Similarly, last year the company talks began for students with a graduation profile and graduates, in which young people from the different careers required at each opportunity by employers participated, who came to the school itself as part of their recruitment processes.

These actions are just a sample of the work that the Office and, particularly, its ''Employability Liaison Network'' program are carrying out to strengthen spaces that promote the employment of professionals trained in the different careers of the U. of The Serena. 

As the person in charge of the program, Viviana Vásquez, explains, the idea is to ''articulate a network with public and private organizations, professional associations and other instances of society; promote the exchange of programs, works and activities to contribute to a closer and more permanent connection with the environment; and generate development mechanisms on issues of early labor insertion and academic activities.''

For this reason, the ''Employability Liaison Network'' has various tasks planned for this year. These include holding the 2014 Labor Fair and new company talks, expanding the internship and job offers on the exclusive ULS portal. http://trabajo.userena.cl/ and continue increasing the number of organizations linked to the program.

In this regard, among the regional and national companies and institutions that have already joined the network in its different initiatives are: Banco de Chile; Agroseville; Center for Psychological Care and Comprehensive Health (CAPSI); Gerónimo Rendic, Conciliar Seminary, Catholic English and Cervantino schools; Innovacien NGO, DEM Ovalle; Sigdo Koppers Engineering; CCU SA; Chilean Security Association; Environmental Value; Arteaga River Foundation; Andean Coca Cola; Covalsa; Azapa Construction Company; San Gerónimo Mining Company; Manpower Servicios Integrales Ltda.; Ecomac; Integra Foundation; Santander Bank; Wilug Ltda. Security Articles; National Children's Service; Metalmar; Cultiva Strategic Partners; Tubline; CPECH Pre-University; Dayton Mining Company; Randstad; Orica Chile; Valley Waters; Teck Mining Company; More Errazuriz; Agrosuper; 3G Consultants; Born Advertising; Ballesta Consultant; and Elqui Web.

Furthermore, another point to highlight among its planned initiatives is the task of extending the services of the employment portal (which is currently intended for graduates and graduates) to undergraduate students (regular ULS students).

''During this year, we wanted to take this target group in order to insert students early into the labor market, thereby achieving opportunities for learning, support and advantages for their professional profile. Among the skills that are favored by having jobs during university life are teamwork, leadership, tolerance for frustrations and others. Data from the Office of Institutional Studies indicate that 54% of first-year students who entered the University of La Serena in 2014 plan to work during their student period, for this reason, the Office's initiative takes on greater strength and relevance,'' explained Viviana Vásquez. 

Let us remember that the Graduate Monitoring Office has its offices on the Andrés Bello Campus of the university and all the information about its work is available on the portal http://egresados.userena.cl/

On the occasion, Dr. Jorge Catalán, academic vice-rector of the University of La Serena, on behalf of the Rector, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, congratulated all those who make up this human group: students and academics from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, engineers and technicians from Minera Los Pelambres, representatives of collaborating companies and institutions and all those who made it possible to be among the three best teams in the competition. In addition, he pointed out that ''this project means putting the U. de La Serena at the forefront of technological innovation in the country, also showing how the efforts of private sectors can be combined with public education institutions to implement all their capacity of generations and applications of knowledge, which not only has to do with a career or a specific activity, but with the development of a country''. 

Within this context, Jorge Misle, Operations Manager of Minera Los Pelambres, stated that "within the company's strategic guidelines, as a major objective, apart from producing copper and its by-products, is the development of the region, through of an alliance with the University of La Serena where we have cooperation agreements in different fields and one of them is the development of technology. In this case, it is already the third year of consecutive achievements in the development of solar technology and we are very proud of the trust that the University has placed, for the contribution that we are making together to many other companies in the region, in regarding the students being able to develop their skills and the University gaining prestige by developing lines of what new technologies are,'' said the executive. 

Meanwhile, the director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Ricardo Castillo, maintained that the successful participation in Australia was due "to the high quality of Antakari's human and technical team, accompanied by the strategy used in the race." .

For students, the experience of participating in the ''Intikallpa'' project as participating in an alliance with a private company is an opportunity that is rarely given in a higher education institution. ''The alliance between Minera Los Pelambres and the University of La Serena has been very good due to all the achievements we have obtained as a person as well as material achievements such as the two races in Chile (Desafío Solar Atacama) and the one held in Australia,'' said student Pablo Esquivel. 

In the activity framed in the celebration of the 33rd anniversary, the members of Antakari and representatives of MLP and collaborating companies received recognitions from the academic vice-rector Dr. Jorge Catalán, the member of the Board of Directors, Víctor Bermont, the dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Dr. Alberto Cortés, and the director of the Dept. of Mechanical Engineer, Dr. Ricardo Castillo.

Recognition of collaborating companies and new challenges

A fundamental part of the development of the ''Intikallpa'' project, in its two versions, has been the contribution of the collaborating companies, which made their professionals available to the project, delivering state-of-the-art technology.

