Not just anyone can attend the new facility, which was partly financed by a $2 million IDB grant. To ensure that skills acquired by students are subsequently transferred to a much larger audience, candidates are typically designated as delegates by their home communities. The chosen students make a commitment to complete a specific course and then share new skills with neighbors back home.

The center, which has a maximum capacity of 200 students, is geared to the needs of farmers in remote highland villages who typically grow subsistence crops such as beans and corn. Distance and language barriers have kept most of these farmers from attending training centers available in Guatemala’s larger towns and cities.

At Utz Samaj, classes are offered in both Spanish and Cakchiquel. Recognizing that most potential students will have to travel long distances over primitive trails and roads, the center offers a small dormitory, a drug store and a cafeteria, in addition to classrooms, a working farm and workshops for teaching basic electrical and carpentry skills. All classes teach methods for increasing productivity and quality. Students also learn basic business concepts, such as forming partnerships to lower the costs of supplies and improve market access.

Teachers at the center are primarily practicing farmers from the area who are specialists in a particular skill. The Foundation for Integrated Development, a nongovernmental organization that owns and operates the center, is developing a comprehensive training methodology based on pilot classes now underway. The goal over the next two years is to formalize a methodology that is adapted to the needs of local villagers, and then to share it with other rural training centers.

—Carlos González, Guatemala City