Zurgena trains 30 unemployed people while they restore its municipal theatre and improve the old station
The Andalusian regional government (Junta de Andalucía) is funding two Employment and Training projects in Zurgena with €688,719: 30 unemployed people are training and working for a year in three trades.
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Learning a trade with your hands on the building work, and with that work staying in the town. That is how the two Employment and Training (Empleo y Formación) projects run by Zurgena Town Council work, in which 30 unemployed people are training and working for a year in bricklaying, painting and gardening. The Andalusian regional government (Junta de Andalucía) is funding them with €688,719.
The territorial delegate for Employment, Enterprise and Self-Employment, Amós García Hueso, has visited the trainees together with the mayor, Domingo Trabalón, according to the Junta. García pointed out that these are sectors that are “very dynamic in our province” and that “have a high demand for qualified professionals”.
Two projects with a history
- The old railway station. Fifteen people are training in plant nurseries and gardening and in bricklaying while they build a ramp and improve the area around the building. The Junta is contributing €345,006.
- The municipal theatre. Another fifteen are learning gardening, the repair and painting of municipal facilities and street furniture, and bricklaying. Their big task will be to restore the theatre, a building of historical, artistic and heritage value. In this case, the contribution is €343,713.
After that year of training alternating with work, the trainees will be able to obtain a level 2 professional certificate.
A double benefit
“These workshops have a double benefit: on the one hand, their participants gain experience, training and new opportunities to enter the world of work; and, on the other, their work translates into visible improvements for all the residents of Zurgena”, the mayor explained.
And the town already has experience. In the last four years, the town council has run three other Employment and Training projects and has taken part in programmes such as Emplea-T and the employment plans, with an investment from the regional ministry of Employment of more than €1.98 million and around a hundred people benefiting, according to the Junta. All this in a municipality of 3,059 inhabitants, according to the INE, Spain’s National Statistics Institute.
The Junta frames these programmes within the fight against depopulation: García spoke of “continuing to give life to inland villages, generating opportunities that help to halt depopulation”. Zurgena’s two projects are among the 31 now under way in the province, with €9.86 million to train 447 unemployed people.
