Valencia (EFE).- The training center that will be built in Sagunto to provide qualified personnel to the PowerCo battery cell gigafactory, from the Volkswagen group, will offer dual FP in automation, mechatronics and industrial chemistry and environmental safety, but also grade A, B, C or E training and may teach others at the university level to increase specialization.
The “Campus Battery” will have the capacity to train 400 students in a curricular design that will be adapted to the needs of PowerCo and will occupy a plot of almost 16,000 square meters in the Parc Sagunt I industrial park, where the Generalitat has already begun the process of purchase of the surface for a value of 2.29 million euros.
Training specialties
The spaces of the Public Integrated Vocational Training Center, and within the different degrees of professional training, will be designed to house professional training related to the dual model -training in the center and skills training in the company- and the micro-training that is necessary in each moment, according to the Generalitat.
The FP program has four sectors: expert in industrial automation, industrial mechatronics, industrial chemistry and environmental safety.
Increase specializations
On the other hand, non-regulated or university training to increase specializations within the electric mobility or battery sector will be planned in accordance with the annual training programs. And they will be about advanced industrial process techniques, industrial digitization techniques, energy storage or industrial management and control.
In the training of the future FP center in Sagunto, all the centers of the Valencian Community will participate with offers in the professional families of electricity-electronics, installation and maintenance, and chemistry, and it will be taught in 3-year Dual Training Cycles (the first two years are taught in vocational training centers, except for the FCT module or dual training in the company).
Improve employability
In addition, the employment and training service of the Generalitat, Labora, will offer non-catalog training necessary to improve employability and technological universities will participate in master’s degrees or short-term training related to the sectors of automation, battery chemistry, energy storage and robotics, among others.
The duration will be three years plus training grades A (partial accreditation of competence), B (certificate of competence), C (professional certificate) or E (specialization course), with which the title of technician or expert will be obtained. the certificate that accredits the training not included in the title.
The FP will be dual during the three years of training, and all the students of training cycles will receive training scholarships.
Characteristics of the center
The proposal made for the building has three different spaces: some 3,000 m2 will be used for training in robotics, automation and chemistry; another 2,200 for the battery cluster area together with common and administrative spaces, complementary training and those related to master’s degrees, micro-training, technical conferences or à la carte training; and another 3,000 m2 for the “Battery Academy”.
The service area, car park and green area will occupy some 3,000 m2, and another 2,000 m2 area for expansion of facilities is planned.
The plot that the Generalitat will buy from the public company Espais Econòmics Empresarials has an area of 15,800 square meters.
the gigafactory
The Sagunto battery cell factory, which is scheduled to start production in 2026, will have an annual production capacity of 40 GWh per year, and will supply the Volkswagen Group car plants in Martorell and Pamplona.
The gigafactory is a project of the “Future: Fast Forward” program through which the Volkswagen Group and SEAT SA, together with other partners, are mobilizing a total of 10,000 million euros to accelerate the transformation of the Spanish automobile industry towards mobility electrical. At the Valencia plant alone, more than 3,000 jobs will be created for this purpose.
PowerCo
PowerCo has already launched the process of hiring personnel to build the factory and has opened an office in Valencia for its activities in Spain from which it will direct the construction of the gigafactory.
The Volkswagen Group groups its global battery activities into PowerCo SE. From its headquarters in Salzgitter, Germany, the company manages the development of its international factory operations, the development of cell technology, the vertical integration of the value chain, and the equipping of factories with machinery and systems.
In the future, the development of other products is planned, such as large-scale storage systems for the energy grid.
The one in Sagunto (Valencia) will be the second plant built in Europe and will be modeled after the Salzgitter plant, which has an expansion and reconversion plan for the manufacture of combustion engines under way to become the group’s first cell plant German. PowerCo has not yet specified the construction start date for the Valencian factory.
For the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, who visited the German Salzgitter plant this week, the gigafactory “feeds gigahope” in employment (15,000 direct and indirect) and the future for young people, and in strengthening the Community Valenciana as a sustainable mobility pole in southern Europe.
Other performances in Sagunto
In addition to the FP center, in Sagunto the agronomic transformation works have been awarded on the Parc Sagunt II plot where the plant will be located, with an execution period of three months; and the urbanization project for the second phase of the business park is being drafted, which will be awarded in mid-May with an execution period of 24 months.
An access road will also be built to the PowerCo plot that will connect the CV-309 and the V-23 (Parc Sagunt II and I and the port of Sagunto).
