Vocational training continues to show signs of success when it comes to connecting the classroom with the company and responding to the specific needs of each region. The IES Fuentesnuevas has turned the students of food industries into winegrowers and they have experienced all the tasks and functions to achieve the first harvest of mencia grapes. But in addition to recovering abandoned vineyards, the project has also led to the production of a mencia beer in collaboration with two companies in the area and all this with the most advanced technology.
Last September, IES Fuentesnuevas presented its innovation project during the beginning of the school year in Burgos. This project, entitled "Tradition and future in the agri-food industry in El Bierzo", seeks to boost economic sectors in the region and promote employability, meeting the needs of local businesses. The IES Fuentes Nuevas is a center that for some years has been exploiting two vineyard plots with the aim of having raw material for winemaking, so that students learn how to make wine at the institute and control the winemaking process from the grape. The Food Industry students, led by the teaching staff, have carried out all the tasks involved in viticulture, until the first harvest of Mencia grapes was obtained, with which they have launched a new product through two school-company projects: Mencia beer in collaboration with two local brewing companies.
In addition, thanks to the implementation of an ATECA classroom (applied technology classroom) in the center, they have been able to use a drone to control the vineyards and a 3D printer and scanner for the development of packaging and labeling for cheese.
Through these projects what they intend is: to bring companies closer to the educational world and on the other hand to put in contact innovation, technology, new procedures so that they are in continuous contact between the business world and the educational world. The main idea is to promote the employability of students in sectors that are deeply rooted in the fabric of the area, such as wine, and to do so through projects, which is a stimulus for students. It also seeks to provide answers to the business fabric of a region that has the wine culture in its DNA and needs to bet on sectors such as agri-food to seek an alternative future to the closure of the mining industry.
In short, IES Fuentesnuevas has carried out an innovative project that seeks to recover economic sectors in the region and take advantage of technology to create cutting-edge products and services by close collaboration with
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