New spaces for training students and over 3.6 million Euros from the PNRR for technical equipment and new simulators have been made available. The aim is to consolidate the role of the Logistics and Maritime Academy by expanding the post-diploma offer and to provide upskilling and reskilling courses for logistics and maritime workers
Venice, 20 November 2024 – A concession, expiring in 2031, has been granted by the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority to the Higher Technical Institute ITS Marco Polo Academy for the use of four premises in Building 16 in Santa Marta in Venice.
The ITS, that already uses some facilities in the building as offices from where it coordinates its post-diploma course in maritime and airport logistics, will now be able to benefit from more space for student training. The new premises granted by the concession will be used not only as conventional teaching rooms but also to host extremely innovative simulation laboratories for ships, trains and cranes.
The Authority’s aim is to accelerate the training and professionalisation of technicians and managers to secure the skills needed to handle current and future challenges in logistics and port management. Its decision is part of a process aimed at organising and consolidating the Venetian training centre, that also hosts the recently created Academy of Logistics and the Sea stemming from a memorandum of understanding involving not only AdSPMAS and ITS Marco Polo, but also the Venice Maritime School – VeMars.
AdSPMAS President Fulvio Lino Di Blasio has declared: ‘The lagoon ports are the main gateway to international markets for the Veneto Region and its companies: jointly, they constitute the region’s primary employment hub with more than 20 thousand employees. To intensify their high levels of competitiveness, our ports require highly professional skills that can leverage our port community’s know-how and compete with the best international experiences and practices. Granting new premises to expand the learning opportunities provided by ITS Marco Polo is a further step towards the creation of a Logistics and Maritime Academy in Venice. This new port logistics training centre will be of international standing and will be located in an area of the city, the Santa Marta and San Basilio waterfront, which is already characterised by a strong vocation for higher education thanks to the presence of IUAV and Ca‘ Foscari. It is also an area that in the coming years will benefit of a deep redevelopment process that will bring with it more services and a better quality of life for residents, students and workers.’.
The President of ITS Marco Polo Academy Damaso Zanardo stated: ‘The Academy presents itself as a cultural training centre that strives to enhance the reality of the commercial and industrial port by promoting tertiary vocational training. Within its scope, ITS Marco Polo Academy will focus on post-diploma higher education, while CFLI (Intermodal logistics training centre) and VeMars will focus on reskilling and upskilling in the logistics and maritime fields. Venice finally has a training centre that can provide solutions to those seeking to train, retrain or find work in the logistics or maritime segments’.