NISSAN School - CONALEP. Aguascalientes, Mexico.
General objective
To train students by means of regulatory professional practices which will provide them with valuable experience for their future entry into the labour market.
Specific objective
To make students aware of the experience of being in permanent contact with real productive processes through specific training programmes.
Students of the State School of Aguascalientes.
Any interested student that is admitted may carry out professional practice in Nissan where they will receive guidance, training, supervision and an economic incentive according to their performance.
Students will have to do 10 months of practice at the enterprise (approximately 1,200 hours). They are trained from the first day; they have an induction course on the characteristics of the programme and the enterprise and, then, workshops on the production processes.
In addition to training and encouraging trainees throughout their professional development, Nissan contributes with resources. The government offers resources and spreads the model. CONALEP offers academic training to professionals, adapts curricula and promotes the school-industry relationship.
Participating students are in the 5th semester of CONALEP courses from the State of Aguascalientes corresponding to the following degrees: executive assistant, management, accounting, tool machines, IT, IT maintenance, general nursery, mechanics, quality control, electronics, electromechanics and system maintenance.
- Professional practice is compulsory.
- Training is directed .
- Students become acquainted with an enterprise's structure and philosophy.
- Inconsistence between practice and careers is avoided.
- It is an opportunity for young people to have practical experiences for their future entry into enterprises.
- It becomes easier for students to reach labour market opportunities given the scarcity of qualified resources.
From 2001 to 2012, the School managed to offer professional practice to more than 500 students in the enterprise and, in turn, Nissan has hired more than 100 of them, which accounts for 20 per cent of the total number of students.
Sixty per cent of participants have been hired by enterprises related to Nissan. This was an unexpected success since the project's objective was only to promote professional practice among students.
Nissan School project has proved its usefulness within the educational system since its implementation 13 years ago; it is still in force and is successful, despite the change in the government's administration.
The project received the 2012 School-Enterprise Relationship Award granted by the Secretariat of Labour and Social Welfare of the Government of the Republic.
It has been widely acknowledged by CONALEP Schools in Mexico and by NISSAN's headquarters in Japan.
