Latin America Regional Update and Plans for 2022 – Tulio Barrios

Here in my region no one knows about IVETA’s existence, so I am starting from zero. I intend to do some door-to-door work, conducting meetings with small groups of professionals and other people interested in TVET, visiting schools and fairs. Additionally, I have contacted past members trying to get them back, but without any response. I will make one last attempt through a poll to collect data about their interest and what they can expect from IVETA Latin America. Should I get no answers, I will forget about them and concentrate on getting new members.

I will continue with the conversation sessions, which have been well-received. I will try to organise eight a year. For each session I send more than 400 invitations. Though the response rate is about 5%, hundreds will know that IVETA Latin America. Additionally, I plan to organise one regional webinar and to open a channel to promote and register our activities. I have recently created a LinkedIn account for the same purposes and I am gathering a team of professionals to work with me and to assure continuity once my period is over.

I have been working on developing a database of TVET institutions in my region. Once completed, I will conduct some research to ponder the real possibilities to affiliate some of them.

It is not easy. My region is vast and culturally and linguistically diverse. So far, I have tried to close the linguistic gap by being a bridge between English and Spanish. I think it is not viable to address the whole region at this stage, so I will focus on countries where I have contacts, such as Argentina, Chile, Mexico and possibly Brazil. If I manage to get people from these countries to take part in our activities, it should be easier to gain the attention of other smaller countries in the region.