> There have also been 13 companies and 50 centers that offer professional training.
> The winners obtain a paid scholarship to develop their projects within these companies for two months.
The Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB), the Diputació de Barcelona, and the Fundació BCN Formació Professional have publicly presented the thirteen winning projects of the 6th edition of the MetropolisFPLab, held during the 2023-2024 academic year. More than 1,500 vocational training students from 50 schools have participated in this edition, and have responded to the challenges posed by 13 companies or institutions. As in previous editions, the winners have received a paid scholarship to develop their projects within these companies for two months.
The companies that have proposed challenges to the sixth MetropolisFPLab and the winning teams are:
| COMPANY | CHALLENGE | WINNING TEAM |
|---|---|---|
| Mesoestetic | How can we design and create a system to receive, evaluate, and select proposals for improvement by operators or production technicians? | Chop Chops, de l’Escola Pia de Mataró |
| Consorci de Residus del Maresme | How can we separate and recycle the textile waste that we mostly throw away to mixed waste? | Projecte RenovaTèxtil, de l’Escola Municipal del Treball de Granollers |
| Marina Barcelona 92 | How could we give a second life to plastic pellets from the recycling of the plastics we use in the shipyard? | JDC, de Sanitària Hospital del Mar de Barcelona |
| Hospital Clínic | What could we do to raise awareness and reduce the health problems generated by childhood and youth obesity? | NUTRIFIT, de l’Escola Joviat de Manresa |
| Port de Barcelona | How can we make known, through graphic material, the logistics chain of the port of Barcelona? | PortBCN a la vista!, del Col·legi Cultural de Badalona |
| Resol | How can we create and design a new type of mobility for outdoor use using recycled plastic? | Too Agency, de l’Escola del Treball de Barcelona |
| Aigües de Barcelona | How can we integrate and adapt different spaces and buildings in our city as future climate shelters within the reach of citizens? | Proven+Partners, de l’Institut Provençana de l’Hospitalet de Llobregat |
| Consorci de la Zona Franca | How can we position the Zona Franca polygon as a friendly, easy, and accessible work area for everyone? | UN STUDIO, de l’Escola del Treball de Barcelona |
| Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya | How can we create an information tool that manages the breakdowns and incidents that refer to the maintenance of the Circuit facilities? | LES TRES BESSONES, de l’Escola Pia de Mataró |
| Institut de Ciències del Mar | In coastal communities, how can we reduce the environmental impact and regenerate the coastline, the coastal ecosystem, and the sea ecosystem? | Institut Pedralbes, de l’Institut Pedralbes de Barcelona |
| Grup Ametller Origen | How can we design an intelligent hydroponic irrigation system that allows us to be more efficient? | Nova Rosada, de Sanitària Hospital del Mar de Barcelona |
| Universal Robots | How can we take advantage of the use of robotics and artificial intelligence to help elderly people with dependency and reduced mobility? | Botmate, de l’Escola Municipal del Treball de Granollers |
| GPA Innova Seabots | How can we improve the collection capacity of floating solids and hydrocarbons in a surface marine robot? | The Developers, del Col·legi Cultural de Badalona |
Creativity and innovation have once again marked this edition, with very curious proposals. At the awards ceremony, Ester Pujol, director of the Area of Social and Economic Development of the AMB, highlighted “the quality of the finalist projects worked by VET students, who, with a focus on equity and a more sustainable world, have responded to the challenges and involvement of companies in professional learning”.
On behalf of the Diputació de Barcelona, Joan Josep Galiano, CEO of the Education Area of the Diputació de Barcelona, points out that “from Diputació de Barcelona we have made a very firm commitment to promote educational opportunities for everyone and to facilitate the educational continuity of young people. A solid educational itinerary, which provides a good level of competence, offers more guarantees of being able to move towards a more satisfactory life project, both professionally and personally. And in this sense, we hope that the participation of students in the Metròpolis FPLab project has been able to contribute to motivating them and encouraging them to continue their studies”.
For Sara Berbel, president of the BCN Vocational Training Foundation, “the Metropolis FPLab is a perfect binomial of interrelation between companies, institutions, and VET centers. All the projects that have reached the end of this 6th edition are very good and the quality, as the 13 participating companies have made us notice, increases year by year. We also want to highlight that the Metropolis FPLab is a project of great territorial impact with participants and winners from many centers and municipalities. Nothing would be possible without the great involvement of the tutors of centers and companies; they are essential for this project. See you in the 7th edition!“
During the event, two recognitions have also been made for the tutoring of the projects. Cristian Martínez, from the Marianao Institute of Sant Boi de Llobregat, and, by the tutoring in the company, Arnau Casanova, from Mesoestetic, have been recognized.
Likewise, Innobaix, a collaborating entity of the MetropolisFPlab, has presented the Innobus Award, through its director, Natàlia Mir, to the CVJH team of the Mercè Rodoreda Institute in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
MetropolisFPLab: business innovation to enhance the employment of young people
The MetròpolisFPlab project was born in the 2018-2019 academic year as a fusion of three educational innovation projects: Innolab, from Innobaix; Port Innova, from the port of Barcelona, and the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya program. It aims to highlight the talent of students and bring them closer to the labor market. It aims to promote the acquisition of key skills and promote the employment of young people.
