From Afghanistan to the Spanish university

Nasratullah Jabarkhil has been in Spain for four years and the Camilo José Cela University in Madrid has offered him the opportunity to access higher education. Something that he cannot do in his country, Afghanistan, from where he fled due to the presence of the Taliban. Now he is clear about what he wants to study: “Either Law or Computer Engineering. Law interests me, so I can integrate well in the country, I can know the rules and laws. I also like Computer Engineering because I have always liked technology”.

The ‘Integra’ project has enabled 40 Afghans, most of whom have recently arrived in Spain. initiate a stage to acquire training that will help them in their working life. The first step is to learn the language.

During the first year, students dedicate themselves exclusively to studying the language. Each class begins with a topic in order to acquire more vocabulary and “then we do a grammatical analysis, that is, what verbs are they using, how those verbs work, etc. Then we usually do an exercise in pairs or by a more analytical group, where they have to use the language, that grammar and that vocabulary that has been presented to them and then we finish with a more communicative activity”, explains Andrés Pereira, one of the teachers of Spanish.

Those students who are outside of Madrid receive online classes. The initiative began in 2016 and last year 10 students from that class graduated from Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Iraq. Two years later, in 2018, the European Parliament awarded the European Citizen Award to the Camilo José Cela University for this project.

In this second edition, the students have access to professional training that lasts two years since, according to Ignacio Sell, director of the Camilo José Cela University Foundation, “these young people come to look for work and earn a living. as one more citizen in our country. So we have thought that a technical training that enables them to acquire a job as soon as possible”. However, if they have a good grade, they can access university degrees for free.

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