Barcelona Digital Talent is to award over 800 grants to encourage digital training

• The initiative is intended to provide a response to the economic crisis caused by Covid-19 and to promote training in digital skills
• The grants and scholarships are worth €1,651,094 and will be awarded for 90 courses at 20 different training centres
• The Ministry for Digital Policy and Public Administration of the Regional Government of Catalonia will award 5,000 scholarships for access to online courses

7 July, 2020

Barcelona, 7 July 2020. – Today, Tuesday, sees the start of a campaign to award 822 grants to access digital training courses. The initiative is being implemented by Barcelona Digital Talent, a public-private alliance promoted by Mobile World Capital Barcelona, the Cercle Tecnològic de Catalunya, Barcelona Tech City, 22@Network, Foment del Treball Nacional, Barcelona Global, Barcelona City Hall and the Regional Government of Catalonia, with a view to making Barcelona the capital for digital talent.

Through this measure, the intention at Barcelona Digital Talent is to respond to the economic crisis prompted by measures to contain Covid-19 and to help professionals to retrain by gaining theoretical and practical skills in a sector with no unemployment, more competitive salaries and more stable professional prospects.

According to data from the Digital Talent Overview 2020 report, the digital sector still employs the professions most sought-after by companies, despite the crisis situation. The talent gap is, however, growing larger. In the last two years, demand for digital talent in Barcelona has increased by 80% while the supply of digital professionals has grown by only 23%. These data reveal the need for professional reskilling in order to cover the high levels of demand.

The project will distribute 822 grants to private centres and award 398 places to public centres. In total, this amounts to 1,351,094 euros. This initiative will involve 20 training centres that include All Women Tech (Code Academy for women), Ironhack (Code Academy), the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and public centres such as IT Academy. These grants will be awarded for 90 courses, which are mainly intensive and offer sufficient employability for access to the market in areas of digital knowledge such as Web Development, Big Data, UX/UI, Digital Marketing and Digital Business. The different courses may be consulted on the Barcelona Digital Talent website, where registrations can also be made.

The Ministry for Digital Policy and Public Administration of the Government of Catalonia will also award 5,000 scholarships for access to online courses. These scholarships provide for training in digital skills through intensive courses and are valued at 300,000 euros.