Escola Forges Strategic Partnership with Saudi Logistics Academy in the Red Sea Region

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Jeddah, [6th September 2023] – In a significant stride toward enhancing logistics excellence in the Middle East, the Escola Europea has formalized a collaboration with the prestigious Saudi Logistics Academy, based in Riyadh (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). The announcement was made during the inaugural Sustainable Maritime Industry Conference (SMIC) held in Jeddah, a high-profile event orchestrated by the Transport General Authority (TGA) and the Government of Saudi Arabia. The conference, which served as a beacon for maritime industry leaders, focused on charting the course for the sector’s future in the region towards the Saudi strategic Vision 2030.

In the photo (left to right): Adam Daoud from the Saudi Logistics Academy), Marco Muci (Escola Europea), Abdullah Alabdulkarim (Director, Saudi Logistics Academy), Eduard Rodés (Director, Escola Europea), and Ghada Ali Almunajemand

Eduard Rodés and Marco Muci, representing the Escola Europea, represented the Escola as they unveiled this promising partnership. The MoU that was announced sets the stage for a fruitful and dynamic relationship that promises to revolutionize logistics education and foster increased trade and networking between the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions. The collaboration agreement was sealed by Eduard Rodés on behalf of Escola Europea and by Abdullah Alabdulkarim on behalf of the Saudi Logistics Academy.

At the core of this collaboration lies a shared commitment to harness the innovative capabilities of the Escola’s platform, fostering the development of a new generation of logistics talent in the Middle East. By leveraging the Port Virtual Lab (PVL) platform and actively engaging the Escola’s Open Lab, both institutes aspire to provide a comprehensive and immersive learning experience tailored to the needs of emerging logistics professionals. Furthermore, this mutually beneficial collaboration serves as a safe haven for the exchange of knowledge and expertise between ports in these two distinct regions.

The introduction of PVL’s dynamic and real-life port community simulation to Saudi Arabia marks a pivotal moment in the development of the logistics sector in the region. This cutting-edge tool will immerse participants in the intricacies of international trade operations within a controlled yet authentic environment. The partnership between theoretical knowledge and practical application will equip logistics professionals with the skills necessary to excel in the rapidly evolving industry.

As the partnership between the two institutes gains momentum, the next crucial steps in this collaboration are already in the planning stages. The forthcoming milestones include the scheduling of a pilot Port Virtual Lab course, set to take place in early 2024. This innovative course promises to provide a first-hand experience of port operations within a simulated environment, further solidifying the practical skills of aspiring logistics professionals.

Following this, an immersive ‘Motorways of the Sea Training’ program will take place. This unique training initiative will offer Saudi students an exceptional opportunity to embark on a transformative journey to witness the workings of two Mediterranean Ports – Barcelona and Civitavecchia. This hands-on experience will not only broaden their horizons but also provide valuable insights into port operations on the Mediterranean side of the world. These upcoming actions underscore the commitment of both institutes to nurturing and advancing the next generation of logistics experts.

As the Escola Europea and the Saudi Logistics Academy embark on this transformative journey together, the future of the maritime industry in the region shines brighter than ever. Stay tuned for further developments as this partnership unfolds and sets new benchmarks for logistics education and industry advancement. 

For media inquiries, please contact: Lidia.slawinska@escolaeuropea.eu

Port Virtual Lab

Port Virtual Lab: Empowering Logistics Professionals Worldwide

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The Escola Europea is thrilled to announce the resounding success and international expansion of its Port Virtual Lab (PVL) training platform. Since its inception, this innovative educational initiative has transformed the landscape of port logistics education and created waves of opportunity for students and professionals worldwide.

Port Virtual Lab

In November 2023, the Port Virtual Lab will embark on yet another exciting journey, uniting with the Autonomous University in Barcelona (UAB) – our newest partner. This collaboration represents a significant milestone, bringing the PVL’s immersive learning experience to an even broader audience. The UAB is the second Barcelona university to put their faith in the Escola’s turn, incorporating the platform into their programmes, and ensuring that what they teach truly prepares their students for on-the-job demands of the logistics world. This follows the strategic partnership forged with the STC Group in Rotterdam. This alliance not only bolstered the PVL’s reputation but also marked a pivotal moment in the internationalization of the course. STC Group, a distinguished training provider in the bustling port of Rotterdam, added its considerable expertise to the PVL, making it a force to be reckoned with in the logistics education sphere.

