Castilla y León climbs one position on the Cotec Foundation’s Talent Map and is in sixth place

Castilla y León improves its position in the global index of the Talent Map of Spain carried out by the COTEC Foundation, placing it in sixth place, above the national average, according to the third edition of this study.

Within the six pillars in which the global index is articulated, Castilla y León is better positioned – surpassing the country average – in the ‘Retain’, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Grow’ pillars of the Talent Map.

The report, which contains data from 2022, was presented this Monday in Valladolid in an event in which the president of Cotec, Cristina Garmendia, and the Minister of Economy and Finance of the Government of Castilla y León, Carlos Fernández Carriedo, participated. .

The report analyzes the talent available in each territory based on fifty indicators organized into six pillars: Facilitate, Attract, Grow, Retain, Knowledge and Technical Capabilities and Vocations.

The Cotec Foundation values ​​the ‘Retain’ pillar of the study, in which Castilla y León is in third position thanks to its sustainability policies, in which it stands out in renewable energy and low pollution; It is above the average in public spending on health and sustainability of public finances; lifestyle, where it excels in health provision indicators; and in less time spent going to work.

Likewise, in the ‘Knowledge’ pillar, the Community occupies fifth position in the national ranking, which analyzes the active population with higher education, professionals, researchers, senior management, availability of scientists and engineers and digital skills of the population

In the ‘Grow’ pillar, which examines the educational impulse of the administrations, the Community is in seventh position. In this section, educational results are assessed, the set of variables that includes investment in education, the PISA results in which Secondary school students obtain the best scores in Spainthe performance of university systems, and training throughout working life, among other aspects.

Finally, the Community also increases positions in ‘Technical skills and vocations’, always according to the study by the COTEC Foundation, which highlights that it is an attractive community due to its high levels of security, more affordable housing prices and the good information from the companies that offer training.

The Community of Madrid manages to lead three of the pillars (Facilitate, Attract and Impact of Knowledge), while the Basque Country, Navarra and Catalonia lead one (Grow, Retain and Capacities and technical vocations, respectively). Madrid, which already headed the previous ranking, It also surpasses Germany in four of the six pillars, while eight of the 17 autonomous communities do not surpass the European country in any.

In this way, the Community of Madrid and the regions of the northeast of the peninsula, together with Aragon, make up the most advanced area in terms of talent and obtain scores that are above the Spanish average.

The Minister of Economy and Finance of the Government of Castilla y León has claimed the “training, qualification and preparation” of young people from Castile and Leon and has celebrated the improvement of the Community in the ranking, which “gives clues” about what areas to work on to continue improving.

200 ICECYL Talent Scholarships

The Board is developing the ‘Comprehensive Talent Plan Castilla y León 2024-2027 as a factor of competitiveness and business transformation’ to attract professionals to companies and develop a professional career in the Community.

Within this plan, the Ministry of Economy and Finance is promoting the implementation – through the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICECYL) – of a program of 200 scholarships for postgraduate students from the Community universities, which includes a stay of between six and nine months in companies, technological centers or business associations, linking said stay to a project of innovation, internationalization, financing or business infrastructure, that is, to a project to improve business competitiveness. Each scholarship will be endowed with 6,480 euros.

Students participating in the program must be pursuing postgraduate, doctoral, master’s or own degrees before starting their stay, which will facilitate a first contact with the business reality before finishing their specialization studies. In addition, For companies it will be the opportunity to meet and retain talent that arises from the universities of Castilla y León.

Furthermore, this initiative aims to achieve greater collaboration between participating universities and companies to establish a fluid dialogue with academic leaders, which allows the implementation of other forms of collaboration between these postgraduate studies and companies.

The Comprehensive Talent Plan will serve to establish the strategy and guide the measures for attracting and linking talent to the Community. Specifically, to value Castilla y León to live and develop a professional career; attract talent to the business community; link professionals trained in the Community to the territory, and finally facilitate contact between students, professionals and public and private entities. These scholarships are being developed with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education and the nine public and private universities of the Community.