Professional Education

Apprenticeships in manual professions for financially impaired young people that are either unemployed or looking for a job for the first time. To enable them to find a decent, appropriately-payed job, they recieve training in developing their own personality and in social integration. Aiming at these goals, the education in the different manual professions consists of 2 courses: The basic- and the advanced-courses, all of which lasting half a year. Classes are held all day Monday through Friday and are charge-free.

In addition, we offer charge-free night-courses for teenagers with "low educational budgets" for the same professions.

Anually 500 young men and women from the Santiago metropolitan area, preferably from the poor outskirts in the north.

44 employees: a team of educators, teachers, psychologists and other skilled workers as well as administrative and maintenance personnel; 8 volunteers of different professions

2.450 Mio Pesos, approx. 4.9 Mio USD, mainly from funds for the development from the state, donations from clubs and associations as well as privateers from Germany and Luxembourg, and the Chilenian foundation "Chile´s Children".

With subventions of the SENCE (national service for further education and seeking jobs, adherent to the ministry of work) and, until 1999, with money from the Luxembourgian government through the foundation "Chile´s Kinder".

• professional and technical advisory for the education of adults and the apprenticeships in those professions we offer

• voluntaries to counsel the teenager and support them psychologically

• Personal and financial support in the planning and execution of sportive, artistic and cultural activities. Companies offering internships and/or employing after the completion of our course.

We believe, it is important to provide teenagers from poor families with a perspective for life, a possibility to join the workforce and hereby the chance for their own self-realisation. By doing this we prevent situations of social risks (such as Drugs and Criminal Offences) and support the young people to use their abilities and their creativity for the wellness of society.

September 1989 as the continuation of the Women´s Program out of the "Fundación Mission" (1978-1988)

Primsa de los Andes is a vocational training school. We are a group of professionals dedicated to people in the work of education and training through courses that promote and develop new skills and knowledge.

The school is housed in an antique home with the air of a small palace in a western neighborhood of Central Santiago.

Courses are given in two parts totaling eight months; the first six months are an elective section followed by two months of practical internship. Parallel to the specialty classes, each program incorporates coursework in mathematics, grammar and computer skills.

Approximately 170 students for the 8-month program and 100 women for other workshops.

Large, victorian house approximately 800 m² = 8600 ft², built in 1880, restored for the current use.

• Regularly

Support by SENCE, sale of products that are produced in the workshops (artwork and handicrafts) and donations.

• Irregularly

• Future

In 2005, thanks to generous contributions from many in Germany we will be renovating spaces within the school to incorporate a new bakery kitchen with an attached sales shop and an overall increased capacity for up to 250 students.

We believe that an apprenticeship in a manual job can be the necessary tool in society, to prevent the inheritage of poverty.