Aragon has launched a strategy to become a specialized territory in the generation, retention and attraction of talent, positioning its capital, Zaragoza, and the Autonomous Community as a whole at a national and international level as a focus of the knowledge economy. To this end, the regional government has created the Aragonese Talent Center, which will be in charge of disseminating and optimizing all the potential it has and developing the favorable ecosystem to make the Autonomous Community a pole of attraction for this important asset of future and, consequently, of new companies and workers.
“In recent years, Aragón has made a formidable display of talent in the field of cultural and economic creativity. Now we want to encourage its production, retain it and, in addition, attract it. For this we set the starting point for a very complex and ambitious strategy that already has firm bases on which to develop”, explained the regional president, Javier Lambán, during the public presentation of this initiative.
Initially, the Aragonese Talent Center will have its physical headquarters in the Center for Guidance, Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Employment of the Government of Aragon, which will open its doors this month in the business park located in the venue that hosted the Zaragoza Expo in 2008 . However, the regional government has already begun to work so that the center can be housed in what was then the Spanish Pavilion, an emblematic building belonging to the national government, which is currently in disuse. The fifty-odd rental accommodation for young people also promoted by the regional government will be located in the same venue, and Mobility City recently opened its doors, an exhibition center ready to become an international benchmark in the mobility of the future.
Very close to the Aragonese Center for Talent, the Digital Campus for Vocational Training also carries out its activity and another important research focus is located: the Río Ebro Campus. “A great public-private collaboration will be coordinated from this center because the promotion and management of talent it must involve all the public and private actors, related to the Río Ebro Campus, the University, companies, etc.”, affirmed Javier Lambán.
In order to disseminate and optimize the potential of Aragon as a land of talent, the regional Executive is working on several strategic lines that translate into a good number of concrete actions. Among them, the creation of a Talent Observatory stands out, involving public and private agents and analyzing present and future needs, and the implementation of a sandbox (training experimentation environment) that positions the region thanks to the design of actions that improve the quality of training and that allow the implementation of experimental models that can be tested before making the leap to official modalities such as FP.
To connect the agents involved, a Talent Bank is launched, a digital and physical community in which all the actors can interact, share content and concerns, as well as a supply and demand marketplace. A specific program will also be promoted to attract digital nomads and an investment network will be created with financial initiatives to support talent, in addition to carrying out various promotional and positioning activities.
“We are already awakening interest inside and outside of Spain and we want to make it known that in Aragon they know how to do things well and that they also have a clear vocation for leadership. We want to intervene in Spanish and European dynamics with our own voice”, stressed the president of the Autonomous Community. The Aragonese Talent Center seeks to contribute to the economic and social development of the Community by transforming it into a territory specialized in the generation of talent that the future demands worldwide. To do this, differential elements will be used, such as the positioning already achieved in sectors such as logistics, the circular economy, cloud technology, renewable energy, automotive, aerospace and biotechnology, among others. But also everything that Aragon, with a good quality of life, has to offer to knowledge or digital nomads, who are looking for a pleasant place to work from.
In this sense, Aragón has attractive elements such as nature, mountains, skiing and first class gastronomy, as well as having a privileged location, with good communications. Currently, Aragón can already be considered a land of talent with people and professionals of the 21st century, with a good educational system, both in Vocational Training and at the university level and with specialized centers such as ZLC or the INAEM Center for Advanced Technologies; with top-level research institutes in multiple areas; technological institutes such as ITAINNOVA; the Aragonese Employment Institute and CEEIARAGON with programs for the continuous improvement of active professionals; a strong and committed business fabric; some social agents with the capacity to reach agreements; some Chambers of Commerce committed to the territory, and some clusters that have a driving effect on business innovation.
