New higher education proposal to reach excluded Amazonian peoples

UNESCO IESALC participated in the “I Inter-institutional Workshop for the Technical Certification” of the Amazon University Program (PUAM), held in Brazlândia, Federal District of Brasilia, from March 19-21. This workshop brought together representatives from six Catholic universities in Latin America, the Brazilian Union of Catholic Education (UBEC) and support agencies, such as the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the Organization of Catholic Universities of Latin America and the Caribbean (ODUCAL), a network of universities entrusted to the Society of Jesus in Latin America (AUSJAL), the National Association of Catholic Education of Brazil (ANEC), Jesuit World Wide Learning (JWL) and Horizons Program UNESCO-Peru with the objective of sharing the PUAM proposal: its origin, scope and challenges, in light of the need to structure a higher education proposal that reaches the most excluded territories and peoples in the Pan-Amazon region.

PUAM assumes, among others, the challenge of designing and implementing a technical and technological training proposal (ISCED 5) that would target the historically excluded Amazonian people, who would have the option of obtaining a third level degree that would allow them to strengthen their professional profile and their community territorial impact.

The first program in design phase, whose curricular itineraries will be shared among the six Latin American universities that make up this strategic alliance, will be the Higher Technician in Integral Territorial Management, although the possibility of differentiated nominations is still being considered depending on the particularities and regulatory precepts of each country.