The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Food Sovereignty is offering over fifty training programs starting in January at its Agricultural Training Schools (ECA) located in Tenerife, La Palma, and Gran Canaria. These courses are aimed at both young entrepreneurs in the primary sector and the continuous training of workers.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Food Sovereignty of the Canary Islands Government has approved the 2025 training program for the Agricultural Training Schools (ECA). A total of 53 free professional courses have been scheduled, available in in-person, online, and hybrid formats to facilitate enrollment for students across all the islands. The application period will begin on January 13 and close eight days before the start of each course.
Through this non-formal education, offered at the ECA locations in Tacoronte (Tenerife), Los Arucas (Gran Canaria), and Los Llanos de Aridane (La Palma), the initiative aims to promote the integration of young people into agricultural activities with courses designed to prepare them for starting new businesses, as well as to provide ongoing training for workers in the primary sector, equipping them with professional qualifications aligned with the modernization of agricultural activities.
In this regard, Narvay Quintero, the Minister of Agriculture, highlighted the importance of training to "improve the competitiveness of our professional sector, while also ensuring the much-needed generational renewal in the field, one of the persistent challenges in the European agricultural and fisheries sector for years."
The courses are primarily intended to meet the training needs of individuals applying for subsidies under the framework of the Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (PEPAC), particularly those interested in the measure supporting the creation of businesses for young farmers and livestock breeders who lack the required agricultural qualifications. These individuals will have priority when enrolling in the courses.
The training activities cover a wide range of topics, including the use of agricultural machinery, tropical fruit cultivation, specialization in palm trees, environmentally compatible intensive livestock farming practices, dairy product production, irrigation and fertigation systems, the use of technology in the agricultural sector, and ecological soil management, among others.
Participants in the various programs will receive a certificate of attendance or achievement, provided they do not exceed 20% absenteeism of the total course hours. Additionally, if the number of applications exceeds the available spots, after selecting the beneficiaries of the business creation subsidies, five spots will be reserved for women.