Tag Archive for: Civitavecchia

Four Ports, One Voyage: The Escola’s 20th Anniversary Itinerary

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Sailing Ahead — 20th Anniversary

Four ports, five days, and a garden left behind in two of them: here’s what’s actually happening this October.

Between 14 and 19 October 2026, the Escola community will sail from Barcelona to Civitavecchia, Palermo and Genoa — the four ports whose 2006 partnership founded the school — for a week of ceremonies, an onboard course titled “Education beyond Intelligence”, and public celebrations at each stop, all followed live on social media under #Escola20Y.

The itinerary

The celebration opens in Barcelona on 14 October, at the Escola’s own headquarters in the port: a 20th anniversary presentation, an awards ceremony and the inauguration of the Jardins de l’Areté, followed by a press conference and the opening of the anniversary course, ahead of the ship’s departure that evening for Civitavecchia.

From there, the voyage continues to Civitavecchia on 16 October, Palermo on 17 October and Genoa on 19 October, each port hosting its own celebration together with the local Port Authority — an institutional ceremony, cultural moments, and networking between port administrations, sector companies, training centres and public institutions. Across the four stops, close to 700 people from around the Mediterranean are expected to take part.

Did you know?

Between ports, participants in the Escola’s celebratory course will take five thematic modules — on leadership, presence, listening, ethics and lifelong learning — led by Eduard Rodés, Marta Miquel, Jordi Pérez, Ramon Andreu, María José Codina Felip and Fran Arrébola Concejero, closing in Genoa with course reflections and certificate delivery.

A garden left behind in iron and stone

Alongside the voyage, the anniversary leaves something permanent at each founding port: the Jardins de l’Areté, an open space for encounter, dialogue and reflection, named for the Greek concept of areté — virtue, excellence, fulfilment. The first two gardens, in Barcelona and Civitavecchia, will be inaugurated on 14 and 16 October, each holding a sculpture made for the Escola by José Luis Pascual: laser-cut iron, shaped and hand-finished through ferroflexia, set on a wooden pedestal. A rising sun of six stars — one for each of the Escola’s founding values, and standing for the countries of its alumni — crowns a figure of Isis, goddess of wisdom, watching over a Mediterranean rendered in the metal below.

The two sculptures share a detail that isn’t visible to the eye but is built into how they were made: they face one another across 800 kilometres of open sea, Barcelona looking toward Civitavecchia and Civitavecchia looking back — a quiet nod to the bond between the two ports that hosted the Escola’s very first courses in 2004. Palermo and Genoa will mark their own version of the same legacy, each naming a site of its own where a statue in the same spirit will be unveiled during the anniversary events on 17 and 19 October.

Recognizing those who built it

Alongside the gardens, the Escola is presenting Areté institutional recognitions to the port authorities, collaborator companies, training centres and universities that have shaped its journey, and individual recognitions to the teachers, alumni and collaborators who have left their mark on its history — with ceremonies distributed across all four ports.


Journalists are invited to the institutional events at each stop, and selected media will travel with the Escola for the full voyage — part of a year-long communication campaign that will follow the anniversary under #Escola20Y. For everyone else, the best seat is on our socials: follow along as the Escola sails the route it started on, twenty years later.

YEP MED meeting - October - Civitavecchia

YEP MED to launch second round of occupational training courses for the Italian youth

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“Occupational training”. A new course of the EU-funded project YEP MED for future professionals in the transport and logistics sector has been launched in Civitavecchia

 

On the 26th of October, representatives of the Italian partners of the European YEP MED project met in Civitavecchia to finalise the planning and scheduling of new courses for the training of future professionals in the field of port management and logistics. The project is funded under the ENI CBC Med Programme of the European Union.

This meeting, previously announced in the summer months, brought together the local partners of the Civitavecchia port community and representatives from the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport – the project leader. The partners discussed the new calendar of “occupational training” courses.

This will be the second cycle of highly specialised vocational training courses, which gives the students the opportunity to develop skills in the logistics and intermodal sectors in the participating countries to facilitate the development and promotion of new Motorways of the Sea that connect the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean. The courses will start mid-November. The coordination committee, which met at the headquarters of the Port System Authority of the Central-Northern Tyrrhenian Sea (AdSP), is proceeding with the evaluation of the teachers and the development of the selection procedures for participants. In the next few weeks the publication of the call for applications will take place, which will be advertised on the AdSP website and on the social media channels of the port authority.

About YEP MED   

The YEP MED project, led by the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport, aims to develop port-logistics training and vocational (TVET) resources adapted to sector needs to strengthen youth employability; increase and upgrade local employment opportunities through the creation of real dual-learning programmes with job placements, strengthening the role of SME’s operating in the port ecosystems for future employment creation; and set up collaborative national and transnational partnerships between port-logistics associations, operators, SMEs, training centres and VET providers, whilst introducing a PPP co-management process.

The project counts on the participation of partners from Spain, Italy, France, Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. Throughout 30 months, the partners and associates of the project will implement tools to achieve the main objectives of this initiatives, in the short, medium and long terms. For a full list of partners of the YEP MED project, you can go to the project’s website.

As associated entities, MEDPorts association and Consell Valencià de la Joventut will also join the project. The project will receive 2.9 M€ (90% EU Contribution) in funding over its lifetime.

For more information on the project you can contact Concha Palacios from the project office at [email protected].