On July 28, 2026, Andalusia’s ministers for Employment, Enterprise and Self-Employment, Rocío Blanco, and for University, Industry, Energy and Innovation, Jorge Paradela, laid the first stone of the future Andalusia Aerospace Reference Centre in Jerez de la Frontera. The project will transform the town’s former Public Employment Training Centre, which has been underused since 2017. The restored site will include classrooms intended to train an average of 630 professionals a year for the aerospace sector. Jerez Mayor María José García-Pelayo also attended the event.
Led by the Regional Ministry of Employment, Enterprise and Self-Employment, the project has an initial budget of €7.6 million from the Just Transition Fund. Contractor Vivendio Sostenibilidad Energética expects the renovation to take at least 10 months, two months less than the initial estimate. The schedule would allow the centre to become operational in the second half of 2027.
Once completed, the centre will have 13 classrooms and deliver 42 annual course editions covering 13 professional certificates. All will be linked to aerospace and to the occupational fields of mechanical manufacturing, commerce and marketing, and electricity and electronics.
Blanco said the project would change the range of training available in Jerez, Cádiz province and Andalusia. She described the centre as a way to put public resources back in service of residents by helping workers gain skills to improve their prospects in the labour market. She also said the training would help connect people with employers’ needs.
Blanco cited more than €18 million invested in training initiatives in Jerez over the past seven years. She also referred to a second call for a programme offering training in aerospace-related activities, open until July 31. The programme has €2.1 million in funding, 29% more than the previous edition, and is expected to directly benefit 795 unemployed people. Its stated aim is to train more than 2,600 future workers in Cádiz, Málaga and Seville provinces by 2027.
Paradela said the aerospace industry recorded turnover of more than €3.2 billion. In 2025, it added 900 direct jobs, bringing employment to 16,391, according to the figures he cited. He said around 40% of those jobs are held by vocational training graduates and operators, and that the sector is seeking new qualified workers.
Paradela also pointed to projects associated with the Net Zero Aeronautical Hub, which he said would support Jerez’s development as an innovation centre focused on sustainable aviation. The initiative, run by his ministry through the Just Transition Fund, has provisionally approved incentives for aerospace projects representing more than €40 million in industrial investment.