Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 144: Chapter 127: Technical School

Prime Minister Prim first reported to Carlo on the recent achievements of the government, and then introduced the discussion topic of the meeting, which was the shortage of technical talents during the development of industry in Spain.

In fact, it is not just Spain; any country that wants to develop industry will face the issue of a shortage of technical talents.

Industry is not something that can be built simply by accumulating money. In addition to using a large amount of advanced technology and equipment, it also requires technical talents with a certain knowledge reserve.

Even for the most basic steel smelting, there are strict requirements on the technical level of steel workers. The technical level of the workers not only determines the quality of the steel but also affects work efficiency and safety.

Carlo had already anticipated the issue of Spain’s lack of technical talent.

Although some vacancies have been filled through the establishment of universities and the recruitment of foreign talents, the shortage of technical personnel, especially technical workers, has not been significantly addressed.

When Spain’s industrial scale was not large before, such vacancies were still acceptable. But now, as Spain’s industrial scale has gradually formed through long-term development, the shortage of technical workers must be taken seriously.

Spain’s reserve of technical talents and workers only satisfies the needs of a small Seville Industrial Base. For the Barcelona Industrial Base currently under construction, relying solely on Spain’s existing technical talents is entirely insufficient.

Compared to the Seville Industrial Base, the Barcelona Industrial Base is not only much larger in scale, but its importance is entirely different.

The Seville Industrial Base can provide approximately 30,000 jobs at full capacity, but the first phase of construction at the Barcelona Industrial Base can provide about 100,000 jobs.

If all three phases of the Barcelona Industrial Base are completed, the entire industrial base is expected to offer more than 500,000 jobs, which also means a shortage of technical talents totaling hundreds of thousands.

A shortage of hundreds of thousands of talents is not easy to fill, necessitating great efforts to build related technical schools specializing in training talents outside of university students.

“Your Majesty, these are the development challenges the government is currently facing. It’s not very apparent now, but once the Barcelona Industrial Base is completed, our shortage of technical talents and workers may exceed 50,000 and could potentially impact the development of the Barcelona Industrial Base.” After reporting the current progress of the Spanish government’s work, Prime Minister Prim respectfully said to Carlo.

“Does the government have any good solutions at the moment?” Carlo nodded and asked.

“Yes,” Prime Minister Prim nodded and replied: “We can establish related comprehensive technical schools to help us cultivate the required technical talents.

However, due to the need for a large number of technical talents in the short term, there are certain difficulties in establishing related comprehensive technical schools at present.”

In fact, if it is simply about building comprehensive technical schools, it can be easily achieved by relying solely on the government’s strength.

But the problem is that Spain’s demand for technical talents is not in the thousands or tens of thousands, but there are shortages of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.

Under such a large gap, relying solely on the power of the government is very difficult. Even if the government can build so many technical schools, it would waste too much energy and funds in this area, thereby neglecting development in other directions.

The best way is to cooperate with the Royal Family. The Royal Family has enough funds, after all, the Royal United Bank has become Spain’s largest bank.

Prime Minister Prim invited Carlo to this Cabinet meeting precisely because of this, hoping to invite Carlo and the Royal Family to join in the construction of technical schools as soon as possible, allowing Spain to fill the gap in technical talents.

Carlo naturally understood Prime Minister Prim’s idea. However, the Royal Family certainly cannot waste a significant amount of funds to help the government build technical schools without some exchange of interests.

Carlo’s goal is not only to help the government build technical schools but also to have the Royal Family take the lead in the construction and dissemination of technical schools, claiming the main credit.

In the future, when a large number of technical talents are cultivated from schools and step into factory and enterprise positions, they will be grateful to the Royal Family, for it is the Royal Family that provided them with opportunities.

If the Royal Family did not build technical schools to help them acquire a crucial technical skill, they could not possibly qualify for some demanding technical positions, and their income would not significantly increase.

For Carlo’s requests, Prime Minister Prim is actually also clear. No matter how Carlo cooperates with him in terms of reforms, it cannot change the fact that Carlo is a young king.

Young kings are ambitious; there is no young king who does not want to wield the power in his hands and point fingers at the work of the government.

Although Prime Minister Prim understands this, he will not stop Carlo’s actions and demands. For Prime Minister Prim, the current reform and development of Spain is the most important, all other matters are secondary.

