Minor migrants get formation to work as tractor drivers in western Catalonia

A school in Borges Blanques, in western Catalonia, is offering courses to migrant minors to learn to drive tractors and the different activities that take place on farms.  

These courses are offered by the Climate Action ministry to help minor migrants who come from places like Albania, Gambia, Morocco, and Senegal, among others, as well as people in risk of social exclusion.  

The project was also created to deal with the lack of tractor drivers that has been affecting the sector in the past years.  

"Farmers do not usually have enough time or means to teach young people who have never driven a tractor, or they might be worried that it breaks. That is why we insist that students should take care of the vehicles and drive them delicately," Ferran Camp, the director of the Agricultural School of Les Borges Blanques, told Catalan News Agency (ACN). 

Elena de Carandini, president of the Raimat Lleida Community Foundation, explained that "previous students are already working in companies after taking our course."  

"We want to achieve this cycle: people get quality education, and after that, they can access a job," she added.