(2221) UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AS ACTIVE CONTRIBUTORS IN THE STRENGTHENING OF TECHNICAL SKILLS IN VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES OF ECUADOR - A CASE STUDY

摘要

Education through different stages constitutes the primordial basis for the sustainable development of countries. It also constitutes an effective tool to reduce economic and social gaps through access to a decent job. In Ecuador, an emphasis is given to the education in technical areas that allows positive changes in the production of goods by moving from a production model based on primary goods to value-added goods. Thus, professionals with training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are currently highly demanded in the labour market. The Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral, ESPOL (Acronym in Spanish) a public higher education institution, through the development of social projects, is part of this educational intervention that seeks to strengthen the technical skills of students from high schools located in marginal urban areas of the city of Guayaquil with both economic and social vulnerabilities. The specific areas of intervention are two neighbourhoods adjacent to the University Campus where, according to the last National Population Census, only one in ten young people has reached at least one year of postsecondary education. Through the development of well-designed and interactive workshops among both high school and undergraduate students, technical skills were developed for computer maintenance, industrial automation, basic electronics and electricity. The technical training ended with a training on business development plan motivating to entrepreneurship. This educational intervention benefited a total of 180 high school students from the areas mentioned, aged between 15 to 18 years old. Also, 40 undergraduate students from several programs such as telematics, electronics and automation, telecommunications, and business administration, have participated as facilitators under the supervision of lecturers, generating a real multidisciplinary environment and strengthening the soft skills evaluated as institutional learning outcomes: ability to understand the ethical and professional responsibility, ability to communicate effectively, and ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team. By qualitative exploratory research, one of the main results found through this educational intervention was that most high school students consider the workshops are relevant and provided them the appropriate means for future employment opportunities; more than half of them plan to start a venture based on what they learned during the training. Likewise, results show that 20% of high school students with a background in accounting or administration, decided to study a technical post-secondary program after the workshops were taught. Thus, through this intervention ESPOL is contributing to the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal 4 and its target 4.3 “Equal access to technical/vocational and higher education” as well as the Goal 5 “promote productivity and competitiveness for sustainable economic growth in a redistributive and solidary way” as established in the National Development Plan.