The Foundation participated in the Youth Employment Table (TOJ) meeting held on May 20, 2025, at 4:00 p.m. in the Mirador Room of the Barcelona Activa Convent (Espai Jo +), at Plaza Pons y Clerch, 2.
The objectives of this meeting were to present the 2024 interim balance sheet of the 2024-2025 Action Plan of the Quality Youth Employment Plan, as well as the next steps and the roadmap for 2025. During this meeting, we explained the Dual Vocational Training project to the Barcelona City Council.
On May 8, we attended the final gala of the Professional Life Project (ProVP), which is a program for academic and professional guidance, the dissemination of entrepreneurial culture and work values, aimed at students in secondary schools, high schools, and vocational training centers. This program is promoted by Barcelona Activa, and we are partners in it along with the Barcelona Education Consortium and Femcat. At the gala, we evaluated the finalist projects and then awarded the prizes.
Between March and May 2025, four groups of PFI and IFE students participated in 10-day training stays in various European cities: Toulouse and Dijon (France), Munich (Germany), and Vejle (Denmark). This initiative, part of the Erasmus+ program, has been a transformative experience both personally and educationally.
During their stay, the students had the opportunity to discover new cultures, live with young people from other countries, and face the challenge of living away from home for the first time. This experience helped them gain autonomy, responsibility, and self-confidence.
Living with other students has promoted values of inclusion, respect, and cooperation. In addition, joint activities and participation in small projects have allowed them to establish personal bonds and learn about realities different from their own.
They also visited training centers and local companies, where they were able to see how people work in other countries and compare methodologies, trades, and work environments. This contact with the international professional world has been very enriching.
The accompanying teachers have evaluated the experience very positively, highlighting the evolution that the students have undergone: “They have returned more mature, open, and participatory. It is an experience that has left a mark on them and that they will remember for the rest of their lives.”
These trips have been much more than just a journey: they have been a unique opportunity for personal growth, coexistence, and learning in an international environment.
We would like to thank all the educational centers, the parties involved, the cities that belong to the FP Network, and the accompanying persons who have made this project possible.
On May 5th, at the Barcelona City Hall, we held a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Vocational Training Council, where the Foundation holds the position of associative vice president. We worked on preparing the meeting of the Plenary of this Council scheduled before the summer break. Additionally, we received firsthand information from the Barcelona Education Consortium about the latest updates regarding the planning and pre-enrollment process for Vocational Education and Training for this year.
This April, the Foundation played a prominent role in two key events for industrial transformation and the construction sector: Advanced Factories & Advanced Machine Tools 2025 & Rebuild 2025, reaffirming its commitment to innovation and the promotion of talent in vocational training.
From April 8 to 10, we collaborated in the 9th edition of Advanced Factories (AF2025) and the 2nd edition of Advanced Machine Tools (AMT), held at Feria Barcelona, a benchmark in automation, industrial robotics, and Industry 4.0. On the afternoon of Thursday, April 10, the Talent Marketplace was held, where vocational training students were able to learn about companies and trends in the sector. During the event, the president of the FP CAT Agency, Jose Luis Duran, presented the Awards for Innovative Vocational Training Projects, in which the following centers stood out as finalists:
Subsequently, on April 24 and 25, we participated in Rebuild 2025 and the EYOCNET network meeting, held at IES Islas Filipinas in Madrid, which brings together teachers of Building and Civil Engineering at the national level. This new association, with the participation of centers in Barcelona and the AMB, was created with the aim of promoting collaboration and innovation in the AECO sector (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Maintenance).
On Friday, April 25, the Foundation moderated a panel discussion on success stories after training, with notable contributions from Iván Romero and Marc Prim, former students of the Institut Provençana, founders of Blue Building Company, and winners of the FP Consolida Award, the Metropolis FP Lab, and recently the LA PLAZA ideas competition at Construmat 2025 at the Barcelona Trade Fair.
Both events show that the future of industry and construction lies in quality training and the promotion of young talent. Without training, there will be no transformation!
We thank the organizations Advanced Factorías and Rebuild for their support and commitment to the visibility and promotion of vocational training.
During the month of April we kicked off a new edition of the Singular project. The Singular project, coordinated by the BCN Vocational Training Foundation and funded by the Catalan Employment Service (SOC), allows 60 young graduates in vocational training to carry out a personalized training itinerary based on continuous professional orientation and extensive linguistic training.
