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The Youth Employment Board took place on March 9th at the Convent of Sant Agustí, promoted by Barcelona’s City Council via Barcelona Activa. With the participation of both Mr. Jaume Collboni, 1st Deputy Mayor, and Ms. Raquel Gil, Comissioner for the promotion of employment and policies against precariousness. The main highlight was the good progress of Barcelona after the COVID-19 situation. Issues like the Action Plan for the Promotion of Youth Employment in 2021 were discussed, as well as many proposals for 2022. All of these, famed in the Plan for the Promotion of Youth Employment 2020-2023.

The Convent of St. Agustí will be the point of reference for the city’s employment policies, providing an integrated service to citizens.

In these recent weeks we have been visiting the different companies and entities participating in the 4th edition of the MetròpolisFPlab, a project with 700 students from 30 VET centers, and from 9 different municipalities. These meetings are intended to create a network between the participants’ talent and the needs of those companies. We considered that the best way to do so is by attending the place where each company carries out its activity.

Last month we already visited companies such as the Catalan Institute of Oncology, MB92 and Port de Barcelona, or GPA Innova and LUPA. Now, we have continued with Circuit de Catalunya, which showed us its facilities and the used tires they want to reuse, and with Arquima, who also wants to take profit of the remains of beams and furniture that they generate.

Barcelona’s City Council, specifically the 2030 Agenda, also received us to explain its challenge: how to reduce the gender gap in the use of ICTs. Lastly, Aigües de Barcelona explained us its clear objective: to promote sustainable mobility among its workers.

Keep going with the projecte! The finalist teams will be soon announced!

The future of the agricultural professions is marked by cutting-edge technology and alternative methods of agri-food production The BCN Vocational Training Foundation has presented the twelfth publication of the collection “Emerging economic sectors and vocational training in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region” dedicated to the agri-food sector. The research was carried out in collaboration with Mercabarna and with the support of the AMB and Barcelona City Council. New agricultural models and the diversification of food production are the main strategies to ensure the viability of the business. Likewise, there is a need for the tertiarization of agri-food farms towards activities that transform and market the cultivated material. Barcelona, ​​February 1, 2022 – This morning, Mercabarna’s headquarters hosted the presentation of the study «Agri-food sector» of the collection «Emerging economic sectors and vocational training in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona», prepared by the BCN Vocational Training Foundation with the collaboration of Mercabarna and the support of the AMB and Barcelona City Council. The event was attended by: Jordi Valls, General Manager of Mercabarna; Montserrat Ballarín, vice-president of the Social and Economic Development Area of ​​the AMB and president of Mercabarna; Àngel Tarriño, coordinator of the VET Observatory; and Javier Gracia, a technician at the VET Observatory. The event was also closed by Héctor Santcovsky, director of the social and economic development area of ​​the AMB. The study emphasizes that in the current context of sustainability, the agri-food model must move towards more climate-friendly models, where technological innovations, shortening of cycles and trade channels of agri-food products and changes in the attitude of consumers are transforming the agri-food system thanks to the digitalization of the sector, sustainable agriculture and the expansion of marketing channels.

Similar professional profiles, but with new skills. Faced with this change in the way we produce, professionals in the sector must make an effort to incorporate new knowledge into daily practice through continuing education and, at the same time, the initial vocational training system must ensure so that the new farmers have already taken them on. In this line, Javier Gracia, from the Vocational Training Observatory of the BCN Vocational Training Foundation, explained that “similar to other sectors, the agri-food industry is immersed in a process of transformation that affects all its professional profiles by on skills related to digitization, technicalization, sustainability and business and business management strategies ” In order to adapt professionals to changes in the production and management system, it is necessary to promote the creation or readaptation of professional cycles to respond to the needs of the agri-food production environment (through specific modules with free hours, project work and FP Dual). However, it is necessary to work with the training offer to attend to professional profiles that are not covered and in high demand, such as specialization in arboriculture and professionals in sustainable food systems. Challenge of the food sector: the generational change and digital incorporation

The future of the agricultural professions is marked by cutting-edge technology and alternative methods of agri-food production The BCN Vocational Training Foundation has presented the twelfth publication of the collection “Emerging economic sectors and vocational training in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region” dedicated to the agri-food sector. The research was carried out in collaboration with Mercabarna and with the support of the AMB and Barcelona City Council. New agricultural models and the diversification of food production are the main strategies to ensure the viability of the business. Likewise, there is a need for the tertiarization of agri-food farms towards activities that transform and market the cultivated material.

