Highlights of the Parliamentary Evening at the Spanish Embassy in Berlin - Academy Cube

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A full year after the launch of the Academy Cube initiative at CeBIT 2013 the Spanish Ambassador has invited politicians, company representatives and industry associations for a first review and outlook to Berlin.

Europe urgently needs a qualified IT- generation and more engineers and – at the same time – many countries within the European Union are complaining about the high rate of youth unemployment. This topic was dedicated to the event “Academy Cube – a contribution to the talent perspectives of Europe: A qualified generation for the industry“ on March 20th that took place at the Spanish Embassy in Berlin.

All agreed upon: The Academy Cube was the right step towards eradicating the still blazing topic youth unemployment. After welcome Champagne the Ambassador of Spain H.E Juan Pablo Garcia-Berdoy Cerezo opened the event with a speech. Dr. Bernd Welz, Executive Vice President and Head of Solution and Knowledge Packaging at SAP AG made the introduction of Academy Cube and was delighted about the large reception among young academics: Until today 8.000+ students registered at the platform for courses with still increasing demand. Foremost in Spain, a country which trains outstanding engineers, the Academy Cube is highly used. And still this is just the beginning.

In a panel discussion moderated by Prof. Dr. Heimo H. Adelsberger from the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration being responsible for Information Systems for Production and Operations Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen, the participants argued about how to use the gained momentum, how to reasonably complete the initiative and what particular challenges but also chances ‘Industry 4.0’ entails.

There was the agreement that the threat of the so called ‚brain drain’, i.e. the emigration of specialists, shall not be seen as country-specific. Javier Pérez de Vargas Cabrero, General Manager of the Real Academia de Ingeniería in Spain emphasizes the importance of positioning Europe as attractive working location and by that avoiding a migration to e.g. the United States of America.

As quick as the digitalization proceeds, the better Europe can only jointly compete within the international contest, highlighted also by Dr. Detlef Eckert from the European Commission and responsible for Employment Policies, Social affairs and Integration.

Dr. Andreas Goerdeler, Head of the Directorate Information Society; Media of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, supplemented that in addition to the actual content also language courses are important in order to facilitate the young workforce with the integration at its workplace as well as establishing private relationships. Work is simply not all in life.

Dr. Bernd Welz underlined that is above all important to open up the Academy Cube for new partners and innovative content to prepare students for the flexible and constantly changing working environment.

In this spirit, SAP prepared already the next evolutionary step of the Academy Cube: The Handover of the platform to a neutral carrier.

As of April, the future operator will be responsible for the infrastructure and content. However, SAP remains one of the most important promoters.

Javier Pérez de Vargas Cabrero, RAI ; Dr. Andreas Goerdeler, BMWi; Dr. Bernd Welz, SAP; Dr. Kay P. Hradilak, SAP; Prof. Dr. Heimo H. Adelsberger, UDE

Ignacio Sánchez de Lerín, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Spain in Germany

Prof. Dr. Heimo H. Adelsberger, UDE; Dr. Andreas Goerdeler, BMWi; Dr. Detlef Eckert, European Commission; Dr. Bernd Welz, SAP; Javier Pérez de Vargas Cabrero, RAI; Boris von Chlebowski, Accenture

Dr. Andreas Goerdeler, BMWi; Dr. Detlef Eckert, European Commission; Dr. Bernd Welz, SAP; Javier Pérez de Vargas Cabrero, RAI

Dr. Andreas Goerdeler, BMWi; Dr. Kay P. Hradilak, SAP; Dr. Bernd Welz, SAP; Prof. Dr. Heimo H. Adelsberger, UDE; Dr. Detlef Eckert, European Commission; Javier Pérez de Vargas Cabrero, RAI; Boris von Chlebowski, Accenture

Juan Pablo Garcia-Berdoy Cerezo, Ambassador of Spain

Report by the Spanish Embassy in Berlin: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Embajadas/BERLIN/en/Noticias/Pages/Articulos/20140402_NOT2.aspx

Further information: www.academy-cube.eu