San Juan Strengthens Human Capital Development to Support Mining Growth
The development of mining activity in the province of San Juan presents new challenges and, at the same time, generates an important opportunity to strengthen the training of workers and professionals capable of meeting the current and future needs of this productive sector.
In this context, the Province has been developing a comprehensive strategy that articulates the Ministry of Education, through the Directorate of Technical Secondary Education and Vocational Training, with the mining sector, companies, higher education institutions, universities and other state agencies, with the goal of progressively closing the existing gap between the profiles required by the labor market and the capabilities of workers and graduates.
Rodolfo Navas, Director of Technical Education and Vocational Training in San Juan.
The premise is clear: mining growth must be accompanied by an educational policy and vocational training that enables San Juan residents to access the job opportunities generated by this activity.
Better learning and working environments
One of the fundamental pillars of this strategy is the creation and adaptation of training and educational environments where students and workers can develop knowledge, skills and competencies under conditions increasingly similar to those they will encounter in the workplace.
In this regard, the Province is advancing in the construction of new Technical Secondary Education facilities, as well as in the expansion and refunctioning of workshops, classrooms and practice spaces in various educational institutions.
This is complemented by the strengthening of Labor Training Schools and Vocational Training spaces, adapting their practice areas and improving building and technological conditions so that trainees can effectively develop their skills.
The expansion of these environments also allows increasing the number of people who can access training and vocational education instances, generating greater availability of workers with certifications and competencies linked to the productive system's needs.
Workshop classrooms are other educational spaces opening to meet San Juan's educational demand.
Bringing training to mining communities
The challenge is not only training workers. It is also necessary to ensure that training opportunities reach the communities where mining activity is developed or projected to grow.
In this regard, the Province is working on a fundamental concept: training must come to communities and not force people to move to major urban centers to access a career or training program.
This policy is particularly important in departments far from San Juan city, where rural communities face greater economic and geographic difficulties accessing higher education.
Using resources from mining activity and through coordination between the Ministry of Mining and the Ministry of Education, hybrid classrooms have been developed to bring higher education closer to these territories.
These spaces are equipped with computers, connectivity via satellite internet, screens, projectors, sound systems and technological equipment that enables delivering university educational programs without students having to leave their communities to move to urban centers.
Currently, these environments allow the delivery of eight university technical programs, serving over 600 students, some directly linked to mining activity and others related to specialties that complement and strengthen the province's productive network.
San Juan seeks to expand the range of technical profiles available.
In this way, resources generated by productive activity themselves become a tool for broadening access to education and creating local development opportunities.
Training supporting all segments of mining activity
Mining does not demand only specialists in resource extraction. Its development requires a broad network of workers and technicians linked to multiple sectors.
For this reason, the educational strategy includes profiles related to metal mechanics, electrical work, electromechanics, information technology, software development, automotive, maintenance, heavy machinery and other technical specialties essential for the functioning of mining projects and their contractor companies.
San Juan also has an established track record in training directly linked to mining. There are technical programs and technical schools that develop specific profiles, including mining activity-related training and specialties such as electromechanics, electrical work, automotive and information technology.
Among the higher education training profiles linked to these needs are, among others, Mining Prospecting Technician, Heavy Machinery Maintenance Technician and Software Development Technician.
The current approach seeks precisely to broaden this concept: not training only for mining, but training for the entire productive ecosystem generated around mining activity.
Vocational training and certified credentials with institutional backing
Another central component is strengthening Vocational Training.
The Directorate of Technical Secondary Education and Vocational Training is developing courses and training programs in coordination with companies and productive sector organizations.
An important feature of these programs is that certifications have institutional backing and seek to ensure that acquired competencies receive recognition within the educational and labor systems.
This process involves reference frameworks and criteria established nationally through the National Institute of Technological Education (INET), along with the provincial development and implementation of training profiles by the Ministry of Education.
Among the specialties currently gaining relevance are profiles related to drilling, driller assistant, geological activity assistants, maintenance and various technical specialties required by mining companies and their contractors.
