Barcelona Digital Talent - Spain
Barcelona Digital Talent aims to position Barcelona as a digital talent capital through two main axes: redirecting professionals to the digital sector and attracting international talent with the goal of bridging the digital skills gap. Barcelona Digital Talent offers a learning platform and skills intelligence on the latest trends, updates and state-of-play of the digital sector, future skills, and jobs in ICT. Through the platform, people can access a course directory with relevant opportunities in the field, reports and statistics, upskilling events, and other programmes and activities in the digital field.
Digital skills in Barcelona: state-of-play and background
Digital professionals in Catalonia, Spain grew steadily in 2021, reaching approximately 100.000 (an annual increase of 12%). The availability of these profiles has increased in all the Catalan regions, but this is especially the case in Barcelona, which accounts for 95% of all digital talent in Catalonia and 97% of job offers. In 2021, 9.400 new digital professionals entered the labour market in Barcelona, 40% more compared to 2020.
In 2021, more than 24,600 digital job offers were made available to the public, more than the number of digital jobs needed in 2019. While this is still far from pre-pandemic statistics, it highlights the rapid recovery and growth of the ICT sector in Barcelona. And when it comes to new models of ICT employment, new role aspects such as teleworking and providing staff on demand were created. ICT job vacancies in teleworking mode have risen from 4% in January 2020 to 14% by the end of 2021 in economies such as the Spanish. Remote working in Barcelona is above the EU average, standing at 14.4%.
Barcelona Digital Talent offers a range of free services to raise awareness, guide, train and connect emerging digital talents with businesses.
Supporting sustainable reskilling for all
Barcelona Digital Talent provides a number of opportunities related to reskilling of professional roles, including:
- Promotion of awareness campaigns through paid media, TV and the press.
- A website with all sorts of resources to guide (videos, interviews, directory courses, top employers’ directory, etc.).
- Mentoring services to connect future digital talent with experts.
- Webinar orientation workshops.
- Free intensive reskilling training for more than 500 people through public funds.
- Scholarships at more than 20 ICT-focused centres in Barcelona.
Barcelona Digital Talent promotes ecosystem activities between businesses, training centres and institutions to generate debate and knowledge about the digital skills gap:
- Organising community events between businesses and training centres to address topics of general interest.
- An Advisory Board composed of the main personalities of the digital ecosystem to guide the actions envisaged.
- Reports on digital skills in different areas (tourism sector, code schools, supply and demand for digital professionals, etc.).
- Masterclasses for companies in different areas of common interest (talent management, organisation management, etc.).
Why is this a good practice?
Since its start, Barcelona Digital Talent has achieved the following results:
- More than 7 training programmes with more than 500 people trained.
- More than 700 scholarships for 70 programmes.
- More than 500 courses at all levels available for those working in ICT, or interested in the field.
- More than 2.000 interviews and 5 Speed dating events for companies and ICT professionals.