The Ministry of Education announces grants for the creation of Mentor Classrooms in local entities

• The call is endowed with more than 3.6 million euros that will be distributed in 922 modules of 4,000 euros each • This program offers citizens an alternative way of open, flexible and distance learning, especially in the most isolated areas of the territory

October 10, 2023.- The Official Gazette of the State publishes today the excerpt by which the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, through the General Secretariat of Vocational Training, calls for aid to local territorial entities and public dependent entities for the creation of open, flexible and distance training classrooms through the Aula Mentor Program, within the framework of the Plan of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience.

The grants amount to 3,688,000€, which will be distributed in 922 modules of 4,000 euros each. The deadline for the submission of applications is 15 calendar days from its publication in the Official State Gazette.

The objective of the call is to support the financing and implementation of the open and distance training program Aula Mentor through the creation of new classrooms dependent on local entities and public entities dependent on local territorial entities.

The beneficiaries are local entities, as well as local entities of sub-municipal territorial scope instituted or recognized by the autonomous communities and public entities dependent on local territorial entities.

The network of Mentor Classrooms has grown in recent years by 79% and already exceeds 1,000 throughout the country, according to 2021 data. In Castilla y León there are currently 120 training classrooms. The programme offers citizens an alternative way of open, flexible and distance learning, especially in the most isolated areas of the territory.

By province, there are 12 classrooms in Ávila, 11 in Burgos, 13 in León, 13 in Palencia, 17 in Salamanca, 14 in Segovia, 12 in Soria, 20 in Valladolid and 7 in Zamora. An example of these Mentor Classrooms is located in the Sorian town of Gormaz, with 20 inhabitants, or in the Adult Education Center of Valladolid.

The objective, within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, is to extend this network that now reaches exactly 1,089 municipalities up to 3,000. The challenge set by the government delegate in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, is to triple the number of Mentor Classrooms in the Community to more than 300.

One of the points of the Plan for the Modernization of Vocational Training, aligned with the strategic policies of the Government in the fight against rural depopulation, is to promote the network of Mentor Classrooms. Since 2018, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training has launched numerous calls for assistance for the maintenance of existing classrooms and for the financing of the creation of new classrooms by local entities such as municipalities, townships and other bodies.