•The students are already working in companies from these two sectors - strategic for the Basque industry -, on outstanding projects such as the new Sentinel 2 satellite of the European programme, Copernicus, on the design of the engine for Airbus 400M, or on advanced manufacturing techniques in Industry 4.0.
•The event was presided by two regional ministers of the Basque Government, Arantxa Tapia (Economic Development and Infrastructures) and Cristina Uriarte (Education), together with the vice-chancellor for Research of the Basque University (UPV/EHU), José Luis Martin, and the School Director, Enrique Amezua. The directors of AFM, HEGAN and Business Promotion of the Regional Council of Vizcaya also took part.
• The event was held on the 21st of February, at the Aeronautics Advanced Manufacturing Centre (CFAA)
A new promotion of young talents from the Aeronautics and Machine-Tool Classrooms of Bilbao’s Engineering School now form part of the workforces of the best Basque industries in these strategic sectors. Yet another year, the Engineering School has renewed the Basque business pool with the presentation of diplomas, held on Wednesday, 21st of February, to a total of 40 students who had done their internships in cutting-edge companies of the aeronautics and machine-tool sectors. Academic authorities together with members of the Basque Government, Regional Council of Vizcaya, and representatives from industrial companies from both sectors participated in the diploma presentation ceremony, which took place at the CFAA – Aeronautics Advanced Manufacturing Centre (Technology Park of Vizcaya, Building 2). This centre is attached to Bilbao Engineering School and is managed by Norberto Lopez de Lacalle, who is director of the Machine-Tool Classroom and professor at the School.
The School director, Enrique Amezua, opened the ceremony in which Xabier Ortueta, director of the Spanish Association of Manufacturers of Machine-Tools, Accessories, Components and Tools (AFM Advanced Manufacturing Technologies), and Ana Villate, director of the Basque Aeronautics Cluster, HEGAN, later intervened. After presenting the diplomas to the 24 students from the Machine-Tool Classroom and to the 16 students from the Aeronautics Classroom of the School, Gorka Estebez, director of Business Promotion and Economic Development of the Regional Council of Vizcaya, Arantxa Tapia, regional minister for Economic Development and Infrastructures; and Cristina Uriarte, regional minister for Education of the Basque Country intervened. Jose Luis Martin, vice-chancellor for Research of the UPV/EHU closed the event.
Aeronautics and Machine-Tool are two of the Corporate Classrooms that exist at Bilbao’s Engineering School, and they are a very important example of the close collaboration that exists between the school and the business and industrial world, whose aim is to guarantee that the training given responds to the real demands of the business fabric. The incorporation of these young promises, full of talent and with comprehensive training, represents an important asset for Basque companies that have to cope with increasingly competitive environments worldwide.
Both classrooms are financed by the departments of Education and Economic Development of the Basque Government and by the Regional Council of Vizcaya, together with business associations and technology centres of the machine-tool and aeronautics sectors.
Talent and comprehensive training
The students who received the diplomas concluded their internships last December in cutting-edge companies of these sectors, collaborating in important projects and placing their comprehensive training and talent at the companies’ service. The 24 students from the Machine-Tool Classroom had worked in companies such as Matrici, ITP, Danobat, Fagor Arrasate and Ibarmia. The Classroom has provided them with considerable knowledge about advanced manufacturing techniques, about the machine-tool sector and aspects of Industry 4.0. All the students are now working in the companies where they did their internships and some of them even hold posts of responsibility.
This is the 9th Machine-Tool Classroom of the Engineering School which has complied with its mission once against this year: to train engineers who can lead technological development projects in key companies for the Basque Country. Since 2008, when this classroom started, more than 210 students have passed through it, approximately 30% of them women.
On the other hand, the 16 graduates in the Aeronautics Classroom had carried out their internships in several companies. In Sener, they have collaborated in projects associated with special missions such as third generation Meteosat or the Sentinel 2 satellite, a new fleet of satellites specifically designed to provide copious data and images for the European Commission’s Copernicus programme. They also worked at ITP on the optimisation of component design for the TP 400 engine of the Airbus 400 M, and in Aernnova, with headquarters in the Technology Park of Alava, on the design and testing of doors for aircraft.
The Aeronautics Classroom started its activity in 2001 and since then it has offered specific training to more than 380 students who have been able to complement their academic training with work in outstanding companies of the sector. The placement percentage is 100% and 16 students from the sixteenth promotion of the Aeronautics Classroom of Bilbao’s Engineering School, who will receive their diploma this afternoon, are already working in Basque aeronautics companies, in multinationals from the sector such as Rolls-Royce, and in organisations such as the European Space Agency.
Two key sectors
The companies that form part of Hegan, the Aeronautics and Space Cluster Association of the Basque Country, closed the 2016 financial year with a turnover of 2.25 billion Euros, representing an increase of 16% over the previous FY. Forecasts for 2017, whose figures are not yet known, foresee a new increase in total sales of around 2%. Employment also grew in this strategic Basque sector. The companies associated in Hegan finished 2016 with a total workforce of 13,612 people, 9.4% more than the previous year. A total of 63 entities, with 161 production centres in the world, are associated in Hegan.
The Machine-Tool, another key industrial sector in the Basque Country, has also grown over the last few years. Production increased by 5.3% in 2017, a year that closed with a joint turnover of 1.58 billion Euros. The forecast for this financial year is also very good and the sector foresees an increase in both sales and exports of around 5%.
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