Challenge of the food sector: generational change and digital incorporation

One of the most mentioned realities is the degree of aging of the producers, almost 65% are over 55 years old in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, ​​and the lack of relief.  The result is the progressive abandonment of the cultivated area, which has been attenuated by a certain return to the countryside as a result of the 2008 crisis, but which has not managed to change the trend.

The strategy inevitably goes to encourage the agri-food profession among young people and generate a new batch of professionals with adequate training to guarantee the success and viability of the farms, as pointed out by Ángel Tarriño, coordinator of the FP Observatory. Likewise, it is necessary to promote actions for the digital implantation and the technological vanguard to the current farms to achieve optimal levels of competitiveness with criteria of environmental sustainability.

As Hector Santcovsky has affirmed-highlighted the importance of the agri-food chain in the metropolitan region of Barcelona, ​​which generates, as a whole, more than 100,000 jobs in addition to 10,000 companies”, and has highlighted the commitment to have a solid, comprehensive, sustainable, competitive, proximity and ecological metropolitan food system.

The president of the BCN Professional Training Foundation Sara Berbel has placed the agri-food sector as strategic to guarantee quality food in the city. Berbel has warned «that the food future necessarily passes to establish strategic lines to promote training and the agri-food sector to improve the efficiency of the food system in terms of sustainability and food guarantee.»

The general director of Mercabarna, Jordi Valls, states that «this study is very important to empower local farmers from their training, in the face of the challenges posed by sustainable food, which require knowledge, innovation and technology to face a sector that has become strategic «.

Approved the European project Logistic VET Hub, presented by XarxaFP, within the Acció Clau 2 – VET – Cooperation between organizations in the field of Vocational Training, corresponding to the call 2021 of the new Erasmus + program.

The objective of the project is the creation of an international partnership between experts from organizations, companies and VET centers that provide training courses related to the logistics sector, in order to exchange best practices, develop recommendations and analyze profiles, competencies and occupations, according to the needs and trends of the logistics sector in Europe. The project has a duration of two years and counts with the participation of Fundació BCN Formació Professional, Lisbon City Council, Skelleftea City Council, Rovaniemi Municipal Education Federation (REDU), SAVO Vocational College of Kuopio, Tartu Vocational College, and Alfa College of Groningen, as well as with the advice of Institut Cotes Baixes d’Alcoi and Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona.

Introducing our basic VET students project: Professional practices in the EU network FP are intended to improve employability and prevent the decoupling of the education system of young PFI students, and are a step forward in the internationalisation of training and integration programmes in our country. The project is based on an updated analysis of the common needs of FP centres that make up the Consorci promoter of the initiative, and of the willingness of all of them to start offering more inclusive mobility opportunities for their basic VET students.

The project includes 3 15-day group mobility for a total of 32 PFI students, in the cities of Lisbon, Portugal, Munich, Germany, and Toulouse, France. Mobility will take place throughout May 2022:

– Munich (1st and 2nd week of May): 10 students + 2 companions

– Lisbon (2nd and 3rd week of May): 11 students + 2 companions

– Toulouse (3rd and 4th week of May): 11 students + 2 companions

The project is aimed at young people with fewer opportunities, with obstacles for social, educational and cultural reasons that make access to the labour market difficult.

The specific objectives of the project are:

-Facilitate the development of basic, transverse, technical and professional skills among the PFI students.

