On June 9, at the Caixafòrum, we attended the presentation of the BCN Port Innovation Foundation. This Foundation wants to turn Barcelona into a smart international reference port beyond the sea: a sustainable, multimodal, agile, resilient and transparent port.
Barcelona Port Innovation will actively contribute to the achievement of the strategic objectives of the port, where vocational training also plays an important role in providing part of the necessary professional profiles.
On the 8th and 9th of June, the European partners of the Logistic VET Hub project met in Kuopio for the 4th follow-up meeting of the project, organised by Savon ammattiopisto Sakky.
We had the opportunity to meet and discuss the main good practices identified so far and to launch the latest work package of the project, in which strategic recommendations will be developed to encourage vocational training in the logistics sector throughout Europe.
In addition, we have continued to organise the next international training period aimed at 21 VET logistics students from various centers of Barcelona and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, Tartu (Estonia), Lisbon (Portugal), Groningen (the Netherlands), Kuopio and Rovaniemi (Finland) and Skelleftea (Sweden), which will take place in Tartu from the 10th to the 15th of September in order to learn about Estonia’s global logistics sector.
You can find the resolution of the participant selection process here.
Next October we will be holding the final act of the project, which will announce the main results and the most significant international good practices.
We have held the award ceremony for the finale of MetropolisFPLab. In this 5th edition, we broke the record of participants: 13 companies, more than 40 centres, more than 360 teams and more than 1400 students. At the final ceremony of the prizes, held at the Provençana Institute from l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, more than 120 people attended, a success!
It is a project that is constantly growing, increasingly and more innovative, including more sectors, more companies and more centres. It has been a great satisfaction to see the enthusiasm with which all parties participate and experience the project. Again, an undoubted demonstration of the talent in the VET. Compliments to all participants, and congratulations to the winners of this edition.
The winners of the MetropolisFPlab edition are:
| CHALLENGE | Challenge | ENTERPRISE TUTOR | TEAM (center) | From | Members | NAMES | CENTER TUTOR | |
| 1 | Mesoestetic | How can we find solutions to reduce the digital divide of our workers against new automatic production lines? | Arnau Casanova | DAWtomaticos (Escola del Treball) | Barcelona | 3 | Sergio Hortas Lijó Adrián Vico Aaron Belayni Moreno | Dani Triano |
| 2 | Arquima | How could we make better use of the different types of wooden waste to have a greater economic performance? | Alan Gutiérrez | Provenworks (Ins Provençana) | Hospitalet de Llobregat | 3 | Iván Romero David Llusà Darwin Padilla | Paco Sánchez |
| 3 | Audens Food | How could we make a second use of the left over flour from the production processes in order to use it in the current value chain? | Beatriz Sotorrío Jaume Montes | Pequeño ayudante de santa claus (Ins Severo Ochoa) | Esplugues de Llobregat | 5 | Alex Dorador Pere Homero Marmol Mireia García Judith Mena Yesenia Salazar | Maria Martínez |
| 4 | Marina Barcelona 92 | How can we create a system that centralizes demands for the use of the dron, defines the routes that it has to go through, and that sorts the waste that it collects? | Marc Hervás | MAOA (Ins La Ferreria) | Montcada i Reixac | 4 | Marc Barrio Andrés Criado Alex Buenaventura Óscar Rivera | Susana Pérez |
| 5 | Aigües de Barcelona | How can we reduce water consumption and ensure good supply in all areas in order to deal with drought? | Pere Verger | New Wave (Escola del Treball) | Barcelona | 3 | Andru Colque García Shariel Estremadoiro Gongora Estefany huanca martinez | Enric Garcia Mercè Camarassa |
| 6 | Port de Barcelona | How can we rethink the “Port Vell” (Old Port) public spaces for them to be more environmentally sustainable considering climate change and the energy crisis? | Javier Romo | ARQUA (Ins Provençana) | Hospitalet de Llobregat | 4 | Nerea Ortega Marc Villegas Christian Yacila Luis Steven Sanguña | Paco Sánchez |
