The Colombian government-run technical institute SENA, which focuses on offering students practical and technical educational courses, announced new plans to open sister institutes in the United States, reported La Republica on Thursday.
The institute’s director, Dario Montoya, explained that after a successful year in 2009, which saw the enrollment and training of some 400,000 students, SENA’s next focus will be on international partnerships and the opening of institutes in the U.S, similar to the one opened in Spain to train Colombians living in the country.
“Something that is very important are relations with institutes in other countries. Currently we are focused on opening new training centers like that in Valencia, Spain, in the United States, especially in Miami and New York, cities in which there is a large Colombian population,” Montoya said.
SENA will be proposing these plans based on statistics that last year, further to the 400,000 students who physically attended courses last year, the institute enrolled a total of 2.8 million virtual students completing courses online from 181 countries around the world.
The technical institute announced that it will also be expanding its course program to offer training in high demand subjects such as digital animation, precision agriculture and production of software and nanotechnology.
Montoya explained his hopes to approve the plans before Colombia’s general elections in May.