The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has been awarded the management of the Martorell Automotive Vocational Training macro-center (CFPA), inaugurated in 2015, and which depends on the Servei Públic d'Ocupació de Catalunya (SOC).
The university, with a recognized position in training and knowledge transfer in automotive engineering, values that the motor industry currently represents 7% of Catalan GDP and is expected to reach 10%. It has an educational and research trajectory in the automotive sector, through initiatives such as the Seat-UPC Chair or leadership in urban mobility innovation through CARNET (research and innovation hub in automotive and urban mobility, created with Seat and Volkswagen Group Research and coordinated by the university's Innovation and Technology Center).
The vocational training facility, which has gone through several phases to the point that the Generalitat has tendered the complex three times to find a private partner to take over its management, has the capacity to receive 15,000 students per year and, until now, has been underutilized.
In this new stage, the Martorell center will provide initial vocational training, vocational training for employment and also in dual mode, and training programmed by companies aimed at the automotive sector, in order to guarantee a training offer adapted to the needs of the industry and the transformation of mobility.
Training and research
Specifically, the UPC has reported that the following vocational training studies will be taught: the intermediate degree in Electromechanics of motor vehicles, the intermediate degree in Electromechanical maintenance and the intermediate degree in Mechanization, as well as the higher degrees in Automotive, Industrial mechatronics, Production programming in mechanical manufacturing, and Industrial automation and robotics. Likewise, vocational training will be taught in the areas of electronic equipment, electromechanical machines, electromechanical manufacturing, mechanical operations, mechanical production, industrial machinery and equipment, polymer transformation, vehicle electromechanics and vehicle bodywork.
The center will enter hand in hand with the UPC into technological innovation and research linked to training, especially in the fields of industry 4.0, mobility, robotics, artificial intelligence, software, sensorization, data management, additive manufacturing, new technologies, digitalization, and sustainable transport, among others.
The UPC will offer vocational training in automotive linked to new technologies and industry 4.0The proposal presented by the UPCalso contemplates the creation of a virtual automotive professional training center and the launch of student projects along the lines of vehicle construction for la Formula Student. These are initiatives based on learning formulaslearning by doing, carried out by groups of students and which enjoy great success and participation at the UPC, according to the institution itself.
With an investment of 18 million euros, the facility was created six years ago with the aim of being a key piece to guarantee skilled labor in the short and medium term in the automotive sector, which is in full transformation due to the irruption of the electric car. In fact, the vocational training school is located on land very close to the Seat factory in Martorell, with more than 10,000 square meters distributed in an industrial warehouse, 37 classrooms and several laboratories.
To find a private manager, in this last tender, the Department of Business through the SOC opened a preliminary consultation in the market ---companies, unions, entities and institutions--- to jointly define the conditions and criteria that should govern the tender and respond to the professional qualification needs of the automotive sector.
In accordance with the modifications, five entities and companies submitted bids for the exploitation contract tender process: UPC, Esquemes Informàtics, Fundació Eurecat, MSX International Techservices and Disseny Educatiu.