Álvaro Mayor, the Water School and the recruitment of talent

Álvaro Mayor is the academic director of the Water School, whose mission is to capitalize on AGBAR’s knowledge in water management and attract talent. A complicated job, given that vocations in the technical and industrial area are a minority option among today’s young people. AGBAR offers positions in the middle and upper levels and supplies water to Barcelona and its metropolitan area. We talk about all this with Álvaro.

The chemical engineer who landed in Catalonia

A chemical engineer by training, he came to Barcelona to finish his training as an engineer on the Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering at the UPC. From there, he contacted a company in the AGBAR group where he spent a few years doing an internship. Later, he himself proposed to do an industrial doctorate at CETAQUA based on one of the projects he was developing. CETAQUA is the water technology centre created in 2007 by Aigües de Barcelona, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the Spanish National Research Council.

The main function of CETAQUA is to promote the sustainable management of water resources, as well as environmental, economic and social sustainability. Álvaro stayed there for seven years and from there he moved to the Water School as academic manager.

The Water School is based on the experience of more than 150 years in the management of the integral water cycle. In this way, Agbar puts its experience at the service of professionals in the sector, public administration and companies. The aim is to help them in its process of ecological transformation.

Specifically, at the Water School, Álvaro coordinates the creation of training content and the development of new training products. It coordinates the experts who must provide the contents, which implies having to know the entire water cycle for effective coordination.

The key: career guidance

We asked Álvaro about the policy or strategy to attract talent. He quickly mentions his strategic plan to encourage vocational training at all levels or training stages. Thus, they already have an impact in primary schools, when children are between 6 and 7 years old, presenting and explaining the water cycle.

Currently, the Water School is also influencing secondary education with a program of talks. Likewise, there is also an impact on vocational training by giving talks in high schools with network operators, for example. Likewise, dual vocational training is also facilitated, which combines study with professional internships. Specifically, in the following Training Cycles:

• Intermediate Level Training Cycle in Water Treatment Networks and Plants
• Higher Level Training Cycle in Water Management

And, at the university level, they try to attract engineering profiles and more transversal profiles such as finance or human resources, which are also needed. In short, the Water School programs a wide range of training. More specifically, it includes training for senior management, master’s degrees, postgraduate modules, continuing education, MOOCs and training for professional qualification.

The experience with the BEST Foundation

Companies that decide to collaborate with the BEST Foundation have different alternatives to do so. To date, Agbar has participated in the Enterprise Challenge, a challenge that first-year GTIAE students must overcome. Agbar has been participating in the Enterprise Challenge for six editions and they are very happy about it. Agbar sees it as a very valuable experience due to the proximity and contact that students get with the company. When they present the solutions they have worked on in the Enterprise Challenge, it is clear that the GTIAE students are highly prepared.

On the other hand, Álvaro highlights that the students of the GTIAE have a very good predisposition and commitment to get involved in the challenges. They also show great personal potential to imagine solutions and put them into practice. For Agbar, this is a way of exploring solutions that, on the other hand, the company does not have time to devote to in its day-to-day work. Therefore, it is a double win.

Additionally, Álvaro reflects that they only collaborate with the BEST Foundation in this initiative, and that perhaps they could consider a Focus Day or professional internships. In this regard, he explains that on the day of the last edition of the Enterprise Challenge he was accompanied by a human resources person from Agbar. The objective was to explore the possibility of offering internships to GTIAE students.

On the other hand, it is very positive to know the other companies that collaborate with the BEST Foundation. It is possible to know their challenges, the solutions they provide, their talent recruitment strategies, etc.

Concrete solutions, future projects

We asked Álvaro about the solution developed in this year’s Enterprise Challenge and its value for Agbar. The team of students developed a chatbot with generative artificial intelligence to solve technical questions about the Water School, its operation and the contents it offers. They were technical questions already integrated into their computer system. The result was a functional chat that is very good. Agbar provided the corresponding advice, resulting in a product that can now be deployed and is a solution that adds a lot of value to them.

The Enterprise Challenge is still a competition. Thus, Álvaro tells us that in the evaluation of the proposals perhaps it is not necessary to value so much having typed code in the formulation of the solution. As programming evolves, knowledge of how to program is less and less relevant because coding is already accessible in integrated packages. In his solution, it was not necessary to type code. Therefore, it seems logical that the usefulness or final impact of the solution to the challenge should be valued more than the programming task.

As possible ideas for the future that should be evaluated to make the collaboration with the BEST Foundation more robust, Álvaro points out the following:

• If possible, the Enterprise Challenge should have a longer duration.
• To take the Enterprise Challenge to the European level.
• Maintain and expand contacts between companies.
• Agbar has recently signed for the Master’s Degree in Water Engineering in dual mode. This is a possibility that the BEST Foundation could explore.

Thank you very much, Álvaro, for your involvement and willingness to share.

And a lot of success in the search for talent for the water cycle and the environment!