The socio-educational center of the Augustinian Recollects in Costa Rica was modernized three decades ago after adapting structures, procedures, resources and programs with the aim of offering its beneficiaries the best tools for their professional and human future.
Professional Technical Education in Costa Rica is the educational modality that wants to respond to the demands of the productive sector and to the integration of young people into the world of work through the achievement of the Intermediate Level Technician title, which in turn leaves open that future to the possibility of accessing higher education.
This type of regulated professional training is a strategic necessity for two reasons: it is a way to increase productivity in all sectors (agricultural, industrial and services) and a model that prevents young people from leaving the education system and finishing their studies.
In the Technical Colleges, vocational or professional studies are offered after completing primary school or with unfinished secondary school. It includes theoretical study but also real practice, together with other basic tools to function in the labor market: attitudes, teamwork, understanding of procedures…
Many centers that began as professional training centers, called “vocational schools” in the Central American country, were converted into Professional Technical Colleges to allow their students to learn a profession without leaving the educational system.
This vocational education was born in Costa Rica in the 50’s and from the hand of the Church, specifically with Monsignor Víctor Sanabria and the School of Arts and Crafts of Homeless (1953). Not long after, Boys’ Town would be born (1960). It had then a merely welfare sense, at a time when Secondary education coverage did not reach more than 20% of young people of age to attend it.
It had modest but vital goals: to give those who did not consider themselves capable of reaching higher education an opportunity to at least have a trade that would allow them to live better. The Augustinian Recollects, since 1965, maintained these objectives in the Boys’ Town, which had professional training workshops as the nerve center of its educational offer.
As of 2000, there was already better coverage of Primary Education in Costa Rica. Each year more beneficiaries arrived at Boys’ Town who brought the complete Primary. On the other hand, in the business world, an increasingly constant request began to hire workers who not only had Primary Education as official studies.
Society was advancing, technologies too, the network of company relationships was already intercontinental; having workers who spoke languages or had greater versatility when it came to filling jobs was essential. The best companies no longer had enough skilled workers in the practical, but unaccompanied in the theoretical and legal qualifications.
2006 is the year that marks the decision to have, within the Boys’ Town, the structure, legal umbrella and pedagogical offer of a Technical College. A multitude of political, administrative, internal organizational steps were taken to update programs and comply with legal requirements.
In October 2006, the Ministry of Public Education authorized the creation of a Technical School within Boys’ Town. The life of the beneficiaries began to change even in their schedules: they could no longer spend all their time in the Vocational Training Workshops, but instead had to dedicate time to theoretical subjects, to languages…
The Institution had to look for teachers, rework schedules, change educational programs… With a lot of effort, the 2007 school year has already started with 7th, 8th and 9th grade students at the Technical College. All members of the educational community had to adapt to many novelties, new efforts and new responsibilities.
The Augustinian Recollect charism, with its “mind-heart” equation, has offered the possibility of building a technical educational center that, however, has some peculiarities:
- Assumes the principle of the student as the nerve center of the School.
- Incorporates new information technologies and a data center for the entire infrastructure (school, workshops, shelters, pavilions, library).
- It hosts the Progrentis (reading and comprehension) and Lexium (learning and personality) programs.
- Training in pedagogical and technological innovation for teachers.
- Assumes the skills assessment system, learning by projects and research work, open to creativity, collaborative work and teamwork.
- The teaching and administrative team focuses on guiding the beneficiary in comprehensive learning: theoretical, practical, human, and socially aware.
- It uses Augustinian pedagogy and the EDUCATE Network to promote interiority, the search for Truth, freedom and community as key values.
After 15 years of the Augustinian Technical School in Boys’ Town, the results are palpable: many of the beneficiaries have followed a natural path to the world of work, but many others have also accessed a university education.
In national tests of a pedagogical, sports, artistic, academic or technical nature, the Boys’ Town usually achieves a large number of positive results. Some international institutions, such as Polaris, have also highlighted the socio-educational center of the Augustinian Recollects for its way of applying pedagogical programs.
Companies have once again put their interest in Boys’ Town, gradually growing the number of collaborations and institutional relationships. They also appreciate the maturity, ethical capital, honesty, friendliness, reliability and ability to work as a team of the graduates of Boys’ Town.
