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- Within the framework of the III Conference on Challenges of Public Administrations in Innovation and Training organized by ODILO, public representatives have discussed the need to strengthen training and continuous training policies as a key element to boost employability, improve the match between job supply and demand and facilitate the reincorporation into the labor market of groups with greater difficulties in accessing the labor market.
- The event was attended by representatives of different autonomous communities, such as the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Employment of the Community of Madrid, the Ministry of Employment, Enterprise and Self-Employment of the Junta de Andalucía and the Vice-Ministry of Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands.
From left to right: Mercedes Marín, General Director of Training of the Community of Madrid; María Victoria Martín-Lomeña, Secretary General of the Public Employment and Training Service of the Regional Government of Andalusia, and Isabel León Villalobos, Deputy Minister of Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands.
Madrid, 21 May 2026.- Professional training and coordination between Public Administrations and companies are consolidated as strategic elements to improve employability in a context of transformation of the labour market, marked by the constant change of professional profiles, the need for continuous updating of skills and the growing difficulty in matching supply and demand for employment.
This was made clear during the round table “Training and innovation to boost talent in employment”, held within the framework of the III Conference on Challenges of Public Administrations in Innovation and Training, organized by ODILO in collaboration with AWS.
The debate brought together Mercedes Marín, General Director of Training of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Employment of the Community of Madrid; María Victoria Martín-Lomeña, Secretary General of the Public Service of Employment and Training of the Junta de Andalucía; and Isabel León Villalobos, Deputy Minister of Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands, who agreed on the need to move towards more flexible, personalised and coordinated models between different areas of the administration, as well as to strengthen collaboration with the business fabric to better adjust training to the real needs of the labour market.
Real opportunities for no one to be left behind
One of the main challenges identified during the round table was the need to improve the information available on the labour market and its evolution, as well as the adaptation of active employment policies to groups with greater difficulties in insertion.
“The challenge is the lack of professionals. We have done a listening job and everyone agrees on the lack of trained personnel for certain positions,” said Isabel León Villalobos, Deputy Minister of Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands, who explained that the Canary Islands are promoting sectoral agreements and specific training programs together with companies to respond to these needs.
Along these lines, Mercedes Marín, General Director of Training of the Community of Madrid, underlined the importance of the personalization of the training offer and continuous training as the structural axis of the new employment model. “We have a pool of people over 45 years of age who represent a very large percentage of the total number of unemployed people and it is necessary to motivate them and offer them training adapted to their circumstances,” he said, also highlighting the need for coordination between Administrations to improve employability.
From Andalusia, María Victoria Martín-Lomeña, Secretary General of the Public Employment and Training Service of the Junta de Andalucía, has valued the role of training as a tool to strengthen the productive fabric and respond to the real needs of the economic sectors, through the so-called Singular Projects, aimed at strategic sectors such as the naval sector, the aerospace industry or green hydrogen, which will train more than 20,000 people between 2024 and 2027.
Likewise, the participants agreed on the importance of strengthening collaboration between Public Administrations, companies and different levels of government as a lever to improve the effectiveness of employment policies, anticipate the needs of the labour market and design training itineraries more adjusted to the productive reality.
Vocational training as a lever for employability
During the meeting, the Public Administrations also agreed on the importance of lifelong learning so as not to fall behind the requirements of the current business fabric. On this point, Sarah Harmon, CEO of ODILO, commented that “AI and changes in the labour market are advancing at a dizzying pace, making continuous learning a structural necessity“. To which he added that “we are obliged to update citizen skills constantly” to ensure that no one is left behind.
In this scenario, Vocational Training emerges as the definitive transformative axis that directly connects education with the needs of companies, supported by strong investment, highly specialized teacher training (in areas such as AI or cybersecurity) and the involvement of the entire community, including families. In this sense, Esther Monterrubio, Secretary General of Vocational Training of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, has claimed the consolidation of dual vocational training, due to its ability to “reach the classroom, the workshop and the laboratory, but also the company“, reinforcing the role of this modality of study as a lever for training, job creation and impact on the economy: “It is a real education, which reinforces the co-responsibility between the center and the company to train competent people, capable of joining real work environments and of continuing to learn and adapt.”
In addition, he pointed out that the Executive has made a cumulative investment of 7,400 million euros, that there are currently more than 1.2 million students studying vocational training, that there are more than 12,000 training itineraries, and more than 400 research and innovation projects developed together with companies.
An unmissable event in the calendar for the Administrations
For her part, Ainhoa Marcos, VP of Public Sector and Education at ODILO, said that “if we have learned anything in these years, it is that the great challenges we face cannot be solved in isolation. We need collaboration. We need to share knowledge. And we need to build bridges between the public and private sectors to promote projects that really generate an impact on people’s lives.”
With this purpose, the III Conference on Challenges of Public Administrations in Innovation and Training of ODILO has been consolidated as a meeting space between institutional leaders in the field of education, employment and social impact.
Representatives of different national and regional administrations have participated in this third edition, sharing experiences and lines of action around the transformation of public education, employment and social systems. At the table ‘New strategies for educational digitalisation and continuous learning’, officials from the Regional Government of Extremadura, the Government of Cantabria and the Xunta de Galicia took part, focusing on educational digitalisation and continuous learning; at the table on ‘Training and innovation to promote talent in employment’, representatives of the Community of Madrid, the Regional Government of Andalusia and the Government of the Canary Islands addressed training, professional requalification and the adaptation of talent to the new demands of the labour market; while at the table ‘Maximising the social impact of Public Administrations’, the Region of Murcia, the Government of Andorra and the Generalitat de Catalunya have shared initiatives linked to inclusion, attention to diversity and innovation in public services.
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ODILO is a digital education company that allows any organization to create its own Learning Ecosystem, offering its users unlimited access to the world’s largest catalog of multi-format educational content, and the possibility of creating all kinds of learning experiences without restrictions. More than a thousand platforms have already been created, allowing access to 170 million users on five continents.
ODILO, the largest educational ecosystem in the world, has content agreements with +7300 providers of educational digital content in all formats (courses, interactive applications, videos, podcasts, press, magazines, audiobooks, e-books, etc.)
ODILO is a multi-vertical company, which promotes learning in Private Companies, Public and Private Schools, Public and Private Universities, Certified Vocational Training, Public Administration and Government.
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