-Facilitate the development of linguistic skills in English or French among PFI students.

– Give basic VET students project students more work experience within the professional sector of their studies.

-Press the feeling of belonging to the European Union among the basic VET students project student.

Enforce the self-worth and motivation of basic VET students project students to encourage their transition to the Initial PF.

– Accompanies and trains the basic VET students project students in decision making on the educational and/or professional path they want to take.

– To make VET centres more compatible with new tools, methods and content so that in the medium term they start to promote their own mobility projects for students.

– Strengthening management capabilities of basic VET students management teams and cross-border cooperation of VET centres.

– Strengthening the national and international partnership of VET Network.

The expected results are:

– Deposing young professional people with greater employability, facilitating their integration into the labour market.

-Disposing young professional people with more motivation and self-confidence to face the transition to the Initial VET.

-Disposing VET centres sensitized and empowered to boost their own PFI students mobility projects.

The Government of the Generalitat is promoting an institutional campaign to inform everyone, as well as all work and training centers, of the importance of the accreditation of competencies.

It is the opportunity to obtain official accreditation by demonstrating what the user is capable of doing, based on professional experience or training which is not officially recognized.

Users have to participate in a series of interviews, preferably virtual, in which they must demonstrate professional competencies that constitute part of a professional certificate or degree.

If the person demonstrates that he/she has acquired the units of competence, he/she obtains an official certification that allows validating and completing the training of a Professional Certificate or Vocational Training Degree.

Obtaining an accreditation certificate facilitates professional and personal development, improving the curriculum and the chances of finding a job. In addition, when the procedure is completed, the user receives guidance on the training itinerary to follow.

From 2022, accreditation will be a regular and stable service, and citizens will be able to register for free, 365 days a year, for all professional competencies included in professional certificates and vocational training degrees offered in Catalonia.

Updated information on this new service will be posted on https://fp.gencat.cat/ca/acreditacio/em-vull-acreditar. The more people accredit their professional competencies, the stronger the FPCAT System will become.

This year, the Fundació has promoted the FP&Construction 4.0 Roundtable with the aim of understanding the needs and trends of the sector and to train future professionals in Construction 4.0.

The Board has met in four working sessions, and brings together VET centers of the Building and Construction, as well as Wood and Furniture families, professional guilds, experts and agents of the VET ecosystem.

On December 3, we will be visiting a public housing development, pioneer in innovation, sustainability and inclusiveness, promoted by IMPSOL.

• This morning the BCN Formació Professional Foundation presented the study “New trends and training needs in the 3D printing sector” at the headquarters of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona.
• The research has been carried out with the collaboration of the CZFB with the support of AMB and the 3D Incubator.
• 3D printing is a great opportunity to create employment with the emergence of new professional profiles that makes it necessary to add this new way of producing in the training system.

Barcelona, 29 October 2021 – The Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) has hosted this morning at its headquarters the presentation of the study “New trends and training needs in the 3D printing sector”, prepared by the BCN Professional Training Foundation with the collaboration of the CZFB and the support of AMB and 3D Incubator. The event was attended by Pere Navarro, special delegate of the State in the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona; Sara Berbel, president of the Fundació BCN Formació Professional; Àngel Tarriño, coordinator of the Observatori de l’FP; Pau Alarcón, technician at the Observatori de l’FP; and Pablo Valderrama, director of the 3D Incubator. Likewise, the closing of the act has been in charge of Héctor Santcovsky, director of the area of ​​Social and Economic Development of the AMB, and Pere Navarro.

The study highlights that Catalonia is already one of the main 3D printing poles worldwide, and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area encompasses more than half of its companies. However, most companies suffer significant entry barriers, among which the need to adapt the training offer to the current economic and social reality stands out.

The study also offers updated information on the current and future situation, potential, trends and needs of the sector.

New professional profiles

This recent way of producing has caused the need for new professional profiles such as specialists in design, post-processing and finishings or engineers and technicians specialized in 3D printing.