Moreover, Carlo cultivating his confidants and forces, slowly gaining power, will at least take a few years. And during these few years, Carlo will do his utmost to support Prime Minister Prim’s reform, which is also what Prime Minister Prim is most willing to see.

As for Carlo wanting more power in a few years, in fact, it has little to do with Prime Minister Prim.

Prime Minister Prim is almost 60 years old, and he certainly will not worry about those long-term matters. Moreover, with the support of Duke Serrano and the Royalist Faction originally loyal to the Bourbon family, it is only a matter of time before Carlo gains some power in the government and military.

Currently, the only person in the entire Spanish government capable of stopping Carlo from gaining power is Prime Minister Prim, but Prime Minister Prim will not do so.

Because Prime Minister Prim deeply and clearly understands that the stability of the Kingdom of Spain largely depends on the current monarchy.

Should Spain become a republic, there wouldn’t be so much tolerance among the various factions. Rather than let a radical republic destroy Spain, it is better to allow Carlo to regain power.

At least from the observations over these years, Carlo does not seem to be a monarch as foolish as Queen Isabella, but at least a relatively competent king.

Moreover, even if Carlo wants to take over the power in government and the military, it will not be smooth sailing.

Other parties may not be willing to see a king with absolute power; even if Carlo possesses some authority, he will still face restrictions from the parliament and government.

This is also one of the reasons why Prim goes with a prime minister who is at ease. If Carlo’s capabilities are not too strong, the opposition of these parties will be enough to ensure Carlo’s power is not too great, and Spain remains a constitutional monarchy, naturally not requiring excessive limits on Carlo’s power.

If Carlo is able to hold absolute power despite opposition from many other parties and forces and wins the trust and affection of the people, then it could also prove that Carlo is quite an excellent king.

Since that’s the case, what necessity does Prime Minister Prim have to prevent Carlo from gaining power?

“Indeed, it is not easy to fill a gap of hundreds of thousands of technical talents.” Carlo nodded, pretending to be deep in thought, and after a moment, he spoke: ”

Faced with the major challenge in Spain’s development, the Royal Family cannot stand idly by. I’ll take part of the funds from the Royal Family’s assets to establish the Madrid Comprehensive Technical School and strive to build more branches.

The construction requirements for comprehensive technical schools don’t need to be too high, as long as they can cultivate the technical talents we need. We can relax the admission requirements for technical schools; anyone with primary education can apply, and upon graduation, they can receive an equivalent high school degree.”

This assistance is certainly needed because the stronger Spain is, the more benefits Carlo can obtain.

As for the role and contribution of the Royal Family in building technical schools, with Prime Minister Prim overseeing, he naturally understands Carlo’s intention.

Moreover, Carlo himself owns a large number of newspapers as opinion agencies, and with a slight range of propaganda, it can naturally let the people know who played a major role in the construction of technical schools.

Hearing Carlo’s willingness to have the Royal Family fund the construction of technical schools, some Cabinet members showed subtle changes in their expressions when looking at Carlo.

Prime Minister Prim’s Cabinet Government follows the principle of reform first and does indeed have a substantial portion of Cabinet members supporting the monarchy and Carlo.

However, there are also some in the Cabinet Government who oppose the monarchy or are not very optimistic about the monarchy.

This is mainly due to the impact the Bourbon Dynasty and Queen Isabella, along with her father, had on Spain; Spaniards went through over 50 years of dark rule.

Carlo’s straightforward agreement for the Royal Family to fund this is obviously beyond some Cabinet members’ expectations.

If it were during Queen Isabella’s regime, not only would there be no willingness to waste the Royal Family’s money on these matters, but they would even use government funds to accomplish Royal Family affairs.

Although this cannot directly change the attitude of certain Cabinet members, it at least makes them understand that Carlo is different from Queen Isabella before.

This is also one of Carlo’s purposes. Although most of the current Cabinet Government members will say goodbye to Spain’s core political stage after Prime Minister Prim steps down, some will continue to strive in the Spanish political arena, even vying for the position of Prime Minister.

What Carlo wants to do is change certain people’s views on Spanish monarchy, and as much as possible select from them some talents he can utilize, allowing them to become his support.