Barcelona Digital Talent connects more than 300 international students with companies looking for digital talent

• Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Barcelona City Council and ACCIÓ organized, within the framework of the Barcelona Digital Talent alliance, the first edition of IT.nerary Day, an initiative where through 6 tours, more than 300 international students were able to meet 16 companies with high demand for digital profiles such as HP, Sanofi or CaixaBank.
• IT.nerary Day is an event that aims to promote the retention and incorporation of international students who are currently training in Barcelona into the digital ecosystem of Catalonia.
• IT.nerary Day ended with a networking day at the old Damm brewery where more than 300 students were able to interact directly with representatives of more than 16 companies.

13 May, 2022

Barcelona, May 13th 2022.- MWCapital, l’Ajuntament de Barcelona and ACCIÓ -the agency for business competitiveness of the Department of Business and Labor-, in the framework of the Barcelona Digital Talent alliance, have brought together for the first time more than 300 international students from 23 training centers in Barcelona in the IT.nerary Day. The students, from 54 different countries, according to their interest and profile, have been part of one of the 6 itineraries that have been carried out during the morning, and in which they have visited 2 companies that currently have difficulties in incorporating certain profiles of digital talent that are not found in the local labor market. After the visits, the participants met at the old Damm brewery where they were able to exchange impressions with the other participants and representatives of the most relevant companies in terms of recruitment of digital talent: CaixaBank, Agbar, NTT-Data, HM, Zurich, i2cat, Bayer, Accenture, Cloudblue, Ocado Technology, Pepsico, Sanofi, Porsche Digital, Natural Machines, Submer, Festo, Merkle and ManoMano.

Carlos Grau welcomed the participants “Barcelona Mobile World Capital Foundation, which this year celebrates its tenth birthday, works to bring digitalization to key sectors of society and lead projects and initiatives to consolidate the positioning of Barcelona as a technological and digital hub of international reference. Talent is a key factor to consolidate this hub and that is why we are satisfied with the response to this initiative. IT.nerary Day is a key initiative to give international talent already living in Barcelona a clearer vision of the professional opportunities that our city offers”.

The Barcelona City Council was represented by Pau Solanilla, Commissioner for City Promotion, who wanted to emphasize that “Barcelona is an attractive city for international talent and that it has an international Welcome Desk, a unique service in the host state to facilitate the arrival and establishment of these people in the city”.

Xavier Vilalta, Talent Group Lead at ACCIÓ, pointed out that “initiatives like these are key to stimulating the generation of talent in Catalonia, which is the main asset of our country, both to grow the ecosystem of startups and local digital companies and to continue attracting foreign investment projects in the technology sector.

During the conference, companies have shown their clear interest in attracting skilled digital professionals to meet the demand they have for these highly specialized profiles. In fact, Spain would have to triple the number of people with technological profiles to meet the EU’s digital objectives for 2030. Today, in the Spanish state there are 730,000 employees in digital professions, but this figure must be increased to reach 2 million professionals to meet the objectives of the European Digital Decade. Most of these profiles will be based in Barcelona to meet the demand of different types of companies, from startups to technology hubs of large multinationals.

Precisely for this reason, the different institutions and companies that are part of Barcelona Digital Talent, work to combat the current digital talent gap to promote market competitiveness. With the aim of positioning Barcelona as a talent capital, the program promotes the reskilling of digital skills of professionals and the national and international attraction of new professionals to the market. This alliance is driven by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya, 22@Network, Barcelona Tech City, Foment del Treball Nacional, Barcelona Global, PIMEC, Barcelona City Council and Generalitat de Catalunya.

About Mobile World Capital Barcelona

Mobile World Capital Barcelona is an initiative that drives the digital development of society and helps improve people’s lives globally. With public and private support, MWCapital focuses its activity in four areas: accelerating innovation through digital entrepreneurship; transforming industry through digital technology; growing digital talent among new generations and professionals; and reflecting on the impact of technology on our society. All of this, our programs are positively transforming the economy, education and society. MWCapital hosts MWC Barcelona and founded 4 Years From Now [4YFN], the business platform for the startup community present at all MWC events worldwide.