Centro Nazionale Opere Salesiane - Formazione e Aggiornamento Professionale
From its beginnings the Salesian Congregation has been known and appreciated for its Vocational Training Centres offering underprivileged youth - those who often had to work to help their family or those who could not receive an education - a human development and a quality preparation for the world of work, which allowed them to face their future with confidence and responsibility (Fr. Pascual Chávez Villanueva, Rector Major, 2010).
The CNOS-FAP Federation, National Centre of Salesian Institutions – Vocational Training and Updating (Centro Nazionale Opere Salesiane / Formazione Aggiornamento Professionale), is an Italian association founded on December 9, 1977. It coordinates the Italian Salesians who provide a public service in vocational guidance, vocational education and training, following the educational methodology of St. John Bosco. It is a non-profit organization.
It includes the Salesian Institutions and the local and regional CNOS-FAP Associations which provide vocational guidance and vocational training initiatives, mainly through Vocational Education and Training Centres. The CNOS-FAP Federation operates in 15 Italian regions with 60 Centres coordinated by the National Office.
The CNOS-FAP Federation is active
- at international, national, regional and local levels, where training programmes and plans are designed;
- in the ecclesiastical field with a commitment to promote the growth of spirituality and solidarity in the labour market;
- in the Salesian Institutions, in the educational project which is inspired by the teachings of Father John Bosco and his system of prevention which characterises the Salesian Youth Movement.
It operates mainly through
- basic, higher and specialised vocational training in the industrial and service sectors;
- continuous training initiatives, in contact with the labour market;
- specific international projects, especially with EU partners;
- distance training programmes responding to the needs of Federation workers and the labour market.
It coordinates
- the centres called “CFP” – Vocational Education and Training Centres – situated throughout the whole Italy;
- vocational guidance services for young people in collaboration with “COSPES” (Educational, Professional and Social Vocational Guidance Centres).
It offers
- publications for the diffusion of vocational culture, such as the four-monthly magazine “Rassegna CNOS – Problemi, esperienze, prospettive per l’istruzione e la formazione professionale” and “Studi, Progetti, Esperienze per la nuova formazione professionale”;
- conferences, studies and researches.
The federation, through multiannual programmes and annual activity plans:
- answers to the training needs of the underprivileged, with particular regard to marginalised youth;
- fosters human being’s holistic development, promoting his/her spiritual, educational, cultural, social politic, solidarity and working dimensions, educating him/her at a peaceful civil coexistence at local, national, European and International levels;
- achieves guidance initiatives in educational and social promotion fields, implementing specific activities addressed to beneficiaries at risk of social, professional and cultural exclusion;
- encourages culture and exchange of transnational experiences between young people, aimed at increasing their awareness of European citizenship and their personal development;
- develops specific professional skills of the staff of all the member associations, increasing their educational, pedagogical and technical qualifications;
- provides members of the Federations with legal representative power, within consultative and decision-making bodies responsible at all levels in the fields of vocational training, guidance and updating.