In Colombia, young people from low-income, ethnic minority or rural backgrounds can face major obstacles to enter formal employment. Limited paths are available to the quality jobs than enable social mobility. Nearly one in four young people in Colombia were NEET (not in employment, education, or training) in Colombia in 2022, the second-highest rate in the OECD. Training in cultural trades helps young people develop their cultural identity and skills as well as offering a path to economic opportunities through entrepreneurship and formal employment.
Workshop Schools, Tools for Peace Programme – Colombia
Abstract
The Colombian National Workshop School: Tools for Peace Programme (Programa Nacional Escuelas Taller de Colombia: Herramientas de Paz) pairs together two general objectives: 1) to improve the skills of vulnerable people, with a focus on youth, in traditional cultural crafts and trades (oficios) and 2) to preserve cultural heritage. The programme supports the peace process in Colombia through the socio‑economic inclusion of people directly or indirectly affected by the armed conflict.
In 2023, 13 Workshop Schools operated across Colombia. Each Workshop School focuses on the cultural trades of the territory in which it operates and the policy priorities of subnational government. Workshop Schools function as local vocational schools where learners receive one to two years of training from expert artisans in the traditional crafts and trades. Cultural trades can include cuisine, metal working, carpentry, building of indigenous musical instruments and building maintenance. Expert artisans are recruited locally as teachers. Through the process of learning, the programme encourages the transmission of cultural knowledge through generations. Training is supported by the National Training Service (SENA), Colombia’s national public agency for adult vocational learning.
The Colombian Ministry of Culture and SENA manage the programme jointly with the support of local governments. The Spanish Agency for International Development Co‑operation (AECID) introduced the Workshop School programme in Colombia in 1992 based on cultural training policies started in Spain in the 1980s. AECID supports similar Workshop School programmes across Latin America.
Between 1992 and 2014, Workshop Schools in Colombia trained over 27 800 young people and secured employment for 86% of graduates (CAF, 2016). In 2015, the Workshop School Foundation of Bogotá (Fundación Escuela Taller de Bogotá) contracted a qualitative evaluation based on twenty‑seven interviews with administrators and managers of Workshop Schools throughout the country, nine workshops with learners and frontline staff and three periods of direct observation. Some of the positive effects on learners observed by workshop and interview participants include greater access to the labour market, better standard of living, greater labour market opportunities for vulnerable people, improved self-employment opportunities, greater self-confidence, greater positivity about the future and heightened labour market empowerment of women learners.
Further reading
[1] CAF (2016), Escuelas taller de Colombia, una herramienta de inclusión y paz, https://www.caf.com/es/actualidad/noticias/2016/04/escuelas-taller-de-colombia-una-herramienta-de-inclusion-y-paz/.
[2] Kalidea (2015), Evaluación intermedia del proyecto: Unidad de gestión del Programa Nacional Escuelas Taller de Colombia-herramientas de paz” en Colombia, https://www.cooperacionespanola.es/wp-content/uploads/documentos/evaluacion_intermedia_escuela_taller_colombia.pdf.
[3] Ministry of Culture (2011), Programa nacional escuelas taller Colombia Herramientas de Paz, https://issuu.com/culturaycomunicacion/docs/e-programa_nacional_escuelas_taller.
[4] OECD (2022), “Culture and the Creative Economy in Colombia: Leveraging the Orange Economy”, Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED), OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/184f1e07-en.
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