• The Generalitat Valenciana recognises the efforts of the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), the Fundación Valenciaport and the logistics-port sector through an agreement that promotes new actions for vocational training.

• The port immersion programme, which has been taught in Valenciaport classrooms since 2021, has reached its objective with the recruitment of 100% of the participating students: 40 students of the Higher Degree in International Trade from the following secondary schools: Grao, Mislata, Ausiàs March and Pere Boïl.

• The agreement signed between the GV and the Fundación Valenciaport shows a new step in the administration’s commitment to the development of Valenciaport’s pioneering port logistics specialisation programme, which began in 2023 in the institutes themselves.

• Within the framework of this agreement, a business simulator software of import and export operations linked to the port is also being developed, based on the learning by doing methodology, which will improve training and employability.

• The high number of professional profiles which are difficult to cover in the sector have made port logistics training one of the strategic lines of Valenciaport.

Valencia, 14 June 2023 – The collaboration between the Fundación Valenciaport (FV), the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), the Generalitat Valenciana and the private sector to promote vocational training tailored to the needs of the logistics/port sector is already a benchmark in the Spanish training panorama. All the vocational training students in International Trade and Marketing who took part in the first two promotions of the programme developed by the FV and the Generalitat have found employment in companies in the Port of Valencia with the collaboration of Propeller Valencia (Association of logistics managers and entrepreneurs), and this year another 96 students are already being trained in the Port Logistics Specialisation Programme which started in September 2022 in the centres.

“We are very satisfied with what has been achieved and we must congratulate the Fundación Valenciaport and the staff of the Generalitat – such as Manuel Gomicia, director general of Vocational Training, and José Miguel Rivas, technical teaching advisor of the General Directorate of Vocational Training – for having woven a close public-private relationship that is already generating quality jobs in the Valencian port environment”. These were the words of the president of the Fundación Valenciaport and the Port Authority, after learning about the progress of the collaboration programme and the objectives set out in the Generalitat-Valenciaport agreement.

According to Calabuig, “Valenciaport is essential for the commercial activity of Valencian companies and, therefore, for the generation of jobs that meet the needs of an emerging sector such as logistics. Port companies deal with numerous specialities that require specialised technicians, in a changing environment, and this public-private collaboration, it has been demonstrated, is possible and expandable; as we plan to do”.

To reinforce, update and guarantee this training programme, the director of the Fundación Valenciaport, Antonio Torregrosa, and the general director of Vocational Training of the Generalitat Valenciana, Manolo Gomicia, have formalised an agreement that converts the experimental training programme – developed by the Fundación Valenciaport – into an official curriculum integrated into the Higher Degree in International Trade.

Objectives: more IES and more specialities

Both directors, accompanied by the FV’s Director of Training, Ana Rumbeu y Rivas, today presented to the President of the APV and the FV, Joan Calabuig, the progress made in terms of training and the objectives for the coming years. These objectives already include the collaboration of 4 Valencian institutes (El Grao, Mislata, Ausiàs March and Pere Boïl), all of which are committed to responding to the need for specialised training demanded by companies in the logistics-port sector with a modern and innovative dual vocational training programme.

The high number of professional profiles that are difficult to cover in the sector have made port-logistics training one of Valenciaport’s strategic lines of action. For this reason, the agreement presented this morning facilitates the incorporation of the number of vocational training centres attached to the project and the increase in the number of places offered.

To this end, an annual training programme is being developed for secondary school teachers, new teaching materials and an internship programme in companies to bring them closer to the reality of the sector. At the same time, the aim is to extend this speciality to other degrees such as robotics, decarbonisation, transport or electromechanics, among others, as ports are complex ecosystems that require profiles of all kinds.

Once this programme has been fully implemented, the aim of the Port Authority of Valencia and the Generalitat is to replicate the Dual Vocational Training model in other port communities in the Valencian Community, especially in the ports of Alicante and Castellón.

Innovation and new skills
In addition to creating the first dual vocational training specialised in the logistics-port sector, this agreement allows for the achievement of ambitious objectives in the field of innovation and training in new skills related to the sector.

An example of this is the software being developed by the FV, for which the Generalitat, through the signing of this agreement, is committed to providing a total of 56,000 euros over the next four years. This port management simulator mimics real operations and allows students to do virtual internships. Once developed, it will go to all the dual vocational training centres where this specialisation is taught. With this programme, students will be able to carry out a business management simulation and learn the day-to-day work before entering an internship and/or working in a company in the sector.

In parallel to the development of the simulator and in the framework of the promotion of innovation in the sector, both parties are committed to carrying out an analysis of the recruitment needs of Valencian ports, at present and in the future, derived from the new trends in the sector (digitalisation, automation, energy transition, change in business models, etc.) and the definition of professional profiles and new professional skills associated with the port industry 4.0.

It also aims to promote the development of new active methodologies oriented towards collaborative learning for the development of the competences identified and the integration of the “Port Immersion” Dual Vocational Training project in the innovation hub of the Port of Valencia.

Boosting international training
The signing of this agreement also promotes the creation of an international network of ports/training centres, based on the experience developed in the Erasmus+ programme and the European Euro-Mediterranean cooperation project YEP-MED, as well as the membership of the Port Authority of Valencia and the Fundación Valenciaport in MEDPORTS (association of Mediterranean ports). All this will be key to dual internships abroad and an international VET programme.

Training and employment observatory for the sector

Another of the keys to this signature is the creation of the first Observatory for training and employment linked to VET and the YEP MED project, in the logistics-port environment with the participation of the Regional Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, the IES, the companies in the logistics-port sector, led by the FV.

In this physical and digital environment, new initiatives will be analysed, shared and designed and VET will be promoted. Annual studies will be carried out to update profiles and skills; management of an employment exchange in direct connection with LABORA; organisation of a VET congress at the Valencian Community and/or national level to share experiences; and meetings with companies, IES, and students to improve DUAL internships.