Valencia – 15.10.20. Yesterday afternoon saw the inauguration of the 30th edition of the Master’s Degree in Port Management and Intermodal Transport, a programme owned by the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), directed by Fundación Valenciaport and a degree awarded by the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV).
Vicent Esteban Chapapría, Professor of Ports and Coasts at the UPV and Academic Director of the Master’s Degree; Antonio Torregrosa, Director General, and Ana Rumbeu, Director of Training, both from Fundación Valenciaport, were in charge of presenting, during the inaugural session, the entities that endorse the Master’s Programme and the academic regulations.
This edition has 22 students, the ceiling set for this course by the Valenciaport Foundation to guarantee the distance between the participants, who are of four different nationalities: Spanish, Italian, Paraguayan and Chilean. Likewise, their professional and/or academic background is varied, including professionals from the national and international logistics-port sector, as well as recent graduates, mainly in Business Administration, Law, Economics and different engineering degrees. The average age of the students is 29 years old and, in this edition, as in the previous one, there is a high percentage of men (86%) compared to 14% of women.
In order to guarantee the health of the students and teaching staff, and to ensure that the edition continues to be in classroom mode throughout the year, the organisation has taken all the necessary hygienic and sanitary measures in view of the new reality derived from Covid-19.
Renewed programme
This 30th edition has a renewed programme in which, as could not be otherwise, the digital transformation is the protagonist, together with the ecological transition in which the ports are working or the latest trends in innovation, such as the start-ups and hackathons of the innovation ecosystem led by the Valenciaport Foundation.
The methodologies are renewed to strengthen experiential learning in the classroom through the resolution of unique and original business cases on: contracting and conflict resolution, internationalisation of companies, import and export of goods, as well as the workshops on customs and maritime documentation, and the one dedicated to ValenciaportPCS, the technological platform created by the Port Authority of Valencia which offers services aimed at streamlining the operational processes of the companies of the port community.
In this new edition, the Foundation is celebrating 30 years of the programme, and (as long as the health situation allows) the students are expected to participate in new networking activities.
The programme is organised around 8 subjects, responding to the needs of the logistics-port sector: Team management and leadership; Foreign trade and internationalisation; Maritime traffic and maritime law; Transport (Land, Rail, Air and Logistics and Competitiveness); Port planning; Port management; Docks and terminals and, finally, the TFM (Master’s Thesis). A total of 600 hours corresponding to 60 ECTS credits, where the academic content, taught by a faculty of more than 70 professors from the national and international port logistics sector, is complemented by debates, workshops and conferences on the latest trends in innovation and digitisation of the sector and more than 25 visits to port facilities, including the ports of Valencia, Alicante, Castellón and Sagunto.
The employment exchange and internships in companies in the sector are the hallmark of this Master’s degree, which also offers the best opportunity for professionals in the sector and access to the labour market for recent graduates. A programme with an employability rate of 98%.
In addition to the 29 editions held in Valencia (Spain), the Master has been taught in its international edition in the countries of Panama and Colombia and with a blended model (online-presential) in Brazil and Argentina and is about to begin the 1st edition in Mexico.
