Spain to implement the first EBA Academy programme

Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič was today in Madrid, Spain to participate at the signature of the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to implement the EBA Academy, a public-private partnership on learning services by industry for industry covering the entire battery value chain recently launched by EIT InnoEnergy.

Spain’s Secretary General for Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises and President of the School of Industrial Organisation (EOI), Raül Blanco Díaz, and Diego Pavía, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy, signed an agreement that will make Spain the first European country to deploy the EBA Academy, a training platform for all the jobs needed in the battery value chain. This platform already has more than 30 training courses, developed since 2018 in collaboration with leading European companies and organisations in the sector, and offers its services through local centres specialised in training workers.

It is estimated that by 2025, around 800,000 workers at European level will need to be trained to be able to operate all the industrial projects (more than 70 already today) that are being deployed in Europe. The EBA Academy platform is the solution to this challenge of such volume and in such a short space of time.

“In 2017, EIT InnoEnergy received from the European Commission the mandate to coordinate the industrial dimension of the European Battery Alliance and to develop specific initiatives to accelerate the development of the entire European value chain and make it more competitive. One of these initiatives is this EBA Academy, which will now take its first steps in Spain in a pioneering way thanks to this agreement with the Ministry of Industry through its School of Industrial Organisation (EOI)”, said Diego Pavía, CEO at EIT InnoEnergy.

In this sense, thanks to the first steps that the EBA Academy will take in Spain, around 150,000 workers will be trained over the next 5 years in the field of batteries. This is a big challenge and an enormous opportunity for the country, where the automotive sector represents 8.5% of Spanish GDP and 9% of employment, manufacturing some 2.8 million vehicles per year.

With his visit, Vice-President Šefčovič wanted to show his support for the sector in Spain in the framework of the European Battery Alliance and said: “I am proud of Spain’s active role in the European Battery Alliance. The industry is at the forefront and focused on creating innovative market-oriented projects and developing skills through partnerships. I would like to thank EIT InnoEnergy for its support in facilitating this”.

For more information, watch the recording of the event or visit EIT InnoEnergy website.