The delegate of Government of Spain, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, and the provincial director of the Public Service of State Employment (SEPE), Celia Carro, made a visit this morning in Mazcuerras to the ‘TandEM Program: maintenance, conservation, enhancement and public use of protected natural spaces’. It is a training program in alternation with employment that aims to facilitate the employment of young people from rural areas in maintenance and public use in natural areas.
It is executed by the Cantabrian Network of Rural Development during 2024 and 2025 and is financed by the Public Service of State Employment (SEPE). The TandEM Program is part of Investment 1 “Young Employment”, included in Component 23 “New public policies for a dynamic, resilient and inclusive labour market” of the Spanish Government’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan included in the Next Generation/EU Funds.
For the Government delegate in Cantabria, “achieving the training and employment of young people in the rural environment around the care of nature is a good practice in the use of Next Generation funds because it touches on several of its key points” and, in this regard, has congratulated the Cantabrian Network of Rural Development for its commitment and success in designing and executing this project.
Along the same lines, Gómez de Diego took the opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of the Government of Spain to youth employability. “a priority challenge for the government.” He also stressed that programs such as TandEM, financed by the Next Generation funds, are key in the strategy of economic recovery and territorial cohesion, helping to establish young people in areas that need it.
For his part, Oscar López, vice-president of the Cantabrian Network of Rural Development and representative of the Saja Nansa region in the entity, has stressed the importance of offering training and work opportunities to young people in rural areas, since “it is a key issue to guarantee the future of our peoples”.
Training and work phase
TandEM makes it easier for eight young people, under the age of 30, to be trained in maintenance and public use in natural areas. This project, which has a formative phase and a working phase, trains the different techniques for the care and conservation of natural ecosystems, as well as the species that inhabit them. A labor sector that demands trained workers and that, therefore, will have professional options once the program ends.
Currently, after completing the bulk of the training phase, the eight young people joined the TandEM work phase last August and began to put into practice everything they learned during the first six months of training.
The students have an internship contract in the category of maintenance assistant, part-time (75%) to carry out work under the supervision of the maintenance teams of the Cantabrian Network for Rural Development in the Naturea Cantabria project. The experience of the Cantabrian Network of Rural Development this field of work will allow them to learn first-hand the main conservation operations of this type of environments that can be very varied: dune systems, riverside forests or deciduous forests and other habitats characteristic of the autonomous community.
At the end of the project, the students will receive a certificate of qualification or professional competence that will facilitate the incorporation into the labour market of the students.
Extensive experience
The Cantabrian Network for Rural Development leads sustainable development initiatives common to the entire rural environment of Cantabria. The association represents the five Local Action Groups that manage the European initiative Leader for Rural Development in Cantabria: Asón Agüera Trasmiera, Campoo Los Valles, Liébana, Saja Nansa and Valles Pasiegos. It is an expert entity in nature and environment after 15 years managing Naturea Cantabria, the program of maintenance and dynamization of public use in the Network of Protected Natural Spaces of Cantabria. Among the tasks carried out, the entity has teams of workers dedicated to environmental maintenance. Each of the squads is responsible for the environmental maintenance of its area of action and the different routes used in the guided itineraries of Naturea Cantabria.
In addition, sustainability advice is also offered to 74 municipalities of Cantabria through the Technical Office of Rural Sustainability, department of the Cantabrian Network of Rural Development that is responsible for environmental programs and participation in rural Cantabria.