UPR-Río Piedras to offer free trainings to 45K unemployed, underemployed in Puerto Rico
Looking to promote the training of the labor force to drive Puerto Rico “toward the economy of the future,” the Continuing Education and Professional Studies Division (DECEP, in Spanish) of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus launched its Labor Training Program, destined to benefit 45,000 unemployed or underemployed people on the island in a five-year period.
The initiative will also foster economic development and create jobs by investing funds from the Puerto Rico Department of Housing’s Community Development-Disaster Recovery Block Grant (CDBG-DR) in resources that facilitate skills development through education, technical assistance and mentoring, said Luis Ferrao, rector of the UPR-Río Piedras.
All the certifications will be offered free of charge to participants. They include project management, medical record management, customer service, graphic design, entrepreneurship and innovation, management and supervision, administration of federal funds, cultural management, marketing plan and social networks, proposal development, gypsum board, event coordination, maintenance of green areas, tourism and hospitality, fundamentals in construction, reading and interpretation of plans, among others.
The project will also foster economic development and create jobs by investing CDBG-DR funds on resources that facilitate skills development through education, technical assistance, and mentoring, he said.
The Center will benefit the unemployed, school dropouts ages 16 and older, and anyone interested in retraining in a high-demand field who currently earns less than $28,000 a year.
The initiative will be carried out in partnership with the Puerto Rico Department of Education, the Spartans Employment Agency, Subway and the municipalities of San Juan, Guaynabo, Toa Baja, Loíza, Vieques, Culebra, among others.