"During the first stage of the project we worked very moderately and as time went on we have been a fairly important collaborator of the mechanical parts, in everything that is the area of ​​bearings for the car to work, for which It is a pride to see the logo of our company on the car that participated in Australia, it is a regional and national pride,'' commented Luis Osses, sales manager of the Enrique Osses company, SKF distributor. 

But the challenges for the ''Antakari'' team continue, since its members are designing a four-wheel prototype, which they began working on before traveling to Australia, setting the goal of the next solar car world championship that will take place during this 2014 in South Africa.

On the occasion, the academic vice-rector of the ULS, Dr. Jorge Catalán, representing the Rector Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, expressed that due to the successful subjects undertaken by the multidisciplinary work team led by Dr. Pamela Labra, it was necessary to expansion of its facilities, enabling a new fully equipped work room, located next to the Irma Salas Library of the Domeyko Campus. 

''The University of La Serena is a consolidated institution, recognized for the quality of its work and that is moving towards higher development in the context of national university education,'' said Dr. Catalán, who also thanked all those who worked hard in the concretion of "these works that contribute significantly to the intervention processes carried out by the Teaching Improvement unit and in its consolidation as a training, guiding, analytical and interpretive body of the training processes."

For his part, the director of Institutional Studies and Planning, Mg. César Espíndola stated that ''the Teaching Improvement Unit has been conceived as a service unit for the institution's teaching staff, and is nothing more than the faithful reflection of an institutional response to the new demands of the higher education system. Your work team is consolidated and depending on its task and the number of challenges ahead it is growing, giving space for the training of new teachers and also for those who already have a track record at our University.''

During the years 2012 and 2013, the Unit has focused its efforts on the area of ​​teaching development and skill leveling. During 2012, 18 courses were offered, attended by 220 teachers, and in 2013, 19 courses were offered, in which 158 teachers participated. Starting in 2013, the Unit supports the different Schools in the process of curricular renewal, providing technical advice to 19 training programs, which is only part of the diversity of the work carried out.

Regarding the new tasks that the UMD will develop during this year, the Director of Teaching, Mg. Laura Vega, indicated that the research area will be created, ''an area whose purpose is to systematize information related to the implementation of the ULS Educational Model, in the different areas of undergraduate teaching and generate useful information for related decision making. to quality assurance and management processes.

The director also took the opportunity to recognize the great work of Dr. Labra and her team, for their commitment and support in the management of teaching, to the vice-rector, Dr. Jorge Catalán, who has believed in the UMD proposals. and to the head of SIBULS, Héctor García, for his commitment and support to the development of the Unit.

The ceremony began with the welcoming words of the academic vice-rector, Dr. Jorge Catalán, and the dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Dr. María Zúñiga, who thanked the academic for his presence. Subsequently, Dr. Pinto Rodríguez referred to the strong bond that unites him to the University of La Serena and its academics, after which he spoke with those present about the strengths in the training of teachers and the challenges at times when the Education is in the public debate.

Based on his experience in teacher training, Dr. Pinto Rodríguez commented that there is a distance between disciplinary progress and the delay in the contents taught in educational establishments. ''Hence, it is very important to discuss this because of the importance attributed to education in the country's processes of change,'' said the guest speaker, who added that teachers ''are attributed this ability to induce the changes, progress, to intervene in the training of our students; and although this task is not paid as it should, there is tremendous pressure on teachers.''

Regarding the strengths in teacher training, the 2012 National History Award highlighted the quality of the students who are coming to the Pedagogies; the changes in the academic staff, with academic staff highly trained to assume teaching at the university, many with a track record in research and with national and international recognition; and finally, the material conditions in which teachers operate.

One of the challenges posed by the academic is the distance between what is taught at the university and what is taught in educational establishments, ''if we do not solve this problem, we will stagnate pedagogy, education and we will not have a way to respond to society," he said. He also mentioned shortening the distances in disciplinary and pedagogical training, an alternative being that students combine disciplinary training with what teachers provide in the Schools of Education. ''I believe that our first responsibility as university professors is to provide our students with the ability to achieve autonomy, which is key in the exercise of a profession,'' he indicated. To the above, he added the preparation of teachers to operate in the reality of educational establishments and insist on the training of teachers with high management skills. 

''We are facing a scenario that is tremendously challenging, but that is tremendously hopeful; I believe that today the conditions are in place for us to transform education into the lever of change,'' the academic concluded, adding that ''in you young people lies the future of the country (...) and I hope that we teachers are up to it. the height of their demands, if we are up to the task we will be in a position to respond to a country that has to solve the problems of inequity, inequality, abuse of the environment in which we operate and of natural resources.''

Finally, the ULS academics, Dr. Érika Zúñiga and Dr. Fabián Araya, spoke, who reflected on the topic presented by Dr. Rodríguez.