Expanding Horizons: The Saudi Logistics Academy Partnership

The Saudi Logistics Academy’s reputation as a hub of logistics excellence in the Middle East is well-established. This month, our team travelled to Saudi Arabia to participate in the first edition of the Sustainable Maritime Industry Conference (SMIC) in Jeddah, organized by the Transport General Authority (TGA) and the Saudi Arabia Government. It was an event dedicated to shaping the future of the maritime industry in the region. During the event, we have discussed ways that we could leverage our innovative platform’s capabilities to nurture a new generation of logistics talent in the region, whilst nurturing trade and networking capabilities between the Mediterranean and the Middle East through education – which resulted in our signing of collaboration agreements to work together in initiatives like PVL and PLIKA – the Port Logistics International Knowledge Academy.

Escola team with Mr. Kitack Lim from the IMO

From left to right: Eduard Rodés (director, Escola Europea), Kitack Lim (secretary general, IMO) and Marco Muci (country manager, Escola Europea)

This partnership will introduce PVL’s dynamic, real-life port community simulation to Saudi Arabia, allowing participants to delve into the intricacies of international trade operations in a controlled yet authentic environment. It will bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, equipping logistics professionals with the skills they need to excel in a rapidly evolving industry.

A Global Impact in the Making

As discussions with the Saudi Logistics Training Centre progress, the Port Virtual Lab’s influence will extend far beyond the European borders where it first began. This expansion signifies not only the PVL’s global recognition but also its commitment to shaping the future of logistics education worldwide. With each new partnership, the Port Virtual Lab reinforces its mission to address critical skills gaps in the transport and logistics sector on a global scale. It’s a testament to the power of virtual simulators in preparing young professionals for the challenges of the industry, regardless of geographical boundaries.

Port Virtual Lab: Bridging Real-world Skills and Virtual Innovation

The Port Virtual Lab is more than just an educational platform; it’s a gateway to the future of logistics training. At its core, PVL offers a dynamic, real-life port community simulation, enabling participants to immerse themselves in a controlled yet authentic environment. It’s here that they can conduct simulated international trade operations, honing their skills in logistics, transport, and international trade. Over the past 3 years, the PVL has trained 3000 students, expanding its reach and impact.

With 23 simulated companies within a digital port community system, PVL sets the stage for an unparalleled learning experience. The platform’s crown jewel, the pilot freight forwarder module developed with the support of Click&Cargo, allows participants to engage in near-real-life import and export operations. These simulations provide participants with real-life contracts and up-to-date information, ensuring that learning is not just theoretical but truly experiential.

Transforming Port Logistics Education with Port Virtual Lab: Escola Europea and STC Group Join Forces

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[Barcelona, 05 September 2023] – The Escola Europea is proud to announce its strategic partnership with STC Group to further enhance and expand its Port Virtual Lab (PVL) training platform, revolutionizing education in the port logistics sector. STC Group, a renowned training provider in and around the port of Rotterdam, brings its wealth of recognition to the innovative training solution.

The upcoming course is set to begin in November 2023, offering participants a unique opportunity to enhance their logistics skills. This comprehensive training programme will span nine weeks, with sessions scheduled every Wednesday, providing a convenient and immersive learning experience for the international pool of participants.

Port Virtual Lab is an innovative and comprehensive platform that offers cutting-edge technological and educational tools. Serving as an online logistics lab, it provides international trade, logistics, and transport students and professionals with the opportunity to simulate real-life operations and access a wide range of tools to enhance their knowledge and skills.

