Since April 2022, when it was presented at ACCIÓ’s headquarters, the cluster has been working on the project for the Detection of the labour market’s training needs and improvement of the planning of the training promoted by the Public Administration in Catalonia, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, with funding from the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

The aim of the project is to articulate a model for detecting training needs, tested directly with the clusters and the companies that make them up, that contributes to the planning of the training offering promoted by the Public Administration in Catalonia. This process should help improve the match between companies’ current and future needs and the public offering of vocational training for employment.

On 19 January, at a session organised by ACCIÓ and the SOC (Catalan Employment Service) with the participation of the clusters belonging to the Catalonia Clusters programme, a review was carried out of the state of the project, the new training needs already identified and the milestones already achieved, and the next steps to be taken were defined.

Jordi Vidal gave a presentation at the session. The executive director of Leather Cluster Barcelona began his contribution by setting out the earlier training needs detection project that Leather Cluster had already worked on. Specifically, this is the Skills4Smart TCLF Industries 2030 Blueprint, funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme and led in Catalonia by A3 Leather Innovation Center – UdL. Companies and players from the leather industry value chain already took part in this project, which focused on VETs (Vocational Education and Training) to resolve the skills mismatch (skills gap) and the need to improve these skills (upskilling and reskilling), and it materialised with the launch of the MOOC courses.

Jordi Vidal then detailed the substantial work carried out by the cluster so far within the framework of the ACCIÓ Talent SOC project, with a thorough analysis of demand for the detection of training needs, in which various leather sector players took part, such as A3 Leather Innovation Center, the La Gaspar municipal school of art and design in Igualada, Acexpiel, and master artisan Sandra Quílez, among others.

This research into demand, together with the identification of the target audience, which ranges from leather designers and artisans to professionals at the companies that form part of the leather industry value chain, has enabled Leather Cluster Barcelona to put forward a proposal for four different training courses. Compact courses, one set on general knowledge of the leather sector and another on craftsmanship, with a substantial practical component, proposed on the basis of the detection of the leather sector’s training needs.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited body within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.