Rodes Lab Drives Talent Retention in Alcoy Through Collaboration with Innovators
The inaugural Rodes Lab session brings together universities, training centers, and businesses to connect local talent with job opportunities.
By Pau Ferrer Castelló
••3 min read
AI
Generic image of a modern coworking space with professionals collaborating, Mediterranean architecture, and natural light.
The Rodes Urban Technology Park hosted the first Rodes Lab session, an initiative focused on strengthening the connection between talent educated in Alcoy and job opportunities within the city.
The first session of Rodes Lab, held last Friday, October 23rd, at the Rodes Urban Technology Park, marked the beginning of a collaborative work initiative focused on talent retention in Alcoy. The meeting brought together a broad representation of key players in the city and region's innovation ecosystem, including universities, training centers, technology institutes, and business entities.
Under the slogan «Rodes, Alcoy's Engine of Innovation», the project aims to establish the Technology Park as a crucial space for meeting and joint work, with the goal of defining concrete proposals that foster the connection between education and employment opportunities, thereby encouraging young people to develop their future projects in the city.
The event saw participation from entities such as AITEX, AIJU, the Universitat Politècnica de València, the Universitat d'Alacant, the Escola d’Art i Superior de Disseny d’Alcoi, IES Cotes Baixes, CIPFP Batoi, the Chamber of Commerce, FEDAC, JOVEMPA, Innovall, EMSA, Impact Hub Alicante, and Supra Legit, in addition to the Alcoy City Council.
The discussion centered on how to ensure that talent educated in Alcoy finds sufficient opportunities within the city, addressing potential mismatches between offered training and business needs, as well as factors influencing young people's decisions to stay or leave. The need for greater collaboration between educational centers, universities, technology institutes, and companies was emphasized to promote knowledge transfer and anticipate required professional competencies.
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"One of Rodes Lab's great successes is precisely bringing together the academic world, businesses, technology centers, and institutions around the same table to [identify] concerns, identify needs, and, above all, build joint solutions. Alcoy has extraordinary potential in training, knowledge, and business capacity, and we must be able to connect all these resources so they translate into more innovation, more competitiveness, and more opportunities."
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"We cannot settle for training qualified professionals only for them to seek their future elsewhere. We must work to ensure Alcoy can retain that talent, but also attract new talent and generate it. This will only be possible if we achieve that education, research, and business needs advance hand in hand."
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"The retention of local talent is one of our essential objectives, and therefore, we work in coordination with the city's educational centers, such as the university, the Escola d’Art, and vocational training centers. We must facilitate that the talent trained in Alcoy can develop its professional future here, and in that sense, it is fundamental to connect this talent with the business fabric."
The importance of creating conditions for talent to remain in the city, attracting new talent, and generating it was highlighted, which will only be possible if education, research, and business needs advance together. Initiatives such as Alcoi Talent i Disseny and Caixa Negra are already implementing this connection between training, creative talent, and businesses.
Rodes Lab will continue in November with two new sessions. On Friday, November 6th, business innovation will be discussed, and on Friday, November 20th, the focus will be on entrepreneurship and the role of the Technology Park in driving new business projects. The conclusions from each meeting will serve as a starting point for the next, in a continuous process to identify shared challenges and build joint proposals.
Based on information from the official source: Ajuntament d'Alcoi (26/10/2026)
