- Courses were taught in the first half of 2023
August. Four different initiatives developed by Coyol Free Zone enabled approximately 2,000 people to strengthen their skills and abilities to opt for quality employment in the Life Sciences industry or to specialize in their current jobs.
This Park offers an educational effort with social projection called “Coyol Te Prepara” que (Coyol Prepares You), which includes various programs to support people by providing training and employability. One of them is the Manufacturing Operator Course, offered virtually and free of charge to learn about the particular features of the Life Sciences industry, of which 1630 people have taken advantage in the first 6 months of 2023.
Historically, since its launch in 2021, the course has benefited more than 7000 people of all ages and educational levels.
A second program included in “Coyol Te Prepara” is the educational tours. It is coordinated with the educational center and companies in the Free Trade Zone to receive students from high schools and universities with careers related to the medical device industry. The objective is to hold talks and visits to companies to address topics such as the importance of soft skills, English proficiency, technical courses to strengthen their careers, and to build aspirations both in terms of studies and as an excellent place to work.
The students who have been received in this first semester of the year are from towns such as San Ramón de Alajuela, San Carlos, Sabanilla de Alajuela and Desamparados. The Coyol Free Zone companies that have opened their doors to them are: Hologic, SMC Ltda, Segex and Coopervision.
“Our outreach to nearby communities, companies and educational centers is essential for the country, not only as a contribution to our search for talent, but also as a way to promote and awaken their interest in careers related to science, mathematics and engineering, which will have a high placement rate of professionals in the short and medium term”, said Carlos Wong, Managing Director of Coyol Free Zone.
In addition, the Park provided training through the National Learning Institute (Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje, INA) for 181 employees in areas such as quality inspector, information and communication technology operator, English, occupational health, and production supervisor, among others, thanks to an agreement between the entity and the Coyol Free Zone development group.
Within the framework of the current agreement between INA and Coyol Free Zone, a technical assistance program was developed to strengthen the manual and motor skills of potential candidates for the position of manufacturing operator and to become active employees within the companies.
They are joined by a group of 145 people who work in the Free Trade Zone, and joined BachiCoyol, an initiative together with the Castro Carazo University to support Park employees to start or complete the third cycle of high school education and obtain their High School Diploma (Bachillerato por Madurez) through virtual classes.
Coyol Free Zone is also the first free zone to open its doors to Dual Education in alliance with the Ministry of Public Education (MEP). Thanks to the participation of the companies SMC Ltda., CooperVision and Abbott, the students of the Industrial Electronics technical career of the Technical Professional School (CTP) of Atenas are studying their second year alternating between school and companies, a modality that allows them to have the skills and knowledge of companies engaged in advanced manufacturing and production of medical devices.