Tag Archive for: Puertos del Estado

Escola Europea and Puertos del Estado Unite to Boost Port Skills and Innovation

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Puertos del Estado and the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport held a high-level working meeting today at the headquarters of Puertos del Estado in Madrid. The meeting brought together Gustavo Santana, President of Puertos del Estado, and members of his executive team, alongside Eduard Rodés, Director of the Escola Europea.

Gustavo Santana, President of Puertos del Estado, and Eduard Rodés, Director of the Escola Europea, during their meeting at the headquarters of Puertos del Estado in Madrid.

The session focused on reinforcing institutional collaboration and advancing joint initiatives aimed at strengthening professional training, intermodal transport expertise, and innovation within the Spanish port system.

A central topic of discussion was the Open Trade Med project, an initiative designed to enhance capacity-building in international trade and port management across the Mediterranean region. The project is supported by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Union for the Mediterranean. As part of the collaboration, Puertos del Estado will contribute directly to the training delivered to personnel from participating Port Authorities under a formal cooperation framework to be signed in the coming months.

Both institutions also agreed to renew institutional support for the Escola’s long-standing maritime and rail intermodal transport courses, reinforcing their promotion throughout the Spanish port system and encouraging broader participation from port professionals.

In line with ongoing digital transformation processes in the sector, the meeting also explored the potential expansion of the Escola’s training programmes in Artificial Intelligence applied to port and logistics environments. Already delivered in Italy and Barcelona, these programmes could be extended to additional Spanish Port Authorities and to Puertos del Estado itself, adapting content to strategic and operational needs.

The discussion further highlighted collaboration within the framework of the Short Sea Shipping Promotion Centre (SPC Spain). Puertos del Estado participates in the Academic Council of the Escola through a designated representative, who also represents the institution within SPC Spain’s governing body. This partnership is further strengthened by the active involvement of Puertos del Estado professionals as lecturers in the Escola’s training programmes.

This meeting consolidates a stable and forward-looking partnership between both institutions, centred on knowledge development, technical capacity-building, and the modernisation of Spain’s port system.

Puertos del Estado and the Escola Europea work to advance training in the field of transport

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The Spanish Ports organisations – Puertos del Estado (PdE)– represented by its president Francisco Toledo – held a videoconference with representatives from the Escola Europea – led by Eduard Rodés – on the 15th of July 2020. This working meeting marked the starting point in the road towards the drafting of a general agreement between the two entities. The areas covered during the meeting include those maintained since 2004 for the promotion of short sea shipping. Puertos del Estado has promoted shortsea and railway courses, given partial scholarships for port authority staff and provided teachers since the Escola’s founding. Some of the teachers who have represented PdE in the Escola’s courses include Álvaro Rodriguez Dapena, Antonio Góngora and Jaime Luezas, who is also a member of the Escola’s Academic Committee on behalf of Puertos del Estado.

Alongside the main areas of activities of the Escola, other proposals in the field of education in the logistics-port communities and railway intermodality have also been analysed, some which are in the development phase and where there are points where collaboration could allow for important synergies.

Francisco Toledo undertook to work with his team on a more stable relationship framework with the Escola, based on ongoing projects and submitted proposals. The Escola and Puertos del Estado have been able to maintain a very good relationship of collaboration since 2004, before the Escola was founded in the shape and form that it is known today, following the first course that took place in 2004 with the Port of Barcelona. PdE has also been involved with the Shortsea Promotion Center of Spain in the development of the Escola since 2006 under the framework of the European Marco Polo Programme.

“It has been a lasting and fruitful relationship for both parties. We must now continue to add fuel to the fire to keep this collaboration alive, adapting it to the changes that are taking place” commented Rodés following the meeting. The director of the Escola also praised the president of the OPPE, outlining his profile as a connoisseur of the port business, a key point that facilitates his dialogue with and knowledge of the sector.