When it comes to innovation and progress, it is as important to promote quality education as it is to strive to retain talent, providing opportunities and possibilities for the future. This was the premise of the intervention of the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, at the closing of the Next Spain photo, held this Thursday in the Herculean city. After passing through other cities in the country such as Badajoz, Murcia, Seville or Burgos this year, the University Auditorium was the setting for this meeting, organized by Vocento and ABC in collaboration with Telefónica, the Galician Government, Iberdrola , the town of Herculino. council, the Provincial Council and the University of La Coruña. On this occasion, under the motto “The Spain we want”, The main theme of the event was local innovation and talent empowerment, with La Coruña being “a melting pot of entrepreneurship, engineering and youth creativity”.
“In this very competitive world, when talent is detected, everyone wants to have it, everyone wants to benefit from it”, emphasized the Galician president, who highlighted the importance of “do everything possible to ensure that Galician talent” and “talent from outside” remain in the Community. A subject on which the Regional Executive is working, first of all, focusing on education, “which is the basis of everything”. A system, he elaborated, based on the culture of effort, because, as Rueda recalls, “Galicia is the first autonomous community that today offers the possibility of studying for free from the start of the schooling, childhood education, until obtaining a university degree. is obtained. He thus pleaded for “universal”, “accessible to all” and “sustainable” education, stressing that, this year, 10,000 students have already registered and who, if they continue to succeed, will be able to continue to follow the rest courses. a free diploma. When the registration process is complete, he said, there will be about 20,000.
Then, the regional president wanted to devote a few words to Professional Training, because “countries or Autonomous Communities which do not understand that the promotion of education in general also includes the promotion of Professional Training will make an error and will suffer the problems” that here in Galicia we are starting to alleviate – but we are also suffering – from the lack of professionals for activities with high potential. For a long time, he explained, universities have been the focus, but FP “offers enormous opportunities.” It is for this reason that in Galicia the Administration has strived to promote this “silent revolution” of the FP, and in just ten years, the number of students enrolled in these courses has doubled. Something which, in the eyes of the president, responds to “a positive change in mentalities”.
But if taking care of education is essential, it is also essential to offer opportunities for talents to decide to bet on Galicia to develop their professional careers. “Do everything possible so that they research here, so that they develop their talents here, so that they transfer their knowledge to companies, in real life, from here,” he stressed, and more later, “from Galicia to the world”. To this end, he explained that in this legislature, his Executive has divided R&D&i into two departments. Much of it has focused on the Education portfolio, which now houses the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN), taking advantage of the powerful research ecosystem that exists in the three Galician universities. In addition, he continued, the part related to the transfer of knowledge falls under the Department of Economy and Industry, because, he reiterated, “it is also important that there is R&D&i that it is then transposed into real life”. economic life is what makes everything work in the end.”
He also highlighted that Galicia is the sixth autonomous region that benefits from the greatest amount of aid for research personnel, and expressed the intention to continue progressing in this area, “because it always has a huge return.” Moreover, it was the first community to regulate the professional career of its research staff, something “fundamental” because “we must offer people a future”. Especially “when there are so many people, so many institutions, so many administrations and businesses who want to offer a future elsewhere”. “We must tell people that they can make their life plan, develop their talents and have a horizon” in the Community, because, he concluded, “talking about the future of a country”, it is also talking about “the future of one’s talents”. ”
