“Education reflects very well the challenges we have as a society: that all people can have access to opportunities to develop their personal and professional life projects”. In this way, Fernanda Orellana, director of the Education area of the Luksic Foundation and executive director of MueveTP, defines the purpose of the Foundation’s education initiatives and programs to enhance the opportunities of those living in Chile, and to promote their life trajectories and those of their communities.
In the framework of the TP education week, Orellana points out that the Foundation is committed to working in professional technical schools because the evidence shows great challenges for this teaching modality.
“We have maintained our commitment to focus on technical-professional education, because we have realized that it is an undervalued education, which also presents large gaps with respect to, for example, the scientific-humanist modality. The Foundation believes that everyone deserves to have the same opportunities and we have insisted on working in this area because it is the students themselves who demonstrate that they are capable, that they want to fulfill their dreams”, explains Fernanda.
The executive director of MueveTP has outstanding experience in the educational field. She is a sociologist with a degree from the Catholic University, was director of the Education area of Techo Chile, volunteered at the Fundación para la Superación de la Pobreza and taught at a professional technical high school: “I have always been very interested in working in education, because I feel that it is a transforming force and that it is in this area where inequalities in people’s life trajectories begin to be marked. My concern is what can we do so that all children in all regions of the country, regardless of their economic situation, have the same opportunities”.
In 2020, after a process of maturation of the Foundation’s Education area and with the aim of deepening its impact in the professional technical world, MueveTP was born. “We defined that we could move a systemic and deep purpose that can change people’s lives. We opted for the continuity of studies because currently, it is still very much installed in the TP system that students who leave high school, their only path is to get a degree in their specialty and work. Students need to have the tools to continue their formative trajectories and develop the skills to adapt and contribute to the challenges of today’s society. The technical-professional education we have today falls short, so MueveTP was created to mobilize and put continuity of studies on the table,” says Orellana.
MueveTP has three initiatives: the Fund for Strengthening Educational Initiatives (FIE), which between 2021 and 2022 has supported 99 schools in financing projects that enhance access to higher education; Educational Networks for the Improvement of Learning (REMA), which seeks to improve the learning of students in first and second grade in language and mathematics through support and networking to improve the pedagogical practices of 98 teachers in 32 schools across the country; and Aspirations for the Future, which in 2022 provided useful and quality information to more than 38. 000 students from 357 technical-vocational schools in Chile, so that young people can make decisions about their chances of accessing higher education.
“After 80 years of technical-professional education, we highlight the importance of the challenges we have in this educational modality, and today more than ever we make ourselves available to work with all our energy to promote the changes and transformation that this system needs,” concludes the director of the Foundation’s Education area.
