Biscay chief executive and deusto university vice chancellor sign agreement to create automotive engineering diploma

Biscay chief executive and deusto university vice chancellor sign agreement to create automotive engineering diploma

Agreement reached under the 2010 frame cooperation agreement between AIC and the University of Deusto Designed to aid development of present and future automotive industry professionals | 05/09/2013

Bilbao, 5.9.2013—Biscay Provincial Council chief executive José Luis Bilbao, who also doubles as Chairman of the AIC-Automotive Intelligence Center Board of Trustees, and José María Guibert, Vice Chancellor of the University of Deusto, today signed a specific cooperation agreement between the two organizations to offer an “Automotive Engineering Specialization Diploma”, plus several optional subjects from the MUII Master of University Industrial Engineering.

The new Diploma targets industrial engineering graduates and people with experience in the industry looking to acquire new skills or extend their specific knowledge of the automotive industry.

To that end, the course is to comprise 30 credits over five subjects: management and production techniques in the automotive industry, vehicle technologies, automotive manufacturing materials and processes, vehicle dynamics and automotive industry product design and manufacture. In-house training in automotive companies will also be part of the Diploma.

Emphasizing the agreement’s value for the future, Council chief executive Bilbao said it would help train professionals marked out to lead the industry in the coming years. “What we are looking to do with the new Diploma”, he declared, “is generate value for the local automotive industry. Added value that comes from people’s ability to innovate, people with solid training, the sort of people who will be doing this course. The people who, in the future, will stimulate the kind of innovation needed to keep the industry moving forward and in a position to compete in an increasingly globalized market”.

Vice Chancellor Guibert described the agreement as further strengthening the University of Deusto’s commitment to producing highly skilled professionals for today’s labor market. In this particular case, specific training in automotive engineering would give University of Deusto industrial engineering graduates “a clear advantage” when looking for jobs at companies in what is a key industry in the local economy. Under the new agreement, Deusto strengthened the bond between Business and University, a bond that was clearly necessary for any society looking to achieve “fair and sustainable economic development.”

Frame Agreement

The AIC-UoD Frame Agreement, of which the cooperation agreement is the latest offshoot, was signed in July 2010. It aims to develop the skills of current and future professionals in the Basque automotive industry through training and research. Its principal objectives are to:

Endow Diploma and MUII students with specific training for the motor industry that will allow them to specialize therein.

Improve their professional and employment prospects.

Increase cooperation between the university and companies in the automotive industry.

Being extraordinarily complex and highly competitive, and subject to rapid technological change, the automotive industry is constantly in need of professionals with high-level training in a range of disciplines.

What’s more, the industry is permanently spawning new technologies, business models, mobility requirements and opportunities, making open cooperation and networking more or less unavoidable. Combining the skills and abilities of the players involved is a great way to produce rapid, efficient responses to constant change.

One of the province’s economic powerhouses

The automotive industry provides major economic muscle in the province of Biscay and the Basque region as a whole, accounting for 17% of the regional GDP, with billing totaling €12,400 million in 2012. The industry provides jobs directly for around 75,000 people, 35,000 of whom (that’s 4% of the region’s working population) are physically located in the Basque Country. Indeed, the Basque region accounts for 40% of the entire production of automotive components in Spain.

AIC-Automotive Intelligence Center

The AIC Foundation is backed by Biscay Provincial Council and Amorebieta-Etxano and Ermua city halls, a group of leading-edge companies from the automotive industry and Basque automotive cluster ACICAE. Knowledge, training and technology and industrial development activities designed to improve competitiveness in the industry are all run under the AIC umbrella.

University of Deusto

In recent years, UoD, and more specifically, its Faculty of Engineering and Deustotech, has been oriented towards training the professionals of the future for a range of sectors, including the automotive industry, and towards research into, among other areas, the application of I&CT to smart transport and new energy sources, also linked to hybrid and electric vehicles.