The goal is for training to respond to concrete needs and for companies to find workers with previously developed and certified competencies.
Software is another of the most popular technical programs in San Juan for entering the industry.
Technical competencies and soft skills
Closing the employment skills gap does not depend exclusively on technical knowledge.
The job market increasingly demands workers capable of communicating, working in teams, solving problems, adapting to different situations, taking on responsibilities and performing in dynamic work environments.
Therefore, the educational transformation being implemented in the province also incorporates development of so-called soft skills, understood as personal and social competencies that complement technical training.
Within this framework fall the policies for strengthening education at different levels and, particularly, the transformations underway in secondary school.
The Transform Secondary Education program, for example, promotes new forms of teaching and learning, including Project-Based Learning (PBL).
This methodology allows students to develop cross-curricular projects that engage different subject areas and face them with concrete problem-solving situations.
The aim is to advance toward graduates with more comprehensive training, capable of combining technical knowledge with personal, social and workplace competencies.
Secondary school completion: more opportunities for work and training
Completion of secondary education is another fundamental component of this strategy. Finishing this educational path not only expands the possibilities for accessing higher studies and vocational training, but also improves employment opportunities.
In this regard, the Province is developing actions and agreements to support those who were unable to complete secondary school. Among these initiatives is coordination with Buenos Aires Autonomous City to implement completion programs through the Adults 2000 program, designed to enable youth and adults to finish their secondary studies.
Additionally, the Directorate of Technical Secondary Education is working on specific alternatives for technical secondary completion, so that those who interrupted their education can complete training combining secondary-level certification with technical knowledge and competencies.
Programs are also being promoted to support completion of secondary-track school paths, addressing different student realities and generating new opportunities for them to resume and finish their studies.
These policies also respond to a concrete demand from the productive sector. Increasingly, companies require their workers to have completed secondary education, as finishing formal schooling encourages understanding of procedures, problem-solving in work situations, communication, decision-making and compliance with safety standards in work environments.
Therefore, ensuring secondary school completion is also strengthening employability conditions and preparing more San Juan residents to join mining projects and productive activities developed around them.
Strengthening education from the foundation
The human capital development strategy also requires strengthening fundamental learning.
Therefore, provincial educational policies are working from early childhood and primary education through secondary school on programs designed to improve literacy and learning conditions.
Programs like Understand and Learn and actions developed under Transform Secondary Education are part of this process of strengthening students' educational capacities.
The logic is that preparation for the world of work begins long before entering technical school or a vocational training center.
A worker prepared for new productive demands needs solid foundational competencies, capacity for lifelong learning and willingness to incorporate new technologies and knowledge.
Mobile Workshop Classrooms: bringing training to where demand exists
Another instrument strengthening this strategy is Mobile Workshop Classrooms.
The province currently has six equipped units that allow transporting training programs to different areas of the provincial territory.
Their importance lies precisely in their ability to bring training closer to communities that, due to distance or geographic characteristics, may face difficulties accessing certain educational centers.
Mobile Workshop Classrooms enable development of training in specialties demanded by the productive system and allow progressively adapting the training supply to needs emerging in each territory.
In this way, vocational training ceases to be a static offering and becomes a tool that can move wherever new worker demands and employment opportunities appear.
A long-term policy
The challenge posed by mining growth for San Juan is not limited to having natural resources. It also involves having human capital prepared to support that development.
The coordination between technical secondary education and vocational training, higher education, companies and agencies linked to mining activity enables building a comprehensive response.
The province is thus advancing in a strategy combining educational infrastructure, new practice environments, vocational training, university technical programs, certifications, technological incorporation, development of technical competencies and strengthening of soft skills.
The ultimate goal is to reduce the gap between what the educational system develops and what the productive system needs.
In this process, education becomes a fundamental tool for mining development to generate concrete opportunities for San Juan residents, especially those living in communities where productive activity is conducted.
Training, developing skills and creating opportunities are, ultimately, three central components of the same policy: preparing San Juan for new productive challenges and ensuring that mining growth also translates into more development opportunities for its people.