Promoting training and research in logistics

The aim of the agreement signed by the Sant Boi Town Council, which was presented in this city during the 1st Fair of Logistics 4.0, is to offer customized training, both face-to-face and online, in order to respond to the new skills and professional profiles required by the logistics sector. The council will provide the necessary space and materials to teach the courses, which will be under the academic direction of the UB. And Prologis, which manages the Sant Boi logistics park, will collaborate with the City Council to establish training needs and promote internships and job placements. The possibility of establishing a scholarship programme to facilitate access to training for people at risk of exclusion will also be studied.

The rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, noted the coincidence of the agreement and the Chair in an "emerging" sector such as logistics, which "has added values that make it a living network of communication and transport". Guàrdia focused on the need to offer, at the University, a "training adapted to sensitive sectors such as this one". In this line, he pointed out the importance of university education reaching all groups and all areas of knowledge. Finally, he stressed "the University's capacity to bring together the agreement of the different institutions".

The mayor of Sant Boi de Llobregat, Lluïsa Moret, stated: “With initiatives like this agreement, we aim to advance in order to make Sant Boi a reference for the sector of logistics in training”. “The ties and alliances we are building with institutions, training centers and businesses —she continued—, have to help us to give a response to the new challenges of a strategic sector which is growing, changing, and digitalizing, and which needs new professional profiles and is creating dignified jobs”. Last, Moret invited the young people to find that “logistics can be their opportunity”.

New chair in logistics

At the presentation of the UB Chair in Logistics and Customs Management, its director, Òscar Mascarilla, professor of Economics, noted that logistics is “the great strategic sector of the Catalan economy” and that Barcelona “is the ideal enclave for the logistic sector in southern Europe, with a solid industrial ecosystem which is open to the world, a geostrategic position and the presence of an integrated logistics hub with one of the most important harbours of the Mediterranean, an airport, Zona Franca and several logistic areas”. Also, he highlighted that “the presence of many specialized operators, both locals and internationals, that need a university like the UB, which creates research and knowledge transfer”. Mascarilla reminded the attendees that the UB offers two leading masterʼs degrees in Europe (in Logistics and International Trade and in Law and Customs Management) which link logistics with the management of imports and exports and customs procedures. With these two masterʼs degrees, and the new chair, the UB aims to create a research and teaching ecosystem that joins the knowledge of the academic with the knowledge of the professionals of this sector.  

The ICIL director noted that this company “has been linked, since its beginnings, to the field of logistics and the supply chain from a practical aspect, but also to research on new trends and management models”. “This is why, when the idea of the chair came out, we thought that by joining our efforts and the UBʼs, we could give a powerful response to this concern”, he concluded.  

Other people who took part in the event were Emma Cobos, head of innovation at the Port of Barcelona, and Ramon Tremosa, member of the Catalan Parliament and lecturer at the University of Barcelona. Also, Cobos highlighted the role of the Port in the creation of jobs and in the promotion of international trade, and emphasised its commitment to sustainability. Furthermore, Tremosa recalled the strategic importance of the Mediterranean on a global scale and described logistics as an "invisible friend", while defining it as a key sector.

The new chair aims to contribute to providing a response to the shortage of professionals that coordinate the dispatch of goods until the delivery to the customer. This includes the management of transports and the necessary documentation for the exports and customs, as well as contacting the logistic operators. Also, the chair aims to respond to the shortage in research and the lack of publications on customs, logistics, transports and foreign trade management with a comprehensive view of international trade.