In 2009 DEP and Educaweb worked closely together with the Occupation Promotion Service of Vilafranca del Penedès City Council to start the Project “Aprendre a Vilafranca” (Learning in Vilafranca).

Which are the main features of the project?
“Aprendre a Vilafranca” was born with the aim of giving an answer to the educational needs of the citizens of Vilafranca and its region, specially youngsters who have dropped compulsory or post-compulsory studies too soon, long-term unemployed and individuals unemployed because of the economic crisis situation, as well as persons who have never worked in a company and are willing to, and all those interested in reorienting their professional activity.

Which specific actions have been executed so far in the framework of the Project?
DEP developed a census and a study on the course offerings in Vilafranca. On the other hand, DEP analyzed the training needs of population, specially the less favoured groups or groups at risk of social exclusion, and also of the professionals of companies in Vilafranca and around. Additionally, Educaweb organized, together with the Occupation Promotion Service, the fair “Learning in Vilafranca”, taking place in December 2009, which brought the city’s training offering to citizens and specifically stressed continuing education. The portal “Learning in Vilafranca” was presented during the fair, as well as the self-assessment guidance tool IPSUM, an initiative of Educaweb which had a very favourable reception.

Who is the portal “Aprendre a Vilafranca” (Learning in Vilafranca) addressed to?
Anyone over 16 years old and with any training background who would like to start or continue with a learning itinerary and needing guidance for the several educational and training choices, and it’s also a supporting tool for guidance professionals. Within the portal we find the IPSUM tool, in which the user can express his likes, preferences, values and interests on studies and professions and obtain information on the itineraries offered by the educational system and the training offer found in Vilafranca that best suits their personal profile.

The project “Aprendre a Vilafranca” has enabled you, thus, to get to know in detail the educational offer in Vilafranca and its region.
Yes, and it has showed us the strong and weak points about it, and now we know which specific aspects of training we need to emphasize.


How many educational entities offer training in Vilafranca?
There are a total of 110. This figure implies that, for every 283 citizens over 16 years, there’s an entity offering some kind of course.

Which subjects?
From the more of 1.400 estimated courses, the ones related to languages are the most abundant (21,1%); in the second place we have the ones related to musical education, dance and theatre (15,4%) and next those related to sports (11,3%). On the other hand, more than half the entities concentrating Vilafranca’s training offer belong to the third sector (53,1%); among them stand out the cultural or leisure entities (26,3%). The profit making private sector represents 31,3%, 26,3% of which are companies.

Which continuity have you planned for the project “Aprendre a Vilafranca”?
Its continuity depends, largely, on the funds we’re able to raise. So far this year we have received the support of Diputació de Barcelona and we are working on a new proposal with other agents. This proposal, with which we will probably apply to the announcement for Innovative Projects of the Ministry of Employment, aims at taking advantage and sharing the experience and the resulting tools and products of the project “Aprendre a Vilafranca” and at introducing new methodological elements to continue working on our long term objective: the promotion of a life-long learning culture in our cities and region.