Last Thursday, February 1, the eighth edition of the La Caixa Foundation Awards for Social Innovation was held in Madrid. These recognized twelve projects with a transformative vision and social challenges, such as social cohesion and inclusion and the fight against poverty, with a commitment to change. One of the winners was Solienergia: social energy, from the Solidança entity that has offices in Sant Just Desvern and Sant Joan Despí.
This project, originated in 2022, has had two editions. The first was intended to train women and is the one that won the award, while the second was aimed at young people. In both cases it was about training participants in the installation and maintenance of photovoltaic panels, with the intention of expanding their opportunities for insertion into the world of work. Some profiles we have encountered are migrants who found it difficult to access the labor market, women who wanted to make a professional change and young people who wanted to access the labor market or return to the training circuit.”
The Solienergia project, its promoters explain, arose to try to enhance the qualifications and skills of workers in sustainability issues. The installation and maintenance of solar panels was chosen because it was an emerging market and also because they help address the loss of biodiversity, climate change and depopulation.
Solidança believed it was appropriate to offer this project to continue working on a more sustainable economic system and promote this new energy culture. There was financial support from the La Caixa Foundation for the training; other institutions to refer people from Social Services who might be interested in the training course and finally, from collaborating companies to host internship students and support technical-professional training.
The training process has been carried out by Solidança technicians and experts from the company Azimut 360 have also collaborated. The courses have consisted of 215 theoretical hours and more than 80 hours of professional practices in companies. The participants in the project received technical knowledge in solar energy, training in ICT skills and their use, and finally the course also included support in job search and job advice.
Internships in companies helped students learn and apply all theoretical knowledge. This is the case of Horacio, a migrant architect who is in the process of regularizing his employment situation, who saw a possible job opportunity through the training course. “From the first moment I felt useful and comfortable gaining knowledge and experience in a real environment,” he says. Furthermore, he believes that these training courses are important because they help many people in a vulnerable situation and can in many cases provide a light at the end of the tunnel.
One aspect that Solienergia took into account for the project was that the construction sector and the work of electricians was often linked to men. The presence of women within the sector in Spain in 2023 was only 11.2% according to the INE. For this reason, the first edition of the project wanted to break the gender roles and stereotypes so associated with such a masculinized field, thus offering a specific promotion only for women. “To achieve optimal socio-labor insertion, personalized and exclusive support for each person was very important,” says Raquel Casanovas.
One of the participants was Beni, a mother for whom the course was “quite a mental challenge and at the same time empowering.” At first she was not very convinced, but she saw it as a great opportunity to change careers. She has worked as an installer of photovoltaic panels, although she claims to have been discriminated against by her professional colleagues when it came to physical issues, to the point of becoming uncomfortable. Despite that, she believes that the situation can be reversed.
After training up to seven women and eleven young people, Solienergia managed to employ twelve people. Currently, ten are still working. Therefore, receiving this award from the La Caixa Foundation encourages them to move forward with their social and environmental mission with other projects, such as the course that began this February that consists of training logistics assistants in electronic commerce.
