Objective attained!

In its commitment to facilitate the updating of the ICT training offer of educational centres and institutions, PUE DAY managed to bring multinationals, the world of education and the world of work together, becoming a necessary meeting point for the qualification of educators and students.

Over 300 attendants to PUE DAY’s second edition!

This edition of PUE DAY, held last 22 April, where academic ICT reference initiatives in training and official certification were presented, featured a high level of participation and all the activities proposed during the event were widely appreciated.

The more than 900 registered participants, plus the more than 300 attendants to the event as well as PUE DAY’s capacity to bring together both public and private bodies for excellence-level accreditation in training for educational establishments, demonstrate that this is a referential event in Spain for ICT learning as far as training and official certification are concerned.

Multinationals, institutions, teachers and the educational community – all in support of PUE’s initiative

In addition to the representation and participation of leading organisations and multinationals in technological development, PUE DAY was also supported by the ICT academia: bodies, institutions, teachers and educational centres.

A special mention must go to Fundación Tripartita, to the National Public Employment Service (SEPE) and to Fundación Certiuni, the latter as university certification platform. A special thanks for their presence to Regional Directorate for Teacher Training of Castilla-La Mancha, represented by Ms Laura Morillas, to Mr José Ignacio Miquelsanz Subtil and to Mr José Manuel Rodríguez Gómez, Technical Director and Director for General Services respectively of the Department for Training of the Confederation of Spanish Employers' Associations (CEOE).

Mr Francisco Martínez, President at Fundación Certiuni, an initiative promoted by CRUE (Spanish University Rectors’ Conference) where PUE is the technological partner, explained the launching and evolution of Certiuni, the university platform whose mission is to bring the official accreditation of knowledge closer to university students.

A special guest to the opening ceremony, Mr Alfonso Luengo, Managing Director of Fundación Tripartita

The day was inaugurated by Mr José Antonio Ufano, CEO at PUE, Mr Alfonso Luengo, Managing Director of Fundación Tripartita and Mr Orlando Javier Domínguez, Managing Director at PUE.

Mr José Antonio Ufano thanked the audience for their warm welcome towards PUE’s initiative, and supported his words with figures attesting to the increasing scope of the activity and to PUE’s historical commitment to foster qualification and quality in ICT learning spanning over 15 years:

• Over 500 teachers within Vocational Training Cycles are currently being trained under PUE thanks to agreements entered into with Regional Departments for Education.
• PUE delivered over 20,000 technological certifications in 2014.
• The management of educational projects from leading technological development organisations is one of the specialities PUE is currently engaged in:
  • Over 215 Microsoft IT Academy centres.
  • Over 270 Cisco Networking Academy centres.
  • Over 80 LPI Linux centres.
  • Over 75 Oracle Academy centres.
  
  In all, over 27,000 students wired around Spain.
  
  

In his speech “Un nuevo escenario para la Formación en el Empleo” (“A New Scenario For On-The-Job Training”), Mr Alfonso Luengo, referring to the new Act governing the system for on-the-job training in Spain, explained that the driving force behind the change of training model in Spain is a change of approach.

He insisted that the core of the reform is the change of perspective: “Defocusing from management to start focusing on anticipation”, “let’s not talk about financing but about training needs”.

Mr Orlando J. Domínguez presented PUE DAY’s agenda and explained in detail the activities that were to unfold during the day. A second edition, as he pointed out, with a stronger interactive side, the teacher ICT certification day being one of the novelties in this year’s edition.

A showcase of international level reference ICT educational projects

The round of speeches, conducted and supported by Mr Orlando Javier Domínguez, Managing Director at PUE, were delivered by top-ranking representatives from the Education Departments of main multinationals in the sector: Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, Linux Professional Institute, Zentyal, VMware and CompTIA.

We were honoured with the presence of the following:

• Mr Roberto López, Education Manager, Oracle University Iberia and Danny Gooris, Senior Manager Oracle Academy EMEA.
• Ms Elena Esquinas, CSR Program Manager Spain at Cisco.
• Mr Jim Lacey, President and CEO at LPI, and Henry Chalup, CEO Spain at LPI.
• Ms Lola Chacón, Education Manager at Microsoft.
• Mr Ignacio Correas, CEO Zentyal.
• Ms Melindi Britz, Senior Manager, CompTIA Authorized Partner Program Regional Manager.

The speakers discussed technology, educational programme designed to officially train students under the best conditions and all the resources made available for such training purposes.

Significant data were provided in the speeches, focusing on encouraging employability as a shared goal of all the academic initiatives being developed by technological multinationals to bring the world of education closer to the needs of the business world:

• In his address, Mr Roberto López, presented Oracle Academy as a certification-oriented integrated training solution, highlighting how official training in Oracle is akcnowledged in the world of work. This certification, he stated, improves a candidate’s CV by 30 or 40%.

