An agreement between the Generalitat Valenciana and the Valenciaport Foundation demonstrates the lack of professionals in the logistics-port sector, a circumstance that cannot be allowed by what claims to be the first Spanish port and one of the most relevant in the Mediterranean.
However, the sector confirms that there is a “high number” of professional profiles that are difficult to cover in the sector and to find a solution, a logistics-port training program emerged a couple of years ago, which has already become strategic for Valenciaport, an entity that precisely Today it has various positions open to incorporate specialized personnel into its workforce.
There is a need for specialists in logistics, transport and ports, who are oriented towards improving the competitiveness of companies and institutions in the port logistics sector; operations technicians, data analysts and many other profiles that with a new Professional Training the sector wants to be able to find more easily.
Thus, there are four Valencian institutes, El Grao, Mislata, Ausiàs March and Pere Boïl, which have already tested this new dual VET, “modern and innovative” as they explain from the Port of Valencia. Two first classes of students -they studied Vocational Training in International Trade and Marketing- have left through this program, and from the Port they assure that they have already found employment in various companies.
Once this program has been fully implemented, the objective 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.
In addition, there are almost a hundred new students waiting to make this leap into the job market, who are already being trained in this logistics-port specialization program that started in September 2022.
The idea is that this program continues to grow and sources familiar with the program assure that there is no risk that this will not be the case despite the changes in the Valencian Administration as a result of the elections, since the program is a public-private collaboration and tries to give response to the personnel needs of the sector.
“The companies are very involved,” confirm sources from the port. This is confirmed by the Propeller Valencia Logistics Managers and Entrepreneurs Association, which has collaborated in this agreement and which argues the “tremendous difficulties” the sector encounters in incorporating specialized professionals. There are a number of groups with important needs within the logistics sector. In fact, they explain that there is a lack of truck and train drivers, mainly, and freight forwarding companies need experienced personnel, which is why they are motivated to participate in these training programs where students learn within the company.
For this reason, an annual training program for teachers from educational centers is being developed, as well as new teaching materials and an internship program in companies. They will also seek to extend this specialty to other degrees such as robotics, decarbonisation, transport or electromechanics, among others since, they say, “ports are complex ecosystems that need all kinds of profiles”.
A total of 1,614 students took dual vocational training in the 2020-21 academic year in the Valencian Community, 1.47% of those enrolled in vocational training. This is a lower figure than the Spanish average, which stands at 3.84%. The data belongs to the Vocational Training Observatory based on data from MEFP-Educabase, which shows that in the Valencian Community, of those 1,614 students, 911 belong to Higher Grade and 686 to Medium Grade.
In general, Dual Vocational Training in Spain presents a sustained growth during the last four courses, at all educational levels and in the Valencian Community, the best figures correspond to Higher Level Vocational Training with 1.8% in the 2020-2021 academic year. .
