The Indigenous Cultural and Training Centre (CCFI) has been developing a series of training sessions with job opportunities for: indigenous Venezuelan refugees and indigenous Brazilians from the region.
On this occasion, joining efforts with the Macunaíma Educational Center, they are giving a training course to work in the construction area, since this sector has a great demand for labor.
Juan Diego, volunteer humanitarian server of the Fraternity – Humanitarian Federation (FIHF) tells us: “The course for construction assistants in the area of civil construction was a course purchased and paid for by the Fraternity – Humanitarian Federation (FIHF) and taught by the Macunaíma Educational Center. The course began on March 15 and will end on June 7. Always in the morning from 8:00 to 12:00.”
Labor market in civil construction
This sector is considered of great importance for the world economy because it has a strong capillarity, directly affecting many other sectors, acting as a thermometer of economic growth. In Brazil, for every 14 people employed, one works in civil construction. This is equivalent to 8% of all jobs generated in the country.
The branch of civil construction can cover the following areas: residential – the largest and with the most paths to choose from; commercial – including hotels, shopping malls, office buildings, consultancies; and various public works.
Professor Everaldo, who trained the indigenous people, also highlighted that civil construction is an area with ample possibilities for entrepreneurship, since it generates a constantly growing demand, and the entrepreneur or self-employed professional can work in new construction or reforms of buildings, maintenance, electrical and hydraulic installations and repairs.
In the Brazilian market, these professionals are those people who carry out small domestic tasks, and are called “resolves everything” or “household husband”.
According to Exame magazine, the number of professionals who have formalized as Individual Microentrepreneurs (MEIs) in the home repair sector has increased by 22% in the last two years.
Theory and practice
The course is 100% face-to-face and is intended to bring students to the reality of the labor market, since it has little theory, just what construction assistants need such as notions of calculations, and they immediately begin to practice, to become familiar with the machinery that they are going to use on a construction site, since they practice a little with each piece of equipment, such as the cement mixer, the grinder and other things. They also go to actual construction sites and gain hands-on experience, both by watching the professionals and by doing their own practice.
In this regard, two students from the course express the following: Udenadiwa de Jesus tells us:
“We have been in the theoretical and practical course for two days, and they taught us how to organize and coordinate tasks. Today we learned the names of the tools in Portuguese, how they are handled to avoid accidents, since they are very frequent and even fatal. The course is important to get a job even if it is to mix cement, or make fine plaster. There is quite a demand for labor.”
While Brayan, who is 18 years old, tells us: “I am very interested in learning even though I have a lot of experience in this area, and in these two days I have learned about handling machines, worker’s rights. I know that I will be able to defend myself with this course.”
The approach that Professor Everaldo gives to his teaching activity is very important, based on Vygotsky’s theories on socio-interactionism, which tries to explain that all learning originates in a social environment and is developed in a collaborative context, that is, we learn when we interact with other individuals.
Professor Everaldo says: “My concept is that we must prepare the human being as a critical, reflective, respectful and awake being. As a professional I have to handle the entirety of this concept to be able to enter the labor market. Train them so that they always know how to deal with what people want to receive, whether they like it or not, here I am preparing them for that.”
“For me, inclusion within professional education is this: a much broader concept than adapting Braille, adapting assistive technologies, it is much broader than that, it is a concept of coexistence, it is a concept of reciprocity, it is a concept of honesty, altruism, camaraderie.”
Training and update
Professor Everaldo also highlighted that “professional training must be part of the life of any person who wants to grow in the labor market, including in civil construction,” and underlines: “by this I mean that training and updating must be constant, because the market is always evolving.”
Regarding the importance of certification, Juan Diego tells us: “One of the objectives is to introduce them to the labor market so that they have less difficulty entering it. Our audience is indigenous, mainly Taurepang, Warao, Yekwana and Kariña refugees. The course is having very good results, because the people continue, there is a good participation and presence of the students. We hope that when they leave they can easily access the labor market. The Macunaíma Educational Center shares this vision and tries to ensure that its students access the labor market, that they graduate with a job. If not all of them, at least some of them will get a permanent job.”