The platform includes 23 simulated companies within a digital port community system. Notably, the pilot freight forwarder module has been perfected with the support of Click&Cargo, enabling near-real-life operation simulations of import and export operations. The PVL training programme spans over 9 days, offering interactive training modules and hands-on operations. The simulation is designed to provide participants with real-life contracts and up-to-date information, ensuring a dynamic and immersive learning experience.

What is Port Virtual Lab?

In 2020, Escola Europea initiated a tender to partner with a software company, aiming to develop an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) as the backbone of its virtual training model. This vision led to the birth of Port Virtual Lab, a platform that replicates a real-life port community, enabling course participants to immerse themselves in a controlled yet authentic environment and conduct simulated international trade operations.

Participants in Port Virtual Lab courses assume various roles within the extensive range of companies created for the platform, covering the entire supply chain. These roles include those in freight forwarding, shipping, airlines, road transport, railway companies, and port terminals. Plans are underway to further enrich the simulation by adding more supply chain actors, enhancing users’ experiences.

Benefits of Simulation in Training Endeavors

The initial phases of the YEP MED project identified critical skills gaps in the transport market, particularly in areas such as environmental sustainability, international relations, digitalization, and port logistics operations. To address these gaps, it was essential to ensure that graduates were well-prepared for the challenges of the industry.

Virtual simulators prove to be ideal for this purpose, offering several advantages:

  • Real-time Practice: Trainees can practice operations without market risks.
  • Scenario Diversity: Various real-life scenarios enable effective problem-solving.
  • Sustainable Logistics Chains: The platform allows for the testing of different transport combinations, prioritizing sustainability or speed as required.

Exceptional educational offerings are pivotal in preparing young jobseekers for rapidly changing industries. Simulators and virtual realities play a crucial role in helping young professionals gain experience and confidence. PVL has been a significant step in the development of such training tools in the Mediterranean region, and this collaboration marks the platform’s extension further in Europe and beyond. In the most recent course, participants rated the platform with an impressive score of 4.94 out of a maximum of 5 – highlighting the effectiveness of Port Virtual Lab in enhancing participants’ logistics skills.

Undoubtedly, the platform’s impact will extend to other regions worldwide and will continue to leave a lasting mark even after the project’s completion in 2023.

“I think that this has been a very useful activity, as it allowed us to put into practice the concepts taught throughout our Masters” – Anna Berenguer i Dasquens (University of Barcelona)

For more information about Port Virtual Lab and the partnership between Escola Europea and STC Group, please contact Orlando Reveco at the Escola Europea (international@escolaeuropea.eu).

The Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport and the Regional Office of Sicily commit to training

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The Regional Education Office of Sicily (Italy) or (Ufficio Scolastico Regionale per la Sicilia) and the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of training in Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation (Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e per l’Orientamento – PCTO) for secondary school students in Sicily. Both entities intend to promote collaboration between the education sector and the labour market.

This agreement aims to:

  • Decrease the gap between the demands of the labour market and the academic curricula of vocational and occupational centres for logistics technical professionals, taking into account the forecasted scenarios in the employment field taken from regional and national data.
  • Promote an increasingly solid and widespread dissemination of technical, scientific, professional and entrepreneurial culture in schools;
  • Implement technical courses aimed at promoting the port-logistics community and its main actors through the ‘Sicily Port Academy’, facilitating the connection between schools and companies in the sector.
  • Promote actions for the guidance of young people and for the development of learning environments that draw on the operational reality for cultural, technical, scientific and ethics training, also through the contribution of sector experts.
  • To implement training projects in the port logistics community of Palermo thanks to the educational paths of the ‘Sicily Port Academy’.
  • To foster a process of cultural development in which transversal skills and vocational training are the essential components to face the complexity of reality and activate in young people a greater sensitivity in looking at the work context in which they live and in which they will work in the future, representing a constant educational challenge that involves all the training agencies in the area, all in view of the continuous evolution of the work realities of the Third Millennium society.

According to Eduard Rodés, the director of the Escola Europea: “The port logistics sector in Sicily needs to attract young talent at a time of great digital, energy and social transformation. The Escola Europea – as a point of reference for its partners who are ports and shipping companies – wants Sicily to become a model in this process. This strategic alliance between the USR Sicily and Escola Europea will facilitate and accelerate this indispensable pathway.”

