2019 is being a wonderful year for INTERMOBEX: many new Erasmus+ partnerships have been established along the year and we are happy to broader our offer and to promote Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as destination for Erasmus+ Mobilities. In this occasion, we started a new Erasmus+ partnership for traineeships in maritime sector.
In the frame of the Erasmus+ Project for Staff Training Mobility named “Growing international cooperation networks and competences of LMC”, from 24th to 30th November we hosted two representatives from the Liepāja Maritime College, a vocational school in Latvia dedicated to the maritime professions.
The school Director, Mr. Vladimirs Dreimanis, and the Deputy Director for Study Affairs, Mrs. Jūlija Jonkiene, came on a Preparatory Visit to get to know the reality and the functioning of the maritime sector in the Canary Islands, especially in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Indeed, the Port of Las Palmas (also called “Puerto de La Luz”) represents one of the first ports of the Canary Islands but also of the Mid-Atlantic for fishing, commercial, passenger and sports boats and it handles a big part of the traffic at the crossroads between Europe, Africa and America. Moreover, La Luz Port constitutes one of the main ports of Spain and the first of the geographical area of West Africa.
DAY 1 – MARITIME PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ENTITIES
The first day of mobility was dedicated to meet both public and private entities operating in the maritime sector.
Maritime Cluster of the Canary Islands: it s a non-profit association with a regional scope whose main objective is to promote the development and international competitiveness of the Maritime Sector of the Canary Islands, in turn raising the business, economic and social fabric of the Canary Islands.
Las Palmas Ports Foundation: it’s a non-profit state public sector foundation, established in 1997. Its main objective is the promotion and organization of any initiatives of external promotion, training, cultural, sports and social that can be developed within the area of the Canary Islands and that are especially addressed to the members of the Port Community of Las Palmas.
DAY 2 – PRIVATE VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE
The second day of mobility was spent visiting the private training centre of the Stier Group.
Center for Maritime Studies in the Atlantic: the training center of the Stier Group stands out for being the only private centre in Spain specialized in Professional training with internationally recognized accreditations. It’s aim is to promote safety and excellence for seafarers and shipping companies’ personnel with different programmes and activities.
DAY 3 – PUBLIC VOCATIONAL TRAINING SCHOOL
After the private sector, it was time for our visitors to meet a public institution for the vocational training in the maritime sector.
Maritime-Fishing Professional Training Institute of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: it’s a vocational training Institute of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security and it offers both Training Cycles of the Maritime-Fishing family as well as professional courses. The institute adapts its training courses offer to the occupational needs of the professionals of the sector, updating it according to market demand, new technologies and with the new degrees. It also provide to learners practical training experience in local companies and disseminate job opportunities in the maritime sector.
At the end of the visit, Mr. Juan Antonio Socorro Cruz (director of the Maritime-Fishing Professional Training Institute of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and Mr. Vladimirs Dreimanis (director of the Liepāja Maritime College) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to start a partnership for the exchange of students in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme.
DAYS 4 AND 5- NAVAL REPAIR COMPANIES
After a couple of days dedicated to discover the vocational education offer in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, we introduced two of our main local partners in the maritime sector to Mr. Dreimanis and Mrs. Jonkiene.
Hidramar: it’s a service company located at Las Palmas port, offering services and technical assistance to the Oil & Gas industry and Naval sector since 1989. The company owns the quality assurance certificates ISO 9001, welders approvals and weld procedures approvals. With large facilities at their workshop, skilled employees and high tech machinery unique in the Canary Islands, Hidramar diagnoses and solves problems on board all installations. It supplies manpower and technical expertise to all installations whether onshore or offshore.
Rodritol: founded in 1969, Rodritol S.L. is a groundbreaking firm with over 40 years of unrivalled experience and expertise in providing comprehensive services within the marine and industrial sectors. The company delivers a wide range of services, including repair and maintenance of LV and MV electric motors, LV electric motor rewind, manufacture of LV coils with resin rich technology, MV motor rewind, repair and maintenance of power and distribution transformers (dry-type and oil filled), repair and maintenance of industrial and marine alternators, industrial and marine air conditioning and cooling systems, electronics, manufacture of electrical panel boards, electrical tests for electrical machines, transformer oil filtration, Fuller Earth Regeneration Systems, etc.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PREPARATORY VISITS FOR ERASMUS+ PROJECTS
The 5-days preparatory visit for school staff focused on different aspects of the maritime sector and had an intense agenda of visits and meetings that represented an excellent opportunity for our visitors to:
- learn about differences and similarities in the maritime field in a foreign country;
- meet local professionals and authorities and know about local policies and projects, both on a public and a private level;
- discover good practices in training, managing and working;
- be provided with relevant information about the sector in the host country;
- refresh the knowledge of current global maritime industry trends (such as employers’ needs in relation to skills and competences of young maritime professionals);
- meet potential partner companies to arrange professional traineeships for students.
Thanks to their Preparatory Visit, the representatives from the Liepāja Maritime College were positively surprised by the local reality and they will be happy to send both students and teachers to have their Erasmus+ vocational trainings in Gran Canaria.
Download here the complete programme of the Preparatory Visit