Company Name: CIFP TOLOSALDEA LHII
Location: Gipuzkoa (Spain)
Industry: Education
Company Size: >100
Odoo Users: <30
Hosting: SaaS
Apps: Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Maintenance and Repairs.
The Tolosaldea Integrated Professional Training Center is a public institution dependent on the Government of the Basque Country, located in the province of Gipuzkoa. It has been 8 years since the center realized the need to know the operation of an ERP, noting that most jobs today involve the use of computer systems.
It is true that it is increasingly necessary to use a management system in companies, for example, in the Basque Country, due to the presence of TicketBAI, it is necessary for companies to have a digitalized invoicing system to be able to correctly send invoices to the Basque Country Foral Agency.
Moreover, after the experience of providing training in the use of an ERP, specifically Odoo, the Tolosaldea center saw the need to use it also for its own management. It was for this reason that, apart from training its students in Odoo, they now also work with the system internally.
How do you integrate Odoo in your classroom?
In the Higher Technician in Administration and Finance cycle, they started with the teaching of invoicing systems and specific accounting applications. With the passage of time and different courses, they decided to make the switch to using a fully integrated ERP instead of standalone applications.
While it is true that, just to understand how an invoicing system works, an application that only has these functionalities may be sufficient, a lot of context of how a company works is lost.
This is why they decided to take the step and use a complete ERP in the cycle. Thus, during the first course of the cycle they focus on the basic ERP functionalities, from the navigability to the creation of contacts and products, as well as the registration of the basic processes of purchases and sales. To start with the use of Odoo, students work individually and in groups, thus being able to make purchase and sales processes among themselves.
Later, in the second course, they start with the creation and management of a simulated company, using Odoo as the base tool to carry out all the internal management of the fictitious company.
What impact have you noticed on the students?
At the beginning of the cycle, it is more complicated to understand that Odoo is a fully integrated tool, which implies that the acts recorded in a department, such as purchasing, will have a direct impact on the rest, such as the accounting department. The center is focused on making students understand that nowadays, due to the high level of digitalization and what is going to increase, the accounting work is no longer focused on making entries manually, but on configuring the ERP properly so that the system posts the transactions as required by the company.
The fact of being able to work with a tool like Odoo, which has all the necessary functionalities for the complete management of a company, allows the students to see in the most realistic way the impact of this put into practice, thus understanding how companies work today.
What are the features you value most in Odoo as a teacher?
For teachers in Tolosaldea, the possibility of having a master database with the desired configuration is one of the most important features. The start of the course is faster and more controlled, as well as having the possibility to access the databases created by the students, being able to correct and give feedback faster and directly in the context of the fictitious company created by each student.
Similarly, the start-up can be more costly without the right training, especially on the part of the teachers. They are the first ones who must know everything that the system offers, the possibilities of the system and the corresponding configurations for correct operation.
In addition, there is the challenge of transmitting to the students how an ERP works, for example, in the accounting field, it is no longer a question of manually registering entries or invoices, but of configuring the system so that they are created automatically and then checking that everything is being registered correctly.
After using Odoo in the training cycle, the Tolosaldea center recommends the use of Odoo in training cycles so that the students' experience is as close as possible to the reality of the companies. In addition, they highlight the fact that all Odoo functionalities are available for free thanks to the educational program.
Odoo users
After starting to use Odoo in the classrooms, Tolosaldea realized the advantages of using an ERP also in the management of the center. That is why they started to implement Odoo for their own use.
The implementation was in phases, they spent a few years using Odoo for equipment maintenance, however, over the years, as they saw more advantages and opportunities with Odoo, they decided to expand its use.
Since 2021 they have been using Odoo for the management of the center's purchasing, sales, preventive and corrective maintenance, as well as equipment maintenance. Once again, the Tolosaldea center recommends the use of the system, not only for teaching but also for its own management.