“The protocol proposes to activate pathways for transversal skills and orientation (PCTO) that will allow students to come into direct contact with the logistics and port community and to learn about their professional paths, thus providing an important orientation/vocational cue for their future careers,” stated Giuseppe Pierro, Director General of the Regional Education Office of Sicily (Italy). “In this sense, PCTOs contribute to on-going in itinere through the development of an active protagonism and a greater awareness of their own talents and vocations; developing self-orientated skills becomes fundamental in a society characterised by the speed of change exacerbated by digital transformation. Orientation becomes more meaningful, the more students act in territorial occupational contexts, which allow them to apply knowledge acquired at school and develop skills through real scenarios”.

Upon the singing, the president of the Port Authority of the Western Sicily Sea, Pasqualino Monti stated: “Since last April the port of Palermo has been a part of the Escola Europea, the European reference centre for training in logistics and intermodal transport. This is a prestigious participation that can help us fill the gap for skills needed in the sector and to favour the continues development of workers’ employability. It is a fundamental step because we strongly believe, in cooperation with the Sicilian Region and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in the training of new figures that are beneficial – or rather, indispensable – in our ports of call, which we have adequately upgraded and modernised in recent years. Vocational training – which this protocol seals – represents the strategic tool for every company to acquire the strength to compete; the winning weapon to expand into new markets, through the specific and professional skills of each person involved in the organisation’s growth process. A further surge in employment and, therefore, the need for highly qualified personnel, is what we expect in our ports today”.

“The synergy between USR Sicily and the Escola Europea, can undoubtedly represent an important opportunity for growth in terms of training and employment for the city in a strategic sector such as port logistics” said the mayor of the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Roberto Lagalla. “For a city like Palermo, which is currently looking at the port as one of the determining factors for its development, this agreement can only be viewed favourably because it can be a lever for training new professional skills”.

The Escola Europea consolidated as an Accredited Agent for Internationalization

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The Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport has been accredited as an Agent for Internationalization Support by ACCIÓ, the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Belonging to the Catalan Ministry of Business and Labour, it is the public organisation working to contribute to the transformation of Catalan companies.

The Escola is considered a key element in the country’s internationalization ecosystem, as it trains professionals in the field of logistics – a necessity in attaining talent for Catalan companies. As a result, as the Agency’s Internationalization Support Agent, it will be able to collaborate in the design and implementation of public policies in this area.

Having accredited Internationalization Support Agents allows for the creation of a space for debate on globalised support policies, defining a national internationalization strategy, promoting a systemic approach to collaboration among stakeholders, and fostering public-private partnerships through an open, transparent, co-responsible, participatory, and concerted system.

This accreditation falls within the call for the year 2023 for the accreditation of Agents for Internationalization Support for the period 2020-2024. The resolution confirms that the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport meets all of the requirements established for training entities.

Currently, there are about thirty accredited entities in various categories (advisory, promotion, training, and financing) that participate in plenary meetings. Additionally, through the Executive Council of Agents led by 7 entities, various thematic work groups have been created where interested organizations can participate.

With this recognition, the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport reaffirms its mission to provide quality training and support to the internationalization of the Catalan business fabric, in close collaboration with ACCIÓ.

Immersive learning

Immersive learning to take centre stage during SIL as the Escola Europea promotes its latest projects

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Immersive learning

The Escola Europea will take to the floors of the fair to not only present its signature training offer, but also to promote the international projects that it is involved in, along with its latest virtual immersive learning programmes.

Between the 7th and 9th of June, 2023, during the 25th edition of the International Logistics Conference (Salon Internacional de Logística), the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport will bring its virtual port community – Port Virtual Lab – to the fore. The SIL (Salón Internacional de Logística) will have its 25th edition, which annually turns the Catalan city into the world’s capital for logistics.

