Telefónica Foundation and Barcelona Digital Talent join forces to boost digital employability

• The two organizations have come together to implement 3 training pathways with different free courses from the Telefónica Foundation’s Conecta Empleo programme. The goal is to contribute to training on the new technological skills and to improve people’s digital employability
• The agreement is particularly important at the current time of crisis, when the Covid pandemic has quickened market demand for digital profiles. The 3 training pathways feature 12 courses that offer specific technical training and cross-disciplinary training in entrepreneurial or “soft” skills
• Registration is now open on the web below and will remain so until 31 December 2021

11 March, 2021

Barcelona, 11 March 2021.- Telefónica Foundation and Barcelona Digital Talent join forces to encourage society’s digital employability through the Telefónica Foundation’s Conecta Empleo online training programme for improving professional technological skills, which currently runs over 80 packages of free online courses.

The agreement, which is particularly important in the current circumstances of COVID-19, involves the creation of 3 specific pathways with 12 free courses lasting from 20 to 40 hours each, which combine technical training in digital skills, and cross-disciplinary entrepreneurial or “soft” skills, both of which are necessary to meet new demands from the employment market. The first pathway comprises introductory courses in programming, video game design, Big Data and the IoT (Internet of Things); the second has been designed to explore basic aspects of programming with courses in Java Standard, Java Script, WordPress and Web design with HTML + CSS; and the third pathway is intended to provide training in the cross-disciplinary knowledge necessary for working in digital development teams, such as employment skills, Agile Project Management with Lean approaches, and social entrepreneurship.

Registration is now open on the web below and will remain so until 31 December 2021.

According to Luis Miguel Olivas, Employability and Educational Innovation Director of Telefónica Foundation: “Digitization is a key tool for social transformation and a vehicle for ensuring that no one is left behind as we are faced with the new challenges of the digital era. At Telefónica Foundation, we believe, now more than ever, that technology should be for people’s benefit and are therefore joining forces with Barcelona Digital Talent so that society is ready to rise to the new challenges”.

Jordi Arrufí, Director of Digital Talent of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, meanwhile stated that this agreement “is yet another example of the cooperation among institutions necessary to increase market competitiveness and to reduce the gap between the supply of and demand for talent. The current circumstances of profound cross-sector digital transformation require joint effort in offering students and professionals new channels of training in digital skills”.