Subsequently, young participants can carry out professional internships of up to 12 months in the German cities of Munich, Hanover, Stuttgart and Bremen. Finally, young participants can validate their vocational training qualification in Germany.
The last few weeks, represented by the Hanover Chamber of Commerce (IHK) and the Pedagogical Institute of the City of Munich, among others, have carried out the informative sessions and selection interviews in Barcelona.
As part of the international plan of measures project, from Estonia, a group of VET teachers has started a peer-to-peer shadowing training stay with the VOCO center, one of the most recognized VET institutions in the country. During this week, teachers have had the opportunity to discover first-hand the Estonian vocational training system, share knowledge with their counterparts and actively participate in their classes.
The stay has also included cultural visits to cities such as Tallinn and Tartu, considered the main university nucleus of the country. Throughout the conference, participants were able to get to know the facilities of the VOCO center, specialized in multiple training areas, and get closer to the business reality of Estonia by visiting collaborating companies of the center linked to their respective sectors.
This experience has been a key opportunity to promote the exchange of good educational practices and strengthen the network of international cooperation in the field of vocational training.
During the month of April, the Management Team Stay in Copenhagen (Denmark) was organized with 20 members of the management teams of VET centers in Barcelona and its metropolitan area.
Thanks to the Erasmus program coordinated by the BCN Vocational Training Foundation and our international partners ZBC – Zealand Business College (https://www.zbc.dk/) members of the European VET Network FP, we have been able to observe how the Danish VET centers are directed and managed.
Broadly speaking, the Danish vocational training system is defined by the flexibility of the training pathways, the high involvement of the business system in the planning of the training offer and the great autonomy of the centers when modifying educational curricula and hiring staff.
The participating vocational training centres and institutions have been: EA Serra i Abella, Institut Hospital del Mar FP Sanitària, Institut Pedralbes, Institut Tecnològic de Barcelona, Institut dels Aliments de Barcelona, Institut Miquel Biada, Institut de Formació Empresarial de Barcelona, Institut de Sostenibilitat i Medi Ambient de Barcelona, Institut Escola d’Hoteleria i Turisme de Barcelona, Escola Massana. Centre d’Art i Disseny, Institut de Formació Professional Antoni Algueró, Consorci d’Educació de Barcelona, Institut Anna Gironella de Mundet, ITAEB (Institute of Audiovisual Techniques and Show of Barcelona), Deià Escola d’Art i Disseny, Institut Mitjans Audiovisuals (EMAV), Institut Poblenou, Institut
Pompeu Fabra, , Institut Esteve Terradas i Illa and Institut de Logística de Barcelona.
More than 200 students from 20 VET centers have participated in the Project Acceleration Workshop of the FPLab Metropolis, distributed in which they have responded to the challenges posed by 12 companies
A great example of how vocational training can generate innovation and bring students closer to the business world!
Thank you very much to all the participants for your involvement and dedication.
The Can Calderón Auditorium in Viladecans today hosted the “Talent and Gastronomy” conference, an initiative promoted by the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, the City Council of Viladecans and the BCN Vocational Training Foundation, with the aim of evaluating the adequacy of the vocational training offer to the transformations and trends of the main occupations in this sector.
The event began with the institutional inauguration by Mrs. Olga Morales, Mayor of Viladecans and CEO of Social Policies and Equality of the AMB.
Then, our study “Emerging economic sectors and vocational training at the RMB was presented: Sector of Gastronomy”, by Neus Pons, director-manager of the BCN Vocational Training Foundation, and Victoria Sanjuan, researcher at the VET Observatory.
The day continued with a sectoral table focused on the challenges of talent in the gastronomic fabric, with the participation of:
The closing ceremony was given by Elisabet Tejero, director of Social Policy and Equality services at the AMB, and the day ended with a networking and snack space, which allowed the exchange of ideas between the participants.
This meeting reaffirms the commitment to continue working on professional training aligned with the needs of the territory and with the capacity to generate real opportunities in strategic sectors such as gastronomy.
Link to our study: https://www.fundaciobcnfp.cat/estudi/els-sectors-economics-emergents-i-la-formacio-professional-a-la-regio-metropolitana-de-barcelona/
