At Bicentenario Secondary School do internships at the CMPC plant

Students from the Intermediate Level Electrician program
The students toured to the company’s facilities in Laja and Nacimiento in Chile to learn about the work done there. The activity is part of an agreement the high school made with DUOC – UC and the forestry company.

Practical education, getting to know a great industry. This is the purpose of the internship of the fourth year students in the “Intermediate Level Electrician” program of the Bicentenario Héroes de la Concepción Secondary School in the Laja district. They visited the CMPC Laja and Santa Fe plants where they got to see up close the work that is done in the electrical department.

Seven electrician students from the high school learned about machinery using the latest technology and cutting-edge production processes alongside the workers. This was a practical experience, as they were able to see in person how the work gets done.

This was all possible thanks to an unprecedented agreement between Duoc-UC, the Bicentenario Héroes de la Concepción Secondary School and CMPC. These students attended additional courses beyond the regular program outside the normal school day to go beyond their theoretical knowledge of the industry.

Head of the Electro-control Unit of the CMPC Laja Plant Raúl Rodríguez led the visit and said, “Many plant employees have come from this high school and continued their studies in various institutes and universities. When they visit us, they see both standard and state-of-the-art equipment. The visit triggers in the students a desire to keep learning and growing”.
Duoc-UC Professor Ricardo Curamil said, “This type of activity is found in other educational centers. From the evidence gathered so far in the classroom, the students are acquiring more knowledge thanks to these classes they’ve participated in since this is not necessarily part of the curriculum.”
Electrician Program Director Héctor Cisternas at the Bicentenario Secondary School said, “One of the fundamental goals is for thes young people to learn “in situ”, so they can understand what it’s like to be part of the labor force. They began in the third year and continue in the fourth year, which is supplementary to the high school’s regular curriculum in order to deepen their knowledge further.”

THE JOY OF LEARNING

The Bicentenario Secondary School has a boarding school where students from distant places can come so it’s easier for them to have access to the school. After participating in the internship, a students named Kevin Pulgar said, “It was entertaining, they showed us a lot of parts that we hadn’t seen before and how they maintain the engines. I found the water strength test of the engines to be surprising. It was new to me. This is good for us; learning and growing to become better people throughout life.

Another student, Benjamín Cerda said, “This is a new world for me because the things they use here are much more complex, but at the same time much more entertaining. It’s great to get a chance to see what is actually done on site because seeing it in person is totally different. The meters are suprising because they’re much bigger than what we have in our school.”

Miguel Gutiérrez serves as an example of what young people can become through hard work. He is the CMPC Director of the Electro-control department, and he also graduated from the Bicentenario Secondary School in Laja. “It is a pleasure to host the high school students here, which is also where I graduated grom twelve years ago. It’s a pleasure to receive these young people who have the same dreams that I had back then. It is important for them to know that dreams can be achieved, and you have to fight for what you want,” he said.