Enel Green Power has completed its first technical training programme for young people from the town of Taltal in the province of Antofagasta: 12 of them have had theoretical lessons and practical sessions at EGP’s solar plants. The programme is aimed at creating specialist employment opportunities in the field of solar PV technology
Enel Green Power has launched in Chile its first technical training programme in the field of solar PV technology for young people from the town of Taltal, in the province of Antofagasta, in the north of the Latin American country. Twelve mostly 20-year old secondary school graduates were the first young people to participate in the training programme, which is aimed at creating local employment opportunities in the field of specialist solar PV technology, both for homes and industries.
The ’Solar School’ in Chile has been organised by EGP’s sustainability department together with the company’s solar PV engineering unit in the Latin American country. The course was completed with the cooperation and support of the municipality of Taltal and Soltec, a global company specialising in solar plant components, which provides EGP with solar tracking systems.
The training programme involves five days of classroom lessons, a visit to a functioning plant and a month at a plant under construction gaining practical experience and building on theoretical knowledge.
In fact, the course is aimed at offering young people basic expertise in all the various applications of solar technology, granting them wide-ranging skills, including safety rules and environmental protection, principles of corporate management and information useful to creating solutions for small and medium sized companies.
The theoretical lessons and practical sessions were led by Enel Green Power technicians, who were assisted by those from Soltec and representatives of the local government. Additionally, the young people visited the functioning plant of Lalackama and the Pampa Norte facility, currently under construction. Taltal, where EGP’s wind farm of the same name has been built, is located at the heart of an area where, over the years, thanks to an abundance of wind and sun, renewable energy has developed at a very fast pace, granting the local population (around 13,000 inhabitants) new employment opportunities, outside the traditional jobs in the mining and fishing sectors. For EGP this course is the first step down a path for the training of young people that the company is planning on replicating in other Chilean provinces, just like it’s doing in South Africa.