On the 6th of June, the Escola Europea will host a simulator competition in the framework of the TECHLOG project stand – a project funded by the ENI CBC Med Programme. The competition will highlight the benefits for companies and institutions of introducing simulation in advance trainings with the use of a special simulator – the Euro Truck. This simulator, through the use of immersive learning, can help truck drivers improve their driving skills by improving their ability to focus, reducing the risk of accidents, improving environmental efficiency, and encouraging sustainability. The competition will run through SIL, culminating on the 8th of June with the crowning of the winner. On this same day, the TECHLOG project and its benefits will be showcased in the stand of the Port of Barcelona.

The Escola’s virtual port community – Port Virtual Lab (PVL) – will be presented within the confines of the stand of the Port of Barcelona – one of the most important stands, being of the port of the city in which the conference takes place. Taking immersive learning to the virtual sphere, PVL offers opportunities for students to experience trade operations first-hand in secure and controlled scenarios that allow room for error whilst maintaining an authentic sense of real-life operations.

Alongside PVL, the Escola also will share with the enterprise community the different initiatives to attract and retain talent in the Port Community with the program  Vine al Port, fostered by the Port of Barcelona’s Training and Employment Work Group, which aims to bring the local training institutes closer to the realities of local companies, and therewith align the curricula offered with the skills sought for by the professionals of today and tomorrow.

Along with the activities that take place within the SIL, on the 8th and 9th of June, the 19th MedaLogistics Summit will take place. Eduard Rodés, the director of the Escola Europea, together with with Ahmed El Wakil, president of ASCAME, Alexandria Chamber of Commerce and Alaa Ezz, Secretary General of CEEBA, Gianfranco Fancello and Patrizia Serra from the University of Cagliari UNICA CIREM, and Rabih Sabra, General Director of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut & Mount Lebanon, will outline the beneficial impact of technological transfer and innovation in simulation for companies.

The Escola unites Northern, Central and Southern Italy within its classrooms through the incorporation of the Port of Palermo as the newest member

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With the incorporation of the Port of Palermo as a member of the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport, the training centre unites the north, centre and south of Italy with a common purpose of encouraging training in logistics, sustainable transport and maritime intermodality.

APRIL 20, 2023 (CIVITAVECCHIA) – The Governing Board of the Escola Europea held its annual meeting on the 20th of April of this month at the headquarters of the Port of Civitavecchia.

Members of the Executive Committee of the Escola Europea during the annual meeting held on the 20th of April 2023.

From left to right: Alessia Mastromattei, Marta Miquel, Catalina Grimalt, Luca Lupi, Marco Muci, Eduard Rodes, Pino Musolino, (in the back) Silvio Ferrando, Lluís Salvador, Antonio Pedevila, Antonino Ilardi, Mario Massarotti, Marta Coppola, Agustí Filomeno

For the first time in the history of the organisation, the Governing Board, under the chairmanship of Lluís Salvadó, voted and unanimously approved the entry of a new member, the Port of Palermo and, therefore, the Authority of the Maritime Port System of Western Sicily, into the Escola Europea-Intermodal Transport. With the addition of the Port of Palermo as a general member, it joins the ranks of the founding members the Port of Barcelona, the Port of Civitavecchia, the Port of Genoa and the shipping companies Grimaldi Lines and Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV).

The meeting was attended by: the President of the Port of Civitavecchia, Pino Musolino; the Director of the Escola Europea, Eduard Rodés; the CEO of GNV, Matteo Catani, as members of the Governing Board. As a part of the Executive Committee, the Deputy Director General for Organisation and Internal Resources of the Port of Barcelona, Catalina Grimalt; the General Manager of Grimaldi Lines Spain, Mario Massarotti; the Head of Marketing and International Business of the Port of Genoa, Silvio Ferrando; GNV Board Member, Antonio Pedevilla; Marta Coppola, member of the Presidency Cabinet of the Port of Civitavecchia, attended. The newly incorporated to the committee Secretary General of the Port of Palermo, Luca Lupi was also present, in addition to the head of the Presidency Cabinet of the Port of Barcelona, Agustí Filomeno; and Marta Miquel, Chief Business Officer of the Escola Europea.

