Platja d'Aro, Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Santa Cristina d'Aro launch the common project to boost themselves economically. Since the beginning of the year, the three municipalities have already carried out joint training. They are modules that are aimed at both people looking for work and those who already have a job and want to improve their skills.
During the first quarter, eighteen courses were held with 300 registered on gardening, cleaning, digital marketing or restoration.
Now, the three city councils are launching the drafting of the strategic plan that should outline the guidelines to follow in the coming years. It will be completed in December and, as the mayor of Sant Feliu, Carles Motas, emphasizes, it should allow “converting competition into collaboration to obtain a joint benefit.”
Throughout 2024, it is planned to carry out 60 modules. Half, aimed at people looking for work; and the other, to those who already have it but want to improve their capabilities. At the moment, nine of each group have already been made.
Cleaning, gardening, pool maintenance or job search courses are some training that has been given for job seekers. And in the list of those that focus on improving skills, modules on digital marketing or disinfection in restaurants have been taught.
The courses have been carried out also in response to the demands of companies. Therefore, before scheduling them, up to 250 surveys have been carried out to see which profiles to cover.
The mayor of Santa Cristina d'Aro, Josep Xifre, emphasizes that these formations have been “very well received.” He highlights that not only because so far the modules have 300 registered, but also because people from the three towns have taken part, "who have been moving from one to another depending on the interest they had."
These joint trainings are the first step of a much more ambitious project, which now, thanks to a subsidy from the Servei d'Ocupació de Catalunya (SOC), will materialize in a strategic plan that will outline its main lines.
The company that will carry it out, commissioned by the three councils, will be Activa Prospect. To draft this document, which is expected to be completed in December, the three municipalities have received a subsidy of 30,000 euros.
Starting from a socioeconomic diagnosis, which will be complemented with work tables and interviews with companies and agents in the territory, the strategic plan will specify what actions Platja d'Aro, Sant Feliu and Santa Cristina must carry out to boost themselves economically. “It will take a transversal look, also taking into account aspects such as improving mobility or housing,” advances the mayor of Platja d'Aro, Mauricio Jiménez.
The mayor of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Carles Motas, emphasizes that the three municipalities share a physical and social reality that, in practice, translates into “a single metropolitan area.” And this urban continuity, for example, encourages residents of one municipality to work in the other (because they are nearby).
“Ultimately, what it is about is diluting competition and promoting collaboration between us, because that will bring us greater benefit,” emphasizes Carles Motas. Also, taking into account that going to one this will also increase the capacity of the three councils when it comes to requesting resources from higher administrations.
Overall, Platja d'Aro, Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Santa Cristina d'Aro have around 1,500 companies and 13,000 workers (counting both employees and self-employed workers). “To boost the local economy, the collaboration between us must be transcendent,” concludes Mauricio Jiménez.
