Rural skills training drives investment, INFOTEP director urges

Santo Domingo.-At the VI Congress of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (CNUS), INFOTEP Director General Rafael Santos Badía stressed that training workers in towns outside major urban centers with technical skills is essential to attract investment, create quality jobs and ensure sustainable community development.

“Without a trained workforce in the country’s interior, no investor will place capital there,” Santos Badía said. He highlighted early successes in regions where INFOTEP has established training centers, noting that residents can now find employment locally and reinvest their earnings in their own cities, driving visible progress.

Santos Badía warned of surging demand for qualified personnel, particularly in tourism. “One 17‑story Bavaro hotel alone requires 6,000 security staff, and Pedernales will need 21,000 skilled workers,” he said, urging a rapid, strategic expansion of training programs.

In addition to longstanding centers, INFOTEP is launching new facilities in Quinta Corazón (Barahona), Pedro García (Puerto Plata), Sabana de la Mar, Montecristi, Dajabón and, soon, Hato Mayor in partnership with the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD). Fourteen high‑level English academies have opened, enabling young Dominicans to secure international employment within a year.

Santos Badía emphasized that these initiatives—combined with virtual training available in 42 cities and international agreements with Colombia, Panama, Barbados, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda—aim to curb youth migration and strengthen local economies. “We are building the country. We are training the country,” he concluded.

The Congress was chaired by President Luis Abinader, CNUS President Rafael “Pepe” Abreu and Labor Minister Eddy Olivares, with participation from leading Dominican labor figures including Jacobo Ramos (CNTD) and Gabriel del Río (CASC).