The board members reviewed the activities carried out by the Escola in 2022, which totalled 160 actions with 5,542 participants. It was a record figure in the history of the institution in terms of courses and participants.

In parallel, the Escola has participated in several European projects, such as YEP MED for the promotion of quality employment among young people in the Mediterranean, and TECHLOG, which is developing Living Labs for training with simulation in the port environment.

An immersive programme for Indonesian port executives

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This week the Escola Europea has welcomed 20 port executives from the Pelindo terminals located in Indonesia to the Port of Barcelona for an immersion in the good practices of the Catalan port.

Between the 14th and the 17th of March, the Escola Europea-Intermodal Transport, together with Deloitte Spain and their counterparts in Indonesia, carried out an immersive programme consisting of site visits, technical sessions and discussion forums with industry experts in Barcelona for a group of executives from Indonesia.

The executives of the public port company Pelindo came from the holding company and different sub-holdings of the group: maritime businesses, containerised terminals, bulk terminals and general cargo terminals. The group was led by the representative of the Ministry of Public Enterprises of the Government of Indonesia.

The objectives of the programme were to gain first-hand knowledge of Barcelona Port’s management, as well as to understand the design and execution of its strategic proposal, which orients its actions towards the monitoring of KPIs and the achievement of strategic objectives. The speakers who accompanied the group in the sessions came from the top levels of the port community, with the participation of executives such as Santiago Garcia-Milà from the Port of Barcelona, Eduard Rodés from the Escola Europea, Javier Gallardo from Portic, Gonzalo Bort from Tradebe, Carlos Artigas from Autoterminal, and Francisco Jimenez from Deloitte, among many other professionals and specialists in the sector.

The group attended various workshops and visits, including to the terminals BEST, Grimaldi, Tradebe, Autoterminal, the Busan-Barcelona (B2B) logistics centre and the Maersk shipping company’s warehouse in the ZAL (Logistics Activities Zone).

At the same time, the Indonesian delegation was interested in the training and employment work carried out by the Port of Barcelona through the Escola Europea and described this activity as a first step in collaboration in the field of professional development and human capital of the ports of Pelindo

Escola presents its current and future projects and training to Lluís Salvadó, the President of the Port of Barcelona

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As part of his welcome and incorporation into the presidency of the Port of Barcelona, Lluís Salvadó visited the Barcelona headquarters of the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport (Escola Europea), a key player within the Port Community, to learn about new training initiatives and future projects.

On the 21st of February 2023, Lluis Salvadó, President of the Port of Barcelona and Chairman of the Governing Board of the Escola Europea, together with Catalina Grimalt Falcó, Deputy Director General for Organisation and Internal Resources of the Port of Barcelona and Member of the Executive Board, both representing the Port Authority of Barcelona, visited the headquarters of the Escola Europea to learn about the new training initiatives organised and promoted by the training centre, as well as the innovation, digitalisation and sustainable development projects of which the Escola is a part.

Welcoming the  visitors were the Eduard Rodés – Director of the Escola Europea, Concha Palacios – the Financial Director and Head of Projects, Marta Miquel – Business Development Manager, Mireia Ferré – Director of the Technical Office of Sustainability of the Port of Barcelona, Mireia Ferre, and, connected virtually from the headquarters of the Escola Europea in Civitavecchia (Italy), Marco Muci – the Country Manager for Italy.

At the meeting, the Escola’s training activities at both local and international levels were presented, which included Forma’t al Port Talent, the technical courses in maritime intermodality MOST – Motorways of the Sea Training, rail freight transport – SURCO, and management of temperature-controlled logistics chains, together with the training work carried out in Italy within the framework of the Formati al Porto programme and the GLIPS (Management of Integrated Logistics and Maritime Processes) training in Civitavecchia.

The training offer presentation was followed by a summary of the annual participation figures for the previous year, in which a record number of participants was broken with more than 5,542 participants. Of those, 2,111 were students from training and technical courses and 3,431 attended workshops and maritime visits in the Port of Barcelona. The participation figures forecast for the year 2023 showed an estimated 6% growth in student participation of logistics courses and workshops is planned.

