Prometeus Programme
Prometeus is a municipal program that ensures that all young people from public high schools in neighborhoods with a lower-than-average university enrollment rate in the city can access university and successfully pursue higher education regardless of economic and social conditions.
Originated in the 2016-2017 academic year as a community project in the Raval neighborhood, the initiative today constitutes a municipal program promoted by the Neighborhood Plan with the collaboration of Barcelona Science and Innovation. Currently, managing the day-to-day running of the program are the Associació Educativa Integral del Raval and AFEV.
Prometeus is carried out in close collaboration with the Consorci d'Educació de Barcelona and the districts of Ciutat Vella, San Martí, Nou Barris and Sants-Montjuïc. The program also includes public high schools, the city's four public universities -Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)- and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).
Thanks also to the networking of entities, educational and social agents and volunteers, Prometeus is today one of the key programs in the educational field. With the initial support of the Ciutat Vella district, it quickly became a successful program, which is why the 2016-2020 Neighborhood Plan, in collaboration with Barcelona Science and Innovation, adopted it as its own and provided it with economic and human resources to consolidate it and extend it to other neighborhoods in the city with similar characteristics.
Accompaniment of young people
The program has a professional team from the two managing entities (AEIRaval and AFEV), which accompanies students from high school until they complete their university studies. This involves personal, social and technical support, which includes, among many other aspects, support in procedures such as enrollment or applying for public scholarships.
Mentoring also plays an important role in the context of support during the course of studies, thanks to the collaboration of volunteers. Once the studies are finished, support is also offered in accessing the labor market, with the collaboration of universities and Barcelona Activa, among others. Finally, it is important to highlight the various tasks of social commitment carried out by Prometeus young people, as reference figures for future promotions and their families.
Role of the universities
The increase in the number of Prometeus students at university and their educational success has been accompanied by an increasingly intense and systematic dedication on the part of all the universities, including those outside Barcelona (UdG, URV and UVic), as shown in the growing number of people, services and units involved in each one, as well as in the increase of their own resources destined, in part, to Prometeus students, such as the university salary scholarships.
During the university period, Prometeus students receive support and follow-up at all times, both academic and personal, from the people in charge of the program, in close collaboration with the universities. At the same time, they form groups, accompany each other, share experiences and actively participate in the talks that are held regularly in the high schools to motivate students to continue studying and to attract their attention to the program. In this way, they become referents in their neighborhood and reinforce the educational imaginary as a central value of the program.
Deployment of Prometeus
After its launch in the 2016-2017 academic year, Prometeus has been expanded in several phases, the first in the 2019-2020 academic year, from two to five high schools, and the second in the 2022-2023 academic year, from five to eight. This year, the program has ten institutes from new different neighborhoods:
- El Raval: Institut Milà i Fontanals and Institut Miquel Taradell
- El Besòs i el Maresme: Institut Barri Besòs
- La Verneda and La Pau: Institut Bernat Metge
- Zona Nord: Pablo Ruiz Picasso Institute
- Poble-sec: Institut Consell de Cent
- Turó de la Peira and Can Peguera: Institut Barcelona Congrés
- La Prosperitat: Flos i Calcat Institute
- La Barceloneta: Joan Salvat Papasseit Institute
- Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera: Institut Verdaguer
In addition to these neighborhoods and institutes, Prometeus has also been extended to municipalities such as Manlleu (Institut Antoni Pous i Argila), with the support and management of the Manlleu City Council within the framework of the Municipal Education Plan, and Pamplona (Instituto Julio Caro Baroja and Instituto Plaza de Cruz), thanks to the management of the Public University of Navarra (UPN) and with the support of the Government of Navarra. In these cases, the deployment of the program has been carried out with the close collaboration of Prometeus Barcelona, while maintaining permanent spaces of territorial coordination.
Prometeus Youth
Since the 2016-2017 academic year, the number of Prometeus young people in Barcelona is almost 400, of which two thirds are university students and the rest are in transition (doing a CFGS as a bridge to university or preparing again for the PAU). At the same time, two thirds of the total are women.
In the nine years of the program, the 2024-2025 academic year is the one that has seen the greatest increase in the number of Prometeus students, with a new class of 96 students (20% more than last year, when there was already a 70% increase). Thus, in the last two academic years, the program has almost doubled the number of young people it accompanies.
Graduating promotions
Currently, three classes of Prometeus young people have graduated.
Since the beginning of the program, 37 young people have successfully completed their university studies, the main objective of Prometeus. Each year, the graduation ceremony is held in the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona City Hall, with the presence of the mayor and representatives of all the agents involved, as well as the families of the graduates.
