For now it's just a wide and open space, not only because it's still being plastered, but also because of the many possibilities it opens up. The Algarve's School of Technologies, Innovation and Creation (ETIC) moves to Faro, after having officially agreed with the Council of the Algarve capital, the concession of a space in the Municipal Market of Faro.
Last Saturday, the day on which the protocol for the transfer of space between the municipality and the school was signed, ETIC_Algarve won a large blank canvas, measuring close to 600 square meters, where all the facilities that already existed in the school will be installed. ETIC, in Portimão.
A opening of new facilities is scheduled for the 7th of September, which is also the City Day of Faro. The works start now and should be completed "in June or July". In May, the work to publicize this new phase in the life of ETIC_Algarve will be intensified.
The change does not mean, even so, the abandonment of the windward city, as the “Bold, creative point” space will continue to be very active, where it will continue to “offer some ETIC courses”.
By the way, the school director Nuno Ribeiro makes it very clear, in statements to the Sul Informação, that going from school to Faro it has to do with a question of centrality, since «60 percent of the 400 students who have been at the school in these years are from the Sotavento area, some from Vila Real de Santo António».
Being headquartered in Faro, ETIC will gain in its capacity to attract and, by maintaining a space in Portimão, it does not disappoint the expectations of students from that city and neighboring counties, as well as those who arrive from the more Barlavento areas, such as Vila do Bispo or Aljezur.
At the same time, the move to the Algarve capital will also allow us to “breathe” better, as the ETIC will have the same functions as in Portimão, “but bigger”. "We will have a photography studio, a video studio, a control room, an editing room, three computer rooms, with 16 Macintoshes each, a theoretical room, a lounge space, a library space and a resource center," he described.
In addition to gaining space, ETIC_Algarve gains something even more important: expansion capacity. The new space has a ceiling height of six meters, which allows it to grow in height. “We are now going to attack only the three meters high, except for the studio, which will be five. In the future, we have the possibility to create a mezzanine", said.
Last Saturday, Nuno Ribeiro could not hide his enthusiasm for the move to «one of the best, if not the best market in the country», where ETIC is expected to be another dynamizing pole, joining public services, varied businesses and, of course , to market operators.
Faro already had from pre-school to university and wins the ETIC
With the coming of ETIC to Faro, the Algarve capital adds yet another type of offer to a panoply of educational options ranging "from pre-school to university education", stressed the mayor of Faro Rogério Bacalhau on the sidelines of the protocol signing ceremony with ETIC_Algarve.
The mayor, whose professional career, before becoming mayor, was linked to education (he is a teacher and distinguished himself as director of the Secondary Pinheiro e Rosa, a school that has always invested in new technologies), does not hide a special sympathy for the skills that the ETIC offers, which it sought to bring to public education, a battle it has not always managed to win.
«This is a different school from the others, because it doesn't confer academic qualifications, but it does confer professional qualifications recognized nationally and internationally. There are many professionals who have already graduated and work in the media and it is something that will certainly make us proud and that we have cherished since the first moment», said Rogério Bacalhau.
The fundraising of ETIC_Algarve passed a lot, he said, by the vice-president of the Chamber of Faro Paulo Santos, who led the process. "I just said that we should avoid creating embarrassment," said Rogério Bacalhau. The solution for the Municipal Market was reached, which had spaces to occupy. "This is in line with our objective of giving the market a new centrality here, with more and more differentiated audiences", he explained.
For Nuno Ribeiro, the centrality that this “unique market” is beginning to have is equally important. But also the fact that they focus on Faro the main centers of the University of the Algarve could be an advantage. “This is something that is already happening in Lisbon. We are a complement, not a competition, to the training activity at the most diverse levels. A university student finds here the possibility of doing technical training, a specialization here», he considers.
«At the same time, a person who is already in the labor market can come for an update, or a kid who is leaving secondary school can find in ETIC a beginning of his professional path. This is our great weapon," he added.
Comments