CIAC presents the Talent Platform, which seeks to be the link between the industry and students
The Automotive Industry Cluster of Catalonia (CIAC) presents the Talent Platform, a digital space that seeks to become the point of union between industrial companies in the sector and students who want to join. The Platform is born after two years of development and successfully pass a pilot test where more than 200 students were involved, who were able to participate in more than 50 challenges posed by the same companies.
Once the trial period is over, the platform will be opened to more than 150 educational centers in Catalonia, including faculties, degrees and vocational training, where the technology and all the possibilities it offers will be presented. The goal is for students of all profiles to join the platform, from engineering to marketing.
"It is a key and strategic piece for the development and recruitment of young talent for the automotive sector, essential for it to remain an economic pillar of Catalonia and to successfully develop the path we are making towards this new model of car and mobility, "said Josep Maria Vall, President of CIAC, during the welcome. Mercè Rius, Director General of Transport and Mobility of the Department of Vice-Presidency and Digital Policies and Territory of the Generalitat, was responsible for making the institutional welcome where she explained that "the Talent Platform is a good opportunity for companies and students to bridge the gap that exists between those who do not find the profiles they need in the market and students who are looking outside the opportunity to develop their professional project". He also added that "the transformation of the automotive sector must be of the entire value chain and if a tool such as the platform is already good at any time, in a situation of change as the sector is going through, it is even more so in order not to miss the train and become a pioneer and reference territory".
Before going into detail on the Talent Platform, Jordi Llinares, Deputy Director General of Industry Digitalization and Collaborative Environments of the General Directorate of Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises of the Ministry of Industry, remarked that "without training, countries and economic structures do not develop. Therefore, platforms such as the ones he has created are vital to promote the Long Life Learning that is so basic nowadays". "It is clear that for the last 10 years the industry in Spain has been in fashion because we have discovered that it is more competitive and that it brings together many different profiles". Finally, Llinares has advanced that the Clusters program will go from 24 to more than 140 million euros that will help to boost the projects they launch.
Algorithms, talent, challenges and physical event .
"The Platform has, as one of its objectives, that students reduce the time to find their talent and develop it, as they usually need between two and three years to touch different areas of the sector and discover that they like them as Big Data or robotics, among many other options, "said the Manager of CIAC, Josep Nadal. Through the Talent Platform, any student has two paths to follow. The first is an access to the Cluster Project Platform where they can see what projects are underway (more than 200 at the moment) and participate in the meetings that are made, which right now are around 400 each year.
In this way, the first contacts within the industry are made. The second way, more proactive, is to participate in the challenges that companies launch and that allow them to see what contributions students make and detect talented profiles to consider their incorporation.
On the part of the companies, they can see what projects the students have signed up for, their profiles and thus filter them according to the interests they have shown. The option has also been incorporated so that they can submit job offers within the platform.
Continuing with the line of linking companies and student talent, CIAC has launched the Automotive Talent Show. An event to be held next October where there will be conferences and awards to students for the best answers to the challenges of companies. The event has been presented by Gemma Puig, head of Marketing and Communication of CIAC.
After the presentation of the Talent Platform, the round table "Talent comes to the Automotive Industry" was held, moderated by Josep Maria Vall, with the presence of Maria Teresa Casanovas, director of the Automotive Vocational Training Consortium, who mentioned "how proud she was to help promote the Talent Platform so that it is present in all training centers in Catalonia".
Matías Ripoll, Director of Human Resources at Doga, also took part in the round table and gave a very positive assessment of the platform "as we are using it to find out what the interests of students are and this helps us to detect interesting profiles".
Pol Redón and Xavier Rodríguez, students of Automotive Engineering, have highlighted "the opportunities that the platform offers us to know the industry and participate more actively to develop our professional career". Finally, Pau Català, Coordinator of the Degree in Automotive Engineering UVic-UCC, has also valued it very positively as "it is part of the training we give to students as we want to
to bring the company closer to the university".
Lluís Juncà, General Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Department of Enterprise and Labor of the Generalitat, was in charge of closing the presentation and mentioned that he was speaking on behalf of the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonés, since "from the Generalitat we are very pleased with this initiative as it puts the focus on what Catalonia should be leading: talent and people. In fact, Catalonia is already a benchmark for talent and this is where the focus is put on this platform, which is also what we have to do as a country and as a sector ". Finally, he added that "talent must be the lever of change that allows this transformation of the automotive sector".