| 7 | Pla Estratègic Metropolità (PEMB) | How can we get young people to know and interact with other parts of the Barcelona metropolitan area that are not in their neighbourhood or city? | Lluïsa Guàrdia | EQUIP 8 TARDA (Ins Poblenou) | Barcelona | 3 | Nadine Alonso Irene Perez Planells Paula Canongia Mejía | Ana Martínez |
| 8 | Hospital del Mar | How could we apply e-health tools to reduce the incidences that appear during the maneuvers of an in-hospital cardiorespiratory arrest? | Cristina Campà Laia Lacueva | D.A.D.C (Ins Bonanova) | Barcelona | 4 | Chainaz Lahboub Daihana Insaurrlde Alba Sánchez Dure Shahwar | Àlex Monnà |
| 9 | Consorci de la Zona Franca (CZF) | How can we succeed in attracting female talent to the industrial sector? | Raquel Garcia | Mariners (Prat Educació) | Barcelona | 4 | Arnau Sanchez Mas Juan Manuel Restrepo Daniel Arranz Manchón Mireia Batista | Sònia Menéndez |
| 10 | Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya | How can we improve digitization in the management of Circuit spaces (such as hospitality spaces, boxing track rentals, parking spaces, etc.)? | Erica Mandome | Inclusive Gas (EMT Granollers) | Granollers | 4 | Pol Galvez Marc Alcaide Youssef N’sairi Joan Morales | Eva Tàpia |
| 11 | Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) | How can we improve TMB communication when there are cuts of service on subway lines to make people know the reasons and the possible alternatives? | Bernat Fernandez Jesús Alegre | Creative User (Escola del Treball) | Barcelona | 3 | Raúl Domínguez Helen Anaïs Gualli Daniela Chirinos | Alex Sànchez Cecilia Sales |
| 12 | Consorci Sanitari del Maresme | How could we improve the experience of patients in health center rooms to bring more value to the wait they have to carry out? | Jana Cela Rosa Monteis | Napal (Campus Docent Sant Joan de Déu) | Sant Boi de Llobregat | 3 | Alexia Alvarez i Martin Naiara Goñi Paula Redondo | María Montes |
On June 6, the Professional Training Council and the Barcelona City Council discussed the current situation of educational policies in the city in the last Plenary of the course and the municipal mandate.
With this joint event of the two Councils, held at the Milà i Fontanals Institue, the aim was to create a space for collective discussion and reflexion of the educational community and the ecosystem of the Barcelona VET on the current state of the city’s educational policies.
For this reason, the report of Educational Opportunities of Barcelona 2022, the fourth biennial research edition produced by the Metròpoli Institute, was publicly presented. This report analyses the situation of education in the city of Barcelona, paying particular attention to educational inequalities.
The Foundation holds the third vice presidency of the VET Council and actively participates in all activities.
At first it spoke about the implementation of the Dual VET. In general terms, we need to work with companies to advise them on the incorporation of Dual students into the company. We need to work hard to be able to speed up the implementation of Dual VET.
The benefits of Dual VET were also discussed, such as the adapting to the real needs of companies, a better preparation in the truly essential skills of the profession, knowledge of the real working environment and a holistic vision of the company’s activity.
The third block dealt with international mobility: knowledge of different working techniques and methodologies or useful alternatives to apply once the students come back. In terms of student mobility, the Dual prepares them better to respond to new or in constant change working environments.
The fourth and final block was dealing with the benefits of Dual VET; we need an agreement between companies and educational centers to facilitate its implementation. On issues of agreements, timetables, rotation within the same company or in others…
The BCN Vocational and Education Training Foundation has organised and carried out four international mobilities for companies, VET centers and institutions, with the aim of getting a better understanding of the vocational training system in other countries (Germany, Canada, Finland and the Netherlands).
In the first mobility, teachers and educational professionals in the field of logistics visited the Hamburg Institute for Vocational Training and the Port of Hamburg in Germany.
In the second mobility, the Foundation visited the MBO Raad Institute to learn about the vocational training system in the Netherlands.
