Valencia – 16.10.20. Yesterday afternoon the opening session of the XXIX edition of the Master in Port Management and Intermodal Transport took place, a programme owned by the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), directed by the Fundación Valenciaport and with a degree from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV).

Vicent Esteban Chapapría, Professor of Ports and Coasts of the UPV and Academic Director of the Master; Antonio Torregrosa, General Director, and Ana Rumbeu, Director of Training, both from Fundación Valenciaport, were responsible for presenting, during the opening session, the entities that guarantee the Master’s Programme and the academic regulations.

This edition has only 21 students – the maximum set for this course by the Fundación Valenciaport – to guarantee the distance between the participants, who are of three different nationalities: Spanish, Mexican and Argentinean. Likewise, their professional and/or academic backgrounds are 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 fields. The average age of the students is 30 years old and, on this occasion, there is a large percentage of men (86%) compared to 14% of women, a figure that is far from the 56% of women of the previous year.

Anti-COVID-19 measures

In order to guarantee the health of the students and teachers, and to ensure that the edition continues to be held all year round, the organisation has taken all the necessary hygienic and sanitary measures in view of the new reality derived from the Covid-19.

Firstly, the Fundación Valenciaport is located within the Port Authority of Valencia, which means that the security and control measures are very high. At the accesses there are temperature meters, you must access with a mask, previous identification, and there are hydroalcoholic gel dispensers both in the corridors and at the accesses to the classrooms and inside them.

In addition, teachers have a personal kit with the materials they will need during the class, so that they do not have to share them, and they will be able to give the classes using microphones, which will minimise the fatigue of having to declaim the lesson by imposing the voice with the mask on.

Likewise, the teachers’ schedules have been adjusted to minimize teacher changes in the same session, always proceeding to disinfection between one teacher and another, and in the classroom a fixed place is assigned to each student in order to have one more tool for traceability in case of need.

On the other hand, the outdoor training activity, linked to strategy and leadership, which has been famous for years in this programme, continues to be the protagonist this term, being carried out entirely in the open air, in a natural environment. Furthermore, thanks to the multiple spaces available at the Fundación Valenciaport and at the Port Authority of Valencia, many role-playing activities, teams, debates etc. are also held at the port’s outdoor facilities.

Finally, the classroom is equipped with the necessary tools to follow the classes in streaming when necessary. From the Fundación Valenciaport, putting into practice all that has been learnt during this period of confinement, mixed sessions have been introduced, face-to-face and online, to make the programme more innovative.

Renewed programme

The 29th edition of the Master’s in Port Management and Intermodal Transport has a renewed programme in which the digital transformation plays a leading role. The programme is organised around 8 subjects, responding to the needs of the logistics-port sector: Management and direction of teams; 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 final thesis).

A total of 600 hours corresponding to 60 ECTS credits, where the academic contents, in charge of a faculty of more than 70 executive professors from the national and international port logistics sector, are completed with debates, workshops, and conferences on the latest trends in innovation and digitalisation in the sector and more than 25 visits to port installations, including the ports of Valencia, Alicante, Castellón and Sagunto.

The job bank and internships in companies of the sector are the distinctive mark of this Master’s course, which also offers the best opportunity for professionals of the sector and access to the labour market for recent graduates. A programme with an employability ratio of over 95%.

The Master’s Degree in Port Management and Intermodal Transport, created in 1992 by the PAV, is a pioneering training programme of its kind within the Spanish port logistics sector, which over the years has consolidated itself as the most internationally prestigious training programme in Spanish, specialising in ports and transport, and has found a wide echo among professionals and postgraduates in Spain, Europe and Latin America.

In addition to the 28 editions held in Valencia (Spain), the Master’s has been taught in its international edition in the countries of Panama and Colombia and with a blended model (online-presential) in Brazil, Argentina.