This means a great opportunity to create employment that involves using 3D printing in the training system. In this sense, it is important, first of all, to have specialized teachers in the field to, later, offer continuous training to acquire knowledge and skills in 3D printing and create a training offer aimed at their companies and staff.

Along these lines, Pau Alarcón, from the Observatori de l’FP of the Fundació BCN Formació Professional, explained that “expanding the training offer (via adaptating training cycles, Dual Professional Training, and so on) would drastically contribute to boosting the sector and reducing the problems to find specialized labor”.

3D printing advantages

In recent years, with the development of the new economy, 3D printing offers several advantages that adjust themselves to new ways of consuming, producing and transporting. Among them must be highlighted production on demand, without the need for stocks, freedom in design and the possibility of large-scale customization, the manufacture of complex geometries without joints, or the possibility of manufacturing closer to the end consumer. Likewise, the main reason why this form of production is becoming consolidating is the rise in environmental sustainability and a greater concern on the circular economy.

Implementing 3D printing in industrial production has enabled companies to increase their competitiveness by reducing time and costs, expanding production capacities and improving service. As Àngel Tarriño, coordinator of l’Observatori de l’FP, has pointed out, “although the 3D printing sector is still in an initial phase, it has enormous potential, it already encompasses very varied fields and its evolution points towards an openness to many other sectors.”.

As Sara Berbel has concluded, “it is necessary to anticipate the talent needs of the new productive sectors that are called to be the drivers of change towards a more sustainable, effective, efficient and productive model that will generate jobs and wealth in our territory”.

3D Incubator and DFactory Barcelona, ​​pioneering initiatives

The special delegate of the State in the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, ​​Pere Navarro, highlighted that “the entity is committed to the development of the 3D printing industry and was a pioneer in creating the 3D Incubator together with Leitat and the help of FEDER funds: the first high technology 3D printing incubator in Europe, with 75 companies already incubated”. 3D Incubator became a benchmark for public-private collaboration by creating a respirator and a bifurcer in record time during the pandemic.

Likewise, the CZFB will open at the end of the year the first phase of DFactory Barcelona, ​​with Leitat as a technological partner. With 17,000 m2 destined to 4.0 Industry, it will become the main node of the digital industry in southern Europe, where HP has been the first company to become installed to carry out 3D printing research.

The AMB director of the area of ​​social and economic development, Héctor Santcovsky, has highlighted “the will to work within the metropolitan strategy to strengthen the 3D printing industry sector within the framework of the commitment to the reindustrialization of the territory and the reactivation of the economy”.

On Tuesday 13 October 2021, Day of Lovelace, at 19h in the CosmoCaixa, the 7th edition of the Women’s Prizes was held, promoted by the Department of the Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territories, in collaboration with the Catalan Institute of Women, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce Women Observatory and the Tertúlia Digital Association.
These awards have the dual objective of recognising the fundamental role of women in the professional, business and academic world of new technologies, and offering concerning girls and adolescents who doubt whether or not to devote themselves to STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in the future.
Eight women and two business initiatives have been awarded the prize for this year. In the category of top FP TIC students the winner 2021 is Sara Puig Cabruja, a student of the double-developing master’s degree. website and media (DAW and DAM) in Jesuits The Clot of Barcelona.
The Foundation participates as a member of the jury of this prize and congratulates students on the awarding of all previous editions.

2021 Sara Puig Cabruja	Jesuïtes El Clot, Barcelona	CFGS DAM and DAW
2020 Agnes Malé	Institut Esteve Terrades and Illa, Cornellà de LL.	ASIX-Ciberse CFGS
2019 Anna Dacosta	Institut Esteve Terrades and Illa, Cornellà de LL.	ASIX-Ciberse CFGS
2018 Cristina Martin Planelle	Coma Forest Institute, Olot	CFGS DAM and DAW
2017 Marina Blasco	Institutn chez Institute of Labour, Barcelona	CFGS Telecommunications and Information Systems

Women registered in VET cycles account for 9%, employment inclusion in this professional family is 98.92%, a sector that has very well resisted the pandemic that has created jobs and will create a lot of jobs over the next few years, therefore work will have to be done to attract more young people and, above all, more girls to these professional studies, a challenge that is challenging us all (families, schools, businesses, institutions, government, etc.).