The third mobility was the first one outside the European Union, where Núria Varella, Training in Working Centers tutor at the Costume and Spectacle Cycle at the Anna Gironella Mundet Institute, spent a stay to meet the VET in Montreal, Canada; a mobility that is useful to prepare the same mobility but for students next year.
The fourth mobility was in Finland, Espoo, accompanying a mobility of Barcelona management teams. We have visited Omnia, it is a wonderful opportunity to establish synergies!
The main aim of the stay is to learn about the Finnish education and vocational training system and, specifically, the innovative ecosystem of a European Vocational Training Centre: Omnia. We have known Omnia’s management, strategy and leadership model as a centre of vocational excellence, and how they connect with other companies. We have also been to Omnia Makerspace, an innovation and digitization space for Omnia students within the Aalto University precinct.
We thank the different centers and institutions for their cooperation in these international mobilities.
On May 9, the annual meeting of the monitoring committee of the Barcelona City Council’s Dual VET project took place at the Barcelona City Council’s Hall of Chronicles.
The committee consists of a representation of people referring to the Barcelona City Council (districts, managements, Municipal Institutes), representatives of the VET centres, and members of the monitoring subcommittee (CEB, Barcelona City Council, Department of Education of the Government of Catalonia and BCN Vocational and Education Training Foundation).
The Foundation, commissioned by the City Council, coordinates the collection of VET fellows requests and the CEB is responsible for assigning the places at the centers.
The meeting was useful to take stock of the past year, the welcome presentation on the City Council and the planning to incorporate now the new 2023-2024 interns.
The Barcelona City Council has supported Dual VET since the start, in 10 years 2013-2023 it has hosted more than 2,000 Dual VET interns of 21 professional profiles with an investment of + 6M€.
For the 2023-2024 academic year, the Barcelona City Council plans to incorporate 310 Dual VET interns from 23 professional profiles, being a benchmark for dual vocational training in the public sphere.
More than 550 vocational training teachers have actively participated in the 9th VET Congress, organized by “FP Empresa” and “CaixaBank Dualiza”. All of them have promoted the new collaboration between VET centers and companies that will take place following the implementation of the VET law. The Congress took place at the Cidade da Cultura, Galicia, in Santiago de Compostela.
The discussions during these two days has been focused on the challenges that society will have to face for the proper development of the new legislation, the role that business and trade union organisations will play to try to facilitate the training involvement of companies and the relationship with VET centres, as well as the role of business tutors in Dual training.
Els debats durant aquests dos dies s’han centrat en els reptes que la societat haurà d’afrontar per al desenvolupament adequat de la nova normativa, el paper que jugaran les organitzacions empresarials i sindicals per facilitar l’implicació formativa de les empreses i la relació amb els centres de formació, així com el rol del tutor o tutoressa empresarial en la formació dual.
The Minister of Culture, Education and Universities of Xunta de Galicia, Román Rodríguez, has stressed the importance of companies’ confidence in the VET, stating that “business will have to rely even more on the VET” with the introduction of the new law that dualises all training. Rodríguez has also emphasized that “business trust Vocational Education and Training initiatives to recruit professional resources to expand the workforce”, as 85% of students who take up VET in Galicia find work immediately, and regarding dual training, the percentage reaches 100%.
Among the companies that were prominent participants in the congress were Iberdrola, Spain Nestlé and the Pescanova Group, which have highlighted their responsibility under the new regulations.
During May, 34 VET students from centers of Barcelona, Alcoy and Madrid have completed professional internships in Lisbon, Munich or Toulouse. Through this experience, students have been able to improve their employability, acquiring and strengthening their technical, personal and linguistic skills.
During the 24th and the 25th of May, the final presentations of the MetropolisFPLab were held, where the 36 finalist teams of the 12 challenges showed their final proposal to the jury, consisting of the company or entity launching the challenge, innovation experts, and the project’s instigators. Students have presented the most innovative ideas, which they have been working on for more than 5 months, in order to find the most attractive proposal that best solves the challenge. On June 1st, the closing act will be held, where the winning teams will be elected in situ and a new edition of the project will be closed.
