Social Mobility And The Impact Of Training Projects In SENA's Integral Vocational Training Program

Abstract

This article focuses on social mobility, an element discussed in depth in the study carried out about the impact of project-based training on the quality of comprehensive vocational training (SENA). For this purpose, qualitative research was carried out following the methodology called the most significant change, which among its inquiries supported the question of which factors, from the perspective of apprentices in the productive stage, instructors and graduates, contribute to or hinder the implementation of practices that favor project-based training in training centers? From this perspective, one of the intentions was to identify what enables or hinders, the training project strategy and from the implementation of comprehensive vocational training, social mobility.  To this end, instructors were trained as research assistants, so fifty-three focus groups were carried out with them in fourteen training centers of the National Learning Service (SENA) distributed throughout Colombia. As the most relevant result, it is highlighted that the comprehensive professional training provided by this institution through the project-based strategy does achieve social mobility of the apprentices, since by basing the training on the training project and intertwining it with the life project and competencies, it empowers the person emotionally, occupationally and entrepreneurially; in addition, it moves him/her to become professional and continue studying, as an opportunity to improve his/her quality of life every day.