More than a hundred young people have received training in circular economy in 2022 thanks to the Basque Circular Hub initiative

• The second class of young people who have taken part in the training services of the Basque Circular Hub this year received their diplomas today
• The new headquarters of the Basque Circular Hub in Vitoria-Gasteiz was inaugurated in October 2022
• The Basque Circular Hub centres are the only centres for advanced studies in circular economy in Southern Europe, encompassing market foresight, advanced training, trend analysis and generation of expert knowledge

The Deputy Minister for Environmental Sustainability of the Basque Government, Amaia Barredo, today presided over the presentation of diplomas to the second class of more than a hundred young people who, during 2022, have received specialised training and work experience in companies in the field of circular economy through the Basque Circular Hub.

The Basque Circular Hub centres—the one in Bilbao, inaugurated in March 2021, and the new headquarters inaugurated last October 2022 in Vitoria-Gasteiz—are benchmarks in Spain and Southern Europe, unique for the type of services they offer, encompassing market foresight, advanced training, trend analysis and the generation of expert knowledge in the field of the circular economy.      

This innovative initiative is one of the instruments to meet the objectives of the Circular Economy Strategy 2030 and allows reinforcing the leadership of the Basque industry in its transformation towards more sustainable and circular forms. It is also a good example of public-private collaboration as, under the leadership of Ihobe-Basque Government, it has the City Councils of Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz as strategic partners and the collaboration of Basque universities—the University of the Basque Country-UPV/EHU, Mondragon Unibertsitatea, the University of Deusto and TECNUN—, the Basque Country Centre for Applied Research in Vocational Training-TKNIKA, and the Novia Salcedo Foundation.

The second class of young people who have passed through the Basque Circular Hub during 2022 have successfully completed a course of at least 25 hours, and have done so through different programmes that combine advanced technical training and practical training in companies. In particular, four such courses have been offered this year.  

Of particular note is the Circular Berrindartzea 2022 programme, the result of collaboration between Lanbide and the Vice-Ministry of Environmental Sustainability through Ihobe, and aimed at companies in the industrial sector. Within the framework of this programme, with two editions this year—in April and June—more than half of the 68 young people who received 60 hours of training in circular economy, carried out internships in Basque companies with the aim of detecting business opportunities in this field.      

Another group of four young people had the opportunity to work directly in the Basque Circular Hub on strategic environmental monitoring with 25 hours of training. Currently, this group is developing internships at the new headquarters of the Basque Circular Hub in Vitoria-Gasteiz to systematise the monitoring and open it up to Basque companies.

The third was the product eco-design course, an 80-hour course, which is part of the collaboration agreements between the Basque Circular Hub and Basque universities. Nine young university students have been trained in this course and have been supported to obtain internships in Basque companies.       

In addition, thanks to the stable collaboration between the Basque Circular Hub and the Basque Ecodesign Center—a public-private initiative involving 16 leading companies in environmental sustainability, as well as the public entities SPRI and Ihobe, to generate knowledge transferable to the rest of the Basque business fabric and to drive their value chains—a 108-hour course on circular economy instruments applied to the company was held in 2022. The 17 people who have taken the course will do an internship at the Basque Ecodesign Center in 2023.

This course has had two parallel training itineraries: one associated with the use of life cycle analysis software, and another, a pioneer in the state, aimed at responding to the needs of companies in terms of sustainable finance and reporting of non-financial information.

In addition, 4 people who have been selected to take a 60-hour pilot self-training course, based on pre-recorded videos and additional materials, receive a diploma. The lessons learned from this process are key to the design of the 2023 courses, which will seek to improve their efficiency through digitalisation.        

New headquarters in Vitoria-Gasteiz

In October 2022, the Basque Circular Hub headquarters in Bilbao was joined by a new one in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Since then, companies in Alava have a wide range of services to improve their competitiveness by integrating circular processes into their production systems.

This centre, located in the Zaramaga district, will promote the development of technical circular economy projects in the business fabric of Alava with the participation of young professionals trained in the Hub itself. In addition, companies in Alava will have young specialists with the knowledge to integrate the circular economy into their processes.       

Likewise, the Basque Circular Hub of Vitoria-Gasteiz will act as the Observatory of circular economy of the Basque Country, meaning that it will carry out strategic monitoring tasks for the detection of new business opportunities, prepare roadmaps for emerging businesses, and also monitor reports adapted to industrial sectors.         

In the field of entrepreneurship, it will support the design of projects and provide guidance on how to access the grants available at any given time. Expert training activities on circular economy will play an important role as they will not only be aimed at recent graduates, but also at teachers, both from universities and vocational training centres. This training will also be extended to companies that wish to have professionals specialised in the subject.

In addition, the Vitoria Hub will advise on the definition of both the Circular Economy Strategy of the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz 2030 and the action plans derived from it.

Targets for 2023

With a view to next year, the Basque Circular Hub is expected to become the reference centre for training in the circular economy in the Basque Country, covering other topics such as environmental sustainability, in its broadest sense, and other pioneering concepts, such as sustainable finance or the reporting of non-financial information, topics derived from the European Green Pact and on which the European Commission is establishing regulations that affect companies.

To this end, a wide range of activities are planned. On the one hand, courses will continue to be offered for young people and companies on emerging environmental issues, including internship programmes in the case of courses for young people.

On the other hand, the design of an integrated environmental metrics tool is being finalised, which will help companies calculate their carbon footprint, their environmental footprint and a wide range of circular economy indicators. The development of this web tool entails the training of professionals, which is why, over the last two months, 5 training courses have been given in the three historical territories to start its deployment in companies.

Likewise, with a view to 2023, the monitoring system will be consolidated by converting it into the new Circular Economy Observatory of the Basque Country, training and internship activities with companies will be optimised to improve the integration of vocational training in the Basque Circular Hub, and training will continue to be promoted through digital channels.

Read more at www.basquecircularhub.eus