A businessman whose company sought certification as a training center and whose workers were trained with the workshops of the now-defunct Salvadoran Institute of Professional Training (INSAFORP) lost almost triple with the dissolution of it and the creation of INCAF.
Geoacademy is the company that sought certification as an INSAFORP training center. It was left halfway through. Together with Alfageomatics, they trained all their staff with the institute. Today they can’t.
Edgard Granados, the entrepreneur behind both companies (which have 40 employees together), continues to pay the contribution required by law. However, he cannot train his staff until INCAF is activated.
“INSAFORP had very detailed and extensive requirements (to be accredited as a training center). I would say they were even tedious, but we decided to face that during the second quarter of the year (2023). When we started to gather information, we were told that INSAFORP was possibly going to disappear,” Granados recounts.
“It caused us legal insecurity. We didn’t know if it was really true or not. Then, when it finally closed, (it was) uncertain to say: ‘well, and now what’s next, what will be the processes, where are we going to go, what’s going to change, what’s going to be more complicated, what will they ask,” he adds.
None of those questions have yet been resolved, since INCAF has not communicated anything to already approved training centers or those who had started the process.
Meanwhile, Granados sees the impact of not being able to train his staff. “We cannot meet all the training demands we have because I don’t have enough money to pay for them all,” he explains.
“There are 30 permanent, 10 temporary. On average, each person had done 20-25 hours of annual training. They had taken at least one annual training” — Edgard Granados, general director of Geoacademy and Alphageomatics. Trainings ranged from Excel to AutoCAD software management, and also included leadership skills, coaching, and others.
All of this came from the 1% contribution of Granados’ companies’ payroll, which amounts to $120 per month. In a year, it totaled $1,440. Now, a single Excel training for just one employee, according to his estimates, would cost $75 on its own.
“Aún pago INSAFORP, ¿en qué se está yendo ese dinero?”
Un empresario cuya sociedad buscaba certificarse como centro de capacitación, y cuyos trabajadores se formaban con los talleres del ahora extinto Instituto Salvadoreño de Formación Profesional (INSAFORP), perdió casi que por partida triple con la disolución de este y la creación de INCAF.
Geoacademy es la empresa que buscaba certificarse como centro de formación del INSAFORP. Se quedó a medias. Junto a Alfageomatics capacitaban a todo su personal con el instituto. Hoy ya no pueden.
Edgard Granados, el empresario detrás de ambas empresas (que suman 40 empleados juntas), sigue pagando la cotización que exige la ley. Pero sin poder capacitar a su personal hasta que el INCAF se active.
“INSAFORP tenía una unos requerimientos (para acreditarse como centro de formación) súper detallados y amplios. Diría yo que hasta tediosos, pero decidimos enfrentar eso hacia el segundo cuarto del año (2023). Cuando empezamos ya a reunir información se nos da la noticia de que INSAFORP posiblemente iba a desaparecer”, relata Granados.
“Nos causó inseguridad jurídica. No sabíamos si realmente era cierto o no. Luego, cuando ya de plano se cerró, (fue) una incertidumbre decir: ‘bueno, y ahora qué viene, cuáles van a ser los procesos, a dónde vamos a acudir, qué va a cambiar, qué va a ser más complejo, qué van a pedir”, agrega.
Ninguna de esas preguntas ha sido aún resuelta, ya que INCAF no ha comunicado nada a centros de formación ya aprobados ni a quienes habían iniciado el proceso.
Mientras, Granados ve el impacto al no poder capacitar a su personal. “No podemos suplir todas las demandas de formación que tenemos porque no me alcanza el dinero para pagarlas todas”, explica.
“Somos 30 fijos, 10 eventuales. En promedio, cada persona había hecho 20-25 horas de capacitación anual. Había tomado, al menos, una capacitación anual” — Edgard Granados, director general Geoacademy y Alphageomatics
Capacitaciones que iban desde Excel, hasta manejo de programas de AutoCAD, e incluyendo también habilidades de liderazgo, coaching, entre otras.
Todo eso salía de la cotización del 1 % de la planilla de las empresas de Granados, que equivale a $120 al mes. En un año, sumaba $1,440. Ahora, una sola capacitación de Excel para un solo empleado, según ha cotizado, costaría por si sola $75.