The rector of the University of Barcelona and member of the Institute of Neurosciences (UBneuro), Joan Guàrdia, and the CEO of Inditex, Óscar García Maceiras.
The University of Barcelona and Inditex have launched the UB–Inditex Chair of Professional Integration of People with Intellectual Disabilities, a new initiative that aims to promote training programs and foster research into the social and labour inclusion of this group.
The first training programme, focused on shop operational management skills, will begin in April and run until the end of October. It will help participants gain key skills to facilitate their incorporation into the fashion industry.
The Chair will also support research on competences, barriers, and facilitators influencing the training and recruitment of people with intellectual disabilities. The results will inform social agents and institutions committed to improving professional inclusion, and will contribute to the development of new teaching and inclusion methodologies.
At the presentation of the Chair held in the Aula Ramón y Cajal of the Historic Building of the UB, Óscar García Maceiras, CEO of Inditex, emphasized that “The inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace is a priority in our commitment to people. Through this collaboration with the UB, we continue to promote employability and integration, contributing to a more accessible and inclusive environment for all.”
Joan Guàrdia, rector of the UB, welcomed the start of this collaboration between the University and the company: “The aim of a public university is to make use of its transformative power. Our classrooms make educated citizens with critical skills who are part of the capital of a country. No one is excluded from this transformative process. It is this transformative capacity that defines our will to remain, and this chair is a good example of it”.
The president of the UB’s Board of Trustees, Joan Corominas, said that this Chair “fits perfectly with the objectives of university boards of trustees”, and hoped this to be “the first step in a long and lasting relationship between university and business”.
The UB-Inditex Chair is affiliated to the UB’s Faculty of Psychology and is led by Maria Carbó, lecturer in the Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology at the centre and member of UBneuro, who states that “this Chair will have a significant impact on the evolution of the social model that has defined intellectual disability throughout history”. “It will be a determining action to advance towards inclusion and will contribute to the evolution of the models of care for this group in our country”, she adds.
One of the UB’s priorities is the promotion of an inclusive and quality university, in accordance with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The UB–Inditex Chair reflects the shared values of both institutions — diversity, inclusion, and social responsibility — and strengthens UBneuro’s mission to connect neuroscience research with the understanding and improvement of people’s lives.