The projects that have been consolidated by the institution were also presented to the Catalan port’s leadership: the YEP MED project – Youth Employment in Ports of the Mediterranean – with which a training offer on port logistics has been presented; and the TECHLOG project – Technological Transfer for Logistics Innovation in Mediterranenan area – which foresees the implementation of two ‘Living Labs’ from which the development of innovation actions with simulator technology is foreseen. Both European projects are financed by ENI CBC MED, in which different Mediterranean port communities are participating.

As part of the strategy of consolidation and evolution of the European YEP MED project, the Escola developed the Port Virtual Lab, a virtual simulation laboratory of a port community portvirtuallab.com.

In the photo are from left to right: Director of the Escola Europea, Eduard Rodés, Lluis Salvadó, President of the Port of Barcelona, Financial Director and Head of Projects, Concha Palacios, General Business Director, Marta Miquel, Catalina Grimalt Falcó, Deputy Director General for Organisation and Internal Resources, and Mireia Ferre, Director of the Port of Barcelona’s Technical Office for Sustainability.

In addition, some of the projects that point to the future and are in line with the trends of the Blue Economy, and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), were presented to respond to the training and innovation needs of the industry.

Participants of the inaugural edition of the SURCO Madrid course

The Escola’s takes its signature railway training to Madrid

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Promoting rail transport in the intermodal chain, the Escola Europea in collaboration with Puertos del Estado finalised the SURCO Operations II training in Madrid in rail operations.

This January 2023, the first edition of the SURCO – Simple Use of Railway Connections- training took place in Madrid, a training in which different professionals from the public administration and private companies were able to discover the management processes that allow the use of rail transport as a sustainable option in the intermodal chain in depth, in addition to expanding their knowledge of rail infrastructures and intermodal equipment.

For the participants, this was an opportunity to learn about key aspects of the design and management of intermodal chains that integrate the use of railways. Óscar Ródenas, from P&O Ferrymasters, was among the attendees. Reflecting on the course, he highlighted: “Magnificent teaching staff, I have learned a lot in some aspects in which I did not have such extensive and detailed knowledge as they have given me (railway costs, ferro-port terminals). The exchange of views, opinions and knowledge was also very interesting”.

This training, organised and created by the Escola Europea, with the collaboration of Puertos del Estado, Railgroup’s In-Move, the Port of Barcelona, Renfe, ADIF, Viia, Puerto Seco de Madrid, Puerto Seco de Coslada, SLISA and Suardiaz Rail, among other companies in the railway sector, aimed to offer professionals from companies and administrations in the sector a practical and real vision of railway intermodality operations.

After completing its first edition in Madrid, this course, like all editions of SURCO, fulfils the purposes set by the European Union to increase rail traffic and rail motorways in general, as an incentive to promote sustainable mobility in the region, as well as serves as a complement to the plans of the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to try to boost rail freight traffic in Spain by making use of the so-called ‘eco-incentives’.

As part of the SURCO series, this training aimed to deepen the understanding of intermodal rail operations between ports and national and international rail inland terminals, focusing on the characteristics and advantages of this type of transport.

This was achieved through theoretical classes given at the Puertos del Estado headquarters, as well as through the resolution of a case study based on real operational scenarios. In addition, participants had the opportunity to learn about intermodal operations and infrastructures through visits to different terminals such as: the intermodal terminal in Coslada and the terminal in Azuqueca de Henares, as well as a visit to the freight and passenger CGO (operations management centre) in Atocha.

Participants of the inaugural SURCO Madrid course during a terminal visit

Theoretical classes focused on the management of railway systems, the European Transeuropean Transport Network, the impact of rail transport on the environment, national and international rail transport and procurement, and the analysis of the costs of rail transport chains.

It is in this context that knowledge of the different aspects surrounding rail freight transport is not only beneficial for professionals but also essential for companies involved in freight transport. This is where the offer of local and international courses and training for professionals, such as SURCO Madrid, takes on special importance.

For more information about the course, you can head to the course page: SURCO Madrid 2023 – Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport.