Today SEAT’s Training Center is celebrating its 50^th birthday. The official event marking this anniversary, held at the emblematic building in the Paseo de la Zona Franca facility, in Barcelona, was headed by Ernest Maragall, the Catalan government (Generalitat) Minister for Education.

The event was also attended by numerous representatives of the world of business, teaching and trade unions. Seat itself was represented by Ramón Paredes, Vice President for Human Resources, among others.  

During the event Mr. Paredes, who began his career in the company as an apprenctice at the Center, highlighted the importance of this facility “which has trained and continues to train top-class professionals, and has successfully found answers to the needs of technological development with the passage of time.

In this sense it is not just another Training Centre, but rather a one from whose classrooms emerge those professionals who are genuinely needed in the automotive industry”.  SEAT’s Training Center - 7,500 m² of floor space, of which 4,000 m² are given over to practical training workshops - was established in 1957, and arose out of the need the Spanish car manufacturer had to train qualified professionals to fill posts created on the back of development of the sector itself as well as to cater for the increasingly complex technological nature of job tasks.  

Since its creation almost 3,400 apprentices have studied there, 64% of whom have gone on to continue in a professional capacity with the company after training. Currently the Training Center offers three training courses at secondary education level – Machining, Vehicle Electromechanics, and finally Electromechanical Installation of Machinery and Pipelining – all of which last for two academic years. After this initial training period, successful apprentices are awarded a qualification in their chosen speciality and may opt to continue further training by adding a third year of study in Occupational Training.  

In addition to this type of training, the Center also caters for the on-going training requirements of the Seat workforce in matters of language training, office technology, and specialised courses in diverse business activity spheres.