The Ricolta de Beget cooperative, in Ripollès (Girona), has launched a training program that includes a contract of 30 hours a week and accommodation in an apartment for a maximum of two months.
The idea, as explained by one of the promoters, Annabel Botello, is to offer "the tools and knowledge so that it can be replicated in other places in the rural world."
The final objective of the cooperative is to contribute to repopulation through essential businesses such as a bakery. "Seeing that tourism was eating us up here, we believed that it was a line that had to be promoted," adds Botello.
These days Jose Antonio Santín, from L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, is being trained. "I highly recommend it," he says.
The project started a few months ago and Santín is already the third to participate. "We have had a very good reception," explains Botello, adding that they have a waiting list. The applicant profile is very varied, although they prioritize those people who want to open a rural business and who have bread-making training. For the promoters, it is being a very enriching experience: "We are enjoying it a lot; it is not that we are teaching Jose (...) but that we learn every day what he also teaches us and it is very nice to be able to do it," says Botello .
Willy Orós, member of the cooperative and baker, explains that the project allows "trying to get all the production out of a small workshop" and having two more hands. "Now I go out to deliver and that way I'll finish a little sooner," he says.