  

• In addition to the value of certification, in his presentation Mr López made a comprehensive account of Oracle’s massive presence as reference technology at global level, as attested among other figures by the 37M people who work using Oracle technologies. The increase by 50% in professional needs regarding Big Data is another figure he provided and which is worth mentioning.
• Mr Orlando J. Domínguez presented the following figure: over 2.5M students in Oracle technologies in 102 countries. PUE’s Managing Director underlined the advantages of the Oracle Academy programme for teachers and institutions, among which global knowledge - the contents and the syllabuses in Spain and the US being the same.
• Ms Elena Esquinas, representing Cisco Networking Academy (CNA), explained how contents are being developed to encourage the growth of “The Internet of Everything”: being updated as part of Cisco’s commitment to improving the work conditions of IT profiles.
• Within Cisco Networking Academy, as Ms Elena Esquinas highlighted, it is actually the trainer who plays a key and crucial role, to the extent that Cisco's Netacad platform for trainers is designed to manage the training in a manner tailored to the specificities of each trainee in particular and of the class as a whole.

  

• 25,000 students a year are trained in Spain under the CNA programme.
• The CNA programme was deployed in the Catalonian Vocational Training system in 2001, with 20 registered centres. As of today, over 300 institutions have already adhered to Cisco Networking Academy.
• Mr Jim Lacey, CEO and President at LPI, presented the Linux Professional Institute and Linux Essentials initiative and insisted on the importance of certifications when entering the world of work.

  

• LPI’s CEO finished his speech proclaiming the success of the LPI programme in Spain, acknowledging PUE’s key role as in such success.
• Cisco and Linux co-chaired the main table at the beginning of their respective speeches, as proof of their recent strategic alliance, under which Cisco has integrated official training in Linux Essentials into its curricular portfolio through the Netacad platform.
• In his speech on VMware, Mr Ignacio Sancho, Head of the IT & Communications Department at Los Enlaces Vocational Training School in Saragossa, offered a success story from applying the WMware IT Academy programme to the training in Computer Network Systems Management in his school.

  

PUE DAY’s 2nd edition – now more interactive! Technical Workshops and Certification Day for Trainers – two big novelties!

The technical workshops offered an update on the tools that educational programmes make available to teachers.

One of the novelties of PUE DAY’s second edition, highly rated by the attending audience, the purpose being to provide an update, to improve training conditions and to facilitate the work of teachers and institutions when delivering ICT training to their students.

Mr Ramon de la Rosa, Mr Amador Gabaldón and Mr Jordi Ariño, PUE’s technical experts in Educational projects, conducted the workshops on Oracle, Cisco and VMware. Mr Juan Manuel Servera Bondroit, Microsoft Technical Evangelist, led the workshop on Microsoft Cloud “Visual Studio: desarrollar para la web moderna con mentalidad cloud” (“Visual Studio: Developing the Modern Web with a Cloud Approach”).

PUE Mobile Certification offered a Certification Day where over 100 attendants took their official examinations

Microsoft Office Specialist and Linux Essentials were the most demanded certifications.

This activity took place in one of the halls at the NH Collection Eurobuilding Hotel, where PUE, relying on its PUE Mobile Certification service, arranged this certification activity.

In addition to offering teachers the opportunity to accredit their knowledge, PUE wanted to show in a practical way that it is feasible for educational centres to hold mobile certification sessions at their own premises, as part of the services it makes available to the world of education.

In his address, Mr Àngel Garcia, Product & Service Developer at PUE, explained in detail the particulars of the service and the advantages it brings to educational centres, and provided practical examples of how to conduct a certification session for teachers and students inside the classroom.

More information on PUE Mobile.

A special mention to Mr Roberto del Árbol, Head of the IT Department at the Cuatrovientos Upper Secondary and Vocational Training School of Pamplona, who presented a success story of deploying the PUE Mobile service in his school more than 8 years ago. PUE takes its Mobile service to the school twice a year to hold certification sessions for candidates to take their official examinations, mainly on CISCO technologies (CCNA, CCNP, etc.).

“Bringing training closer to the world of business is of major interest at this time” as Ms María de los Reyes Zatarain pointed out in her closing speech

The closing of the event was honoured with the presence and participation of Ms María de los Reyes Zatarain. Among other current issues, in her speech the Director General of the National Public Employment Service (SEPE) made a point of the convenience of bringing ICT training closer to the world of business.

“Behind training there always has to be a certification”, she stated. She also made it clear that the competences and qualifications of the active population are closely connected with employability, and that the employment-training equation is a fact beyond doubt.

Ms María de los Reyes Zatarain gave a special thank to Mr José Antonio Ufano, CEO at PUE, for his invitation, and acknowledged the “wonderful work” PUE is performing since 1998, being an inspiration for the current approach of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security of Spain as regards training for employment.

Mr Orlando J. Domínguez, in his address preceding the closing speech by Ms María de los Reyes, thanked her for her presence and the audience for their congratulations regarding the organisation and approach of the event.

In his closing words, PUE’s CEO presented a video entitled “La historia de Javier” (“Javier’s Story”), which was subsequently screened. The video explains the work being performed by PUE for more than 15 years.

Video: “Javier’s Story”

Acknowledgements

We want to thank the speakers and all the people who came over to support PUE DAY with their presence and participation – our efforts paid off!

Our thanks too to the audience, to external collaborators and to the excellent service provided by the staff of the NH Collection Eurobuilding Hotel, all this certainly adds up to the success of the event!

A special thanks goes to supporting institutions that help us to consolidate our project and who firmly believe in the need to bring ICT learning closer to the requirements of the world of work.

We look forward to seeing you on PUE DAY 2016!

Access post-event package

Here you will find the multimedia materials on the educational projects presented during the event.

Access our post-event package following this link