The AMB (Metropolitan Area of Barcelona) and the BCN Professional Training Foundation have publicly presented this Friday the nine winning projects of the 3rd edition of the MetròpolisFPLab, held during the 2020-2021 academic year.

This year, 9 companies and 27 VET centers from the metropolis of Barcelona have participated. Nine winning projects of the third edition are recognized, among which there is a virtual assistant for patients in hospitals, as well as a smart mat that identifies the passengers of a bus to control the ascents and descents.

MetròpolisFPLab is an innovation project that we promote together with the AMB, with the aim of highlighting the talent of Vocational Training students and bringing them closer to the labor market. It aims to promote the acquisition of key competences and promote the employment of young people, through an open innovation methodology in a real environment.

In this edition, 700 vocational training students from the metropolis of Barcelona have participated, which have been organized into 200 work teams. As in previous editions, students have faced challenges posed by each of the collaborating companies in order to find solutions to their needs.

Creativity and innovation have once again marked this edition, with curious proposals, such as the holding of Olympic Games that bring together the 17 objectives of the 2030 agenda, a virtual assistant for patients in hospitals, a virtual gymkhana through the social networks, or a smart mat that detects the identity of passengers traveling on a bus and automatically opens the doors.

The companies that have proposed challenges to the MetròpolisFPLab3 and the winning teams are:

Company	Challenge	Winning team	Project
2030 Agenda	How can we get young people to better understand the 2030 Agenda and get involved to achieve it?	“DICA Team”, from the Institut Esteve Terrades of Cornellà	Sustainability workshops given in schools to explain what the SDGs are.
Aigües de Barcelona	How can we promote the responsible consumption of water and food to reduce waste?	“Earthfocus”, from Escola del Treball of Barcelona	Water-related awareness workshops for young people
TMB	How can we improve the user experience to reduce the concern generated at bus stops regarding schedules, incidents, etc.?	“Dream Team”, from Institut Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia of Sant Joan Despí	Interactive screen at bus stops
Catalan Institute of Oncology	How can we welcome a patient from the ICO so that they know how to act in the virtual healthcare part?	“Dream Team”, from Escuela Santísima Trinidad of Barcelona, ​​ & “Macacos Team”, from Gimbernat Formación of Sant Cugat del Vallès	Dual function of the project: web page + application and follow-up of the patient
Garcia Faura	What reusable packaging system can we use to protect and truck the windows and facades we manufacture?	“…” from Escola Massana de Barcelona	Modular system for window protection
PEMB	How can we educate young people and make their breakfasts healthier and more sustainable?	“Esteve Terradas  Finances PEMB 1”, from Institut Esteve Terradas i Illa of Cornellà de Llobregat	Mobile app with exclusive recipes and interactive videos so that students can follow routines of healthy habits
Circuit of Catalunya	How can we position Circuit of Catalonia through our communication channels to reach a younger audience?	“Skynet guys”, from Institut Provençana of Hospitalet de Llobregat	Virtual gymkhana through the different spaces of the Circuit
Barcelona’s Port	What technical system can be implemented on the bus that crosses the Port so that users respect the areas for getting on and off at the stops?	“JYL”, from Institut Joan Brossa of Barcelona	Electronic mat that identifies passengers and enables them to get off the vehicle in restricted areas
MB92	How can we effectively collect floating debris in shipyards taking into account that there are usually moored boats?	Desert	Desert

The students of the nine winning teams obtain a scholarship of € 1,000 to develop project ideas within these companies for two months, between September and November 2021.

MetropolisFPLab: business innovation to promote the employment of young people.