hopes to learn about the process of creating a company to seek real sustainable solutions to environmental problems that harm our urban and rural sectors.”

There are 10 sessions that this program considers, in addition to two evaluations and the development of a group work in which the participants must create a plan to support an innovation project.

“I think it is a great learning tool for new technologies in the world focused on education, especially encouraging young people to think in a new way using existing resources. I hope from this diploma to learn from those who have experiences in other areas to generate support networks for my students,” said Nataly Ortega, teacher of Natural Sciences and Chemistry, and student of the program.

AIM

María Laura Navarrete, researcher and coordinator of the SEK University team, indicated that the purpose of executing this initiative is that the students, upon completing their training, can have sufficient information and knowledge to identify problems or opportunities in their territory. that can be addressed through innovation and entrepreneurship.

“We hope that with the knowledge they acquire in this diploma they will be able to understand and apply the concept of social innovation, with emphasis on the role that teachers play as mentor guides for youth, reflect on the characteristics of the region at a social, economic, climate, etc., and how they can guide students in creating solutions to social problems,” he pointed out.

Since its launch, the Rural Youth 4.0 project has implemented different training instances, among which are the diplomas “Social innovation in times of crisis” and “Rural social innovation, comparative lessons on the inclusion of technology”, which were developed with success during 2023 and the beginning of this year.