Digital and technology school EPITECH expands facilities in Barcelona to train 1,000 new tech professionals in five years

• The training center, which now has facilities of 1,000 m², was established in 2017 in Barcelona’s 22@ district and has so far trained 400 students

• To open the center in Catalonia, EPITECH received the support of Catalonia Trade & Investment, the agency for business competitiveness of the Department of Business and Labour

• The Secretary of Business and Competitiveness, Albert Castellanos, said during the inauguration of the new facilities that “it is key to stimulate the generation of technical talent in Catalonia, which is a great asset to continue attracting investment projects and make our startup ecosystem grow”

The French school EPITECH (European Institute of Technology) has expanded its facilities in Barcelona’s 22@ district intending to double the training capacity of students with digital and technological profiles in the next five years.

The center, which offers official European higher education lasting up to five years, now has an area of ​​1,000m² and plans to train 1,000 new students by 2027. To open the center in Catalonia in 2017, EPITECH received the support of Catalonia Trade & Investment.

During the inauguration of the new facilities, the Secretary of Business and Competitiveness, Albert Castellanos, said: “For Catalonia, it is very important to have institutions such as EPITECH , which promote the development of technology and digital talent, one of the great sources of competitiveness of our economy”.

"Talent has become the main asset of our country both to help grow local startup ecosystem and digital companies, and to continue to attract foreign technology investment projects," he added.

In this sense, Castellanos pointed out that 67% of the jobs created in Catalonia last year through foreign investment projects managed by Catalonia Trade & Investment were in the technology field.

"Every year we find more projects that demand professionals in the ICT: projects such as EPITECH are key to continue stimulating the generation of tech talent in Catalonia," said the Secretary of Business and Competitiveness.

The event, which also celebrated the school’s fifth anniversary in Barcelona, ​​was also attended by the Director General of EPITECH in Spain, Xavier Núñez, and the Consul General of France, Olivier Ramaodur.

Núñez stated: "With this expansion and renovation of the campus, EPITECH hopes to consolidate its growth in Barcelona to train more than 1,000 students over the next five years", which would double the figures achieved by now.

Another of the objectives of the school is to "contribute to eliminating the gender gap in training in the tech and digital fields". Nuñez expects to reach a ratio close to 30% this year of women enrolled in the new promotion of the Degree and Master’s in Computer Science, the school’s training of reference.

Founded in 1999 in France, EPITECH is a leading higher education institution in its country, specializing in information technology, technological innovation, and software development for over 20 years.

The school is committed to a very practical methodology based on project-based learning and active pedagogy, offering students training from courses such as web development boot camp.

Over the years, the students of this center have been able to work with highly recognized companies in the sector and have favored the signing of more than 65 agreements with companies established in Catalonia.

EPITECH is currently one of the most important IT institutions in Europe and has a network of more than 5,500 students spread across 20 campuses located in Germany, France, Belgium, and Catalonia.

EPITECH has received support from Catalonia Trade & Investment, which works from Barcelona, and the network of 40 Foreign Trade and Investment Offices in the world to attract new foreign investment projects in Catalonia while at the same time advising foreign companies to facilitate the process of investment.