Esade and Barcelona Tech City, the association bringing together 1,000 tech and digital companies, are expanding their partnership to promote educational innovation in the city’s digital sector by setting up new tech hubs geared towards technology applied to education and attracting talent. These new facilities will be on the new Urban Tech Campus that Barcelona Tech City is building. 

The agreement also includes Esade’s support for Barcelona Tech City as its sole global academic partner to jointly explore setting up an EdTech Hub on its Urban Tech Campus to enhance the digital network of the city’s start-ups and entrepreneurial ecosystem. The idea is to help drive the EdTech (educational technology) sector and position Barcelona as one of the leading digital hubs. 

“The EdTech sector and the new forms of education through technology is constantly growing and will have an enormous impact on the 4.0 economy,” said Esade’s Corporate Director Julio Villalobos. “That means this agreement is a major step forward in promoting the emergence of companies specialising in the technology and digital sector in Barcelona.”

“Our partnership with Esade allows us to provide technology ecosystem entrepreneurs with internationally renowned educational tracks in management and digital transformation from one of the world’s foremost business schools,” noted Barcelona Tech City CEO Miguel Martí. “This partnership also means we can do our bit in tailoring their contents to the tech entrepreneur profile. Plus by renewing the agreement we are taking our relationship to the next level by including the idea of setting up an EdTech hub in the Urban Tech Campus Project we have been running for two years. Esade is faced with huge transformations which to a large extent will be shaped by technology, and we can’t think of a better starting point for addressing the challenge of setting up the new hub.”

Training for entrepreneurs

Esade and Barcelona Tech City are to draw up a specialised training offer for professionals pursuing their careers in Barcelona’s technological and digital sector. The training will be geared towards digital profiles holding key management posts in the transformation of their companies along with entrepreneurs in Barcelona’s ecosystem who have seen significant growth in their start-ups in recent years and are looking to scale up their businesses.

Barcelona Tech City is also to support Esade’s training programmes by providing the school with experts and entrepreneurs who will take part in its classes. Likewise, the association will make available facilities, such as the Catalan Art Nouveau El Palauet building where Esade will also be a member, in which events and meetings can be held to foster sharing knowledge and the interrelationship between technology and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.