"The industry needs to approach the youngest ones, right from the beginning, to explain that we work to achieve a better world" - Iratxe Urraca, R&D Director in the Smart Grids Division at Ormazabal

Our colleague participated in the panel discussion on “Professional Competencies for a New Industrial Model” during the event “Industrial Employment, Quality Employment in a Transforming World”

The topic of industrial employment and how it is transforming to address the new challenges of society, such as digitization and sustainability, was a subject of discussion during the event “Industrial Employment, Quality Employment in a Transforming World,” held on October 31st at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao. This forum, attended by some of the key social and business players in the province, featured the presence of Iratxe Urraca, Director of Research and Development in the Smart Grids Division at Ormazabal, who was part of the panel on “Professional Competencies for a New Industrial Model.”

This panel served as a meeting point to assess how the industry is transforming to adapt talent acquisition and retention based on the new challenges of society. In this regard, Iratxe Urraca emphasized that the industrial sector should turn its attention to “the youngest ones,” whom “we need to approach from day one so that they see and understand that technological professions have a very attractive component to achieve a better world for the future.” Additionally, Iratxe mentioned how “above all, the industry represents an opportunity and a challenge for new talents, something we need to convey to our young people,” emphasizing that industrial companies are agents of change, working to ensure that the energy transition is sustainable and efficient so that no one is left behind, with a focus on generating the necessary talents for both companies and society”.

Furthermore, in terms of the competencies required by workers to tackle these challenges, the Director of Innovation in Smart Grids at Ormazabal emphasized that “we need more technicians and more engineers, as there is currently a shortage.” This type of profile, she added, “needs to be supplemented with a new layer because technical knowledge must be complemented with the implementation of technologies, such as cybersecurity, which are entering the industrial world to protect our production processes and ensure that our products, especially in critical infrastructures, are resilient to cyberattacks.”

“We, as a company, must make every effort to get closer to training centers, despite the existence of some programs of this kind, and to collaborate with technological centers, which in Euskadi are world reference centers,” Iratxe stated in reference to how the public and private sectors must work together to attract talent through collaboration. Regarding the joint role of institutions and companies, Urraca cited GAIA (Association of Knowledge and Technology Industries in the Basque Country) as an example, with which Ormazabal collaborates “to seek new knowledge, talents, and skills, as well as to provide new skills to existing talent. This is not the work of a single party but of all the actors involved.”

The panel discussion on “Professional Competencies for a New Industrial Model” also featured the presence of Iñaki Corral Torres, CEO of Sercontrol, and Carlos Gutiérrez Agüero, Director of Human Resources at FAES. The event was inaugurated by Teresa Laespada, Deputy for Employment, Social Cohesion, and Equality at the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and brought together representatives of other entities such as the Spanish Government, Ingeteam, Betsaide, or Zabala Innovation. Furthermore, the event was jointly organized by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and the newspaper El Correo.