HOME OF THE SENA
It was the year 1957 when Rodolfo Martinez Tono embarked on the dream that became what would become his life’s work. He did not imagine that the idea conceived on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, during a dinner with Francis Blanchard, director of the Training Division of the International Labour Organization (ILO), would become the SENA. Blanchard proposed the creation of a decentralized organization of the state and self-funded. The project took shape in the minds of Martinez, who exposed him to the then Minister of Labour, Raymond Emiliani Rom n. The initiative, put forward in an intense debate in the Council of Ministers and reviewed by an advisory committee, was approved. Thus, the Sena was born during the administration of the military junta, following the resignation of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, by Decree-Law 118 of June 21, 1957. Duties defined in Decree 164 of August 6, 1957, were providing training to workers, youth and adults of industry, commerce, agriculture, mining and ranching. Also, his goal was to provide technical training to the employee, accelerated training for adults and help employers and workers to establish a national system of learning. In addition, develop and maintain the theory and practice related to different trades, select the candidates for learning supplemental courses of preparation, development and training for technical workers, and contribute to the development of research related to scientific organization, among others. The tripartite arrangement in which employees participate, employers and government, called the National Learning Service (SENA) and came at the right time. The industry was going to conquer new markets and needed more workers and better qualified, modern and dramatic changes in productivity. The name, SENA, chose Martinez Tono, who admired across the Seine River in Paris, the City of Light, capital of France, where he studied issues related to vocational training. Before his 30th birthday, Rodolfo Martinez, turned his thesis, “The Vocational Training Policy Framework for Employment” in the SENA, institution to which she was bound for 17 years, since its inception in 1957 until proposed change of address by President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen in 1974. He was convinced that no human resource training would not have development. So took the scholarship of the ILO to meet the accelerated training experiences implemented in Europe after the Second World War and the support of that agency experts who came to Colombia. The institution Tone Rodolfo Martinez went with “tough” and holding off the politique is, offered instruction qualified human talent to meet the unique challenges of a growing industry. Therefore, from the beginning, their influence was considerable. The nascent organization was not only technical but also business and promoting small and medium enterprises.
