FormaOcupa will host 80 companies and entities and nearly 150 activities

The trade show will take place from 26 to 28 February at the Fira de Lleida exhibition centre

The Lleida Training and Employment Trade Show has planned Speed Job Dating for Friday, a morning of rapid job interviews with companies from various sectors

The Fira de Lleida exhibition centre will host from 26 to 28 February the 19th edition of FormaOcupa, a trade show that will bring together a total of 80 companies and entities related to training and employment and nearly 150 activities, including lectures, workshops, demonstrations and other initiatives. It is worth noting that 40 companies will be present at the trade show with concrete job offers, more than 100 in total, in addition to those from the Municipal Employment Institute and the Catalan Employment Service.

With the participation of vocational training centres, universities, academies and companies, the trade show will offer guidance and academic and professional advice for young people, families and adults. People seeking more information, wishing to see all activities, consult job offers and request appointments with exhibiting companies can do so through the website www.formaocupa.com. The trade fair hours, which will have free access, will run from 9:30 to 19:00 (Thursday) and from 9:30 to 14:00 (Friday and Saturday).

The Lleida Training and Employment Trade Show registers in this edition an expansion of exhibition spaces with the new Hall 5, which joins Halls 3 and 4 and the outdoor area. Hall 3 will host this year the demonstrations space, while visitor access will be via Camí de Picos. On Friday, Speed Job Dating will take place, a morning of rapid job interviews with companies from various sectors. Saturday is set up as a specialised day for guidance and professional future, with academic and employment guidance tables, as well as self-employment and entrepreneurship advice, aimed at young people, families and adults.

FormaOcupa offers employment opportunities with companies from various sectors that will interview candidates and seek professional profiles and also focuses on promoting entrepreneurship, with information and advice for launching own projects; on vocational training and professional qualifications, aimed at unemployed people and workers, and on continuous training for active workers, aimed at broadening skills and improving business competitiveness.

Joan Talarn, president of the Diputació de Lleida, made three reflections on FormaOcupa. First, he stated that "it is a very important trade show, because it is the way to have talent in the territory, and without talent we have no future and without training there will be no opportunities". Secondly, he said it is a trade show that is contextualised "in a process of economic transformation of the entire province, in which we need modern, flexible vocational training, connected to companies and adapted to the professional profiles we are seeking, a transformation aimed above all at areas such as the bioeconomy, digitalisation and energy resources". And finally, he added that this transformation is possible thanks to collaboration between administrations, which is realised in projects such as the G10, which has precisely created a working committee focused on vocational training.

Talarn added that the Diputació de Lleida, through the Board for Economic Promotion and with the collaboration of the regional councils, will facilitate free transport for students from the comarques of Lleida, Pirineus and Aran so that they can attend the trade show.

For his part, Jaume Saltó, president of the Lleida Chamber of Commerce, stressed that apart from the area of guidance on vocational training, the trade show is the ideal space where labour supply and demand meet and where visitors can find information on continuous training, "a very important aspect since technological innovations are changing the way we work". Saltó also stressed that it is essential to "create and retain talent" and added that the quality of life of the Lleida province and its privileged geographical location are causing many Lleida residents who had left to work elsewhere, for example in Barcelona, to now be returning to the Lleida counties.

In the same vein, Pilar Bosch, councillor for Culture and City Promotion at the Ajuntament de Lleida, stated that the trade show "is part of the global territory strategy for generating talent so that the right to remain and live here can be exercised" since the city and territory of Lleida "offer everything a citizen might need, and from there "the challenge we are facing today is the challenge of talent". She also highlighted that FormaOcupa is a good example of collaboration between the public and private spheres, since in addition to institutions it registers the presence of companies that present concrete job offers.

Finally, Bosch explained that this year "we wanted to section the three days of the trade show to organise the topics: Thursday will focus on training, Friday on employment and Saturday will be aimed at family audiences to reinforce labour and educational guidance".

Vocational training data in Catalonia and Lleida
Ricard Coma, director general of Guidance and Integration of Vocational Training, provided data on vocational training in Catalonia and Lleida. Thus, he explained that last academic year in Catalonia 13,000 more students enrolled than the previous year, and that in the last 5 academic years (from 2021 to 2025) applications to pursue vocational training increased by 47% in Intermediate Level and 38% in Advanced Level. In this period, the supply of places in the two levels increased by 33% and 19.5% respectively. Currently, in Catalonia there are around 140,000 vocational training students, counting studies at Basic, Intermediate and Advanced levels and specialisation courses, and more than 200,000 if we also include professionalising education in the artistic, sports and other fields.

In Lleida, in the period 2021-2025 the supply of places grew by 10% and the number of groups increased by 12%, growth focused on sectors considered most relevant for the Lleida economy, such as manufacturing, technology, tourism and, above all, agribusiness.

According to Coma, for the 2026-2027 academic year in Catalonia around 200 new groups of organic growth will be consolidated. At Lleida level "we will readjust this supply based on new needs and opportunities, which will allow between 150 and 170 places in sectors such as electronics, energy, installation and maintenance and agribusiness to be adjusted to the new needs we have detected". Overall, Lleida has more than 8,500 places, of which 52% are in the first year of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced levels, in 20 centres and 23 vocational training families, with nearly 180 different qualifications covering 10 different economic sectors.

The director general stated that the importance of this trade show lies in the fact that "it is a space where an inalienable right of the young student can be exercised, which is guidance, guidance that concerns three areas: self-knowledge (preferences, aptitudes and abilities of the person), knowledge of the environment (the relationship between education and the labour demands of companies) and support in decision-making, in which the family also plays a basic role".

Coma recalled that the Department of Education will deploy 25 stands and 250 professionals "to assist the more than 5,000 young people we estimate will travel to the trade show" and expressed his conviction that FormaOcupa will attract visitors from the Lleida province but also from neighbouring territories.

The trade show is organised by the Municipal Employment Institute, the Ajuntament de Lleida, the Employment Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya and Fira de Lleida, and counts with the collaboration of the Lleida Chamber of Commerce, the Board for Economic Promotion of the Diputació de Lleida, CCOO, COELL, PIMEC, the Catalan Employment Service (SOC), UGT and the University of Lleida.