Talentia Skills and Be Basque Ambassadors university youngsters receive their diplomas
- Bizkaia Talent made the awards to 75 undergraduate or postgraduate students with the greatest potential in Bizkaia, one of two programmes having been successfully completed
On the 20th of June the Engineering School of the UPV/EHU University of Bilbao hosted the award-giving ceremony of the diplomas for the Talentia Skills and Be Basque Ambassador programmes, initiatives led by Bizkaia Talent for the development and loyalty creation of Bizkaia’s university talent. A total of 75 students received their awards having successfully completed one of two programmes over the course of the 2024/2025 academic year.
The event was attended by the Provincial Councillor for Economic Promotion of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Ms Ainara Basurko, who emphasised the commitment of the Provincial Council with the generating of opportunities to enable young talent to develop their professional careers in Bizkaia: “We want those of you studying at our universities to see Bizkaia not only as a place to study, but also as the best place to live, develop professionally, and fulfil your potential”.
Also taking part at the event was Mr Iván Jiménez, the Managing Director of Bizkaia Talent, together with Ms Idoia Postigo, Managing Director of Bilbao Metropoli-30 and representatives of the three Basque universities: Ms Estitxu Garai, Vice Chancellor of the Bizkaia Campus and of Communication of the UPV/EHU; Mr Victor Urcelay, Vice Chancellor of Entrepreneurship and Busienss Relations of Deusto University; and Ms Nekane Errasti, Academic Director of the Faculty of Engineering of Mondragon University. The event was also attended by representatives from several different professional associations.
Talentia Skills, 11 years training students
Since its creation in the academic year 2014/2015, Talentia Skills has trained a total of 1,748 students from the three Basque Country universities, consolidating its status as a benchmark in terms of the development of transversal skills. Over the course of the current academic year a total of 373 people have participated, distributed amongst the four levels of the training programme, which lasts for four years. Of these, 52 have completed the fourth and final level, obtaining the diploma which accredits the completion of the whole programme.
It should be stressed that a survey carried out with the students confirms the positive impact of the programme on skills development, revealing significant improvement throughout the length of the training period. The highest scoring skills at the end of the fourth year are teamwork, achievement orientation, organizational awareness and empathy, whilst those areas which have evolved the most are emotional awareness, positive outlook, systematic thinking and inspirational leadership.
International diversity in the Be Basque Ambassadors programme
For its part, 23 international postgraduate and PhD students have participated in the seventh edition of the Be Basque Ambassadors programme and these persons hail from nine different American countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, the USA, Honduras, Panama and Peru. This initiative, which lasts for nine months, is aimed at fostering the social and working integration of these people in Bizkaia by means of workshops about career development and administrative procedures, visits to cutting-edge companies in the province and socio-cultural activities, amongst other activities.
