NEWS

In a context shaped by digital transformation, demographic shifts, and a constantly evolving sports industry, the training of future professionals requires educational models adapted to today’s realities. Escola Vitae emerges as an innovative proposal within the educational sector, offering programs focused on a direct connection with the job market and the challenges of the future.

We speak with Roger Saladich, Co-CEO of Vitae, a school specialized in the fields of sports and health, which has been offering official and in-house qualifications for over fifteen years through an immersive pedagogical approach. We explore the origins of the initiative, how they integrate technology and personal competencies into their programs, and the steps they are taking to establish themselves as a leading institution in shaping the next generation of professionals in the sector.

Where did the need to create the company come from?

Vitae was born out of a desire to contribute an innovative proposal within the field of sport and health education. From the very beginning, we aimed to offer a different perspective — training with a strong connection to the reality of the sector, which is undergoing constant changes, mainly linked, in our opinion, to technological developments, globalisation, and demographic shifts. For this reason, a unique pedagogical model was needed — one that is immersive in the sports industry and capable of responding to the current times and the challenges of the future.

Your training offer aims to address the needs of the sports industry in adapting to digital transformation. What training programs do you offer, and who are they aimed at?

Our starting point is all the official qualifications in the sport and health sector. For over fifteen years, we’ve been offering Vocational Training Courses in the Physical Activity and Sports Professional Family, which are taught in the five schools we operate across Catalonia and Navarra. In the 2024/25 academic year, we launched a Bachelor's Degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences through our University School, affiliated with Abat Oliba CEU University. This year, we are opening a new school in central Barcelona with studies from the healthcare professional family.

Looking ahead to the 2026/27 academic year, we will expand this official training offer with our own qualifications, to provide the industry with more specialised training.

In all of these programs, aiming to meet the needs of the sector, we include a strong focus on technology and personal skills.

You have your own training methodology. What does it consist of?

If we wanted to respond to the changes and challenges of the sector, we believed we needed our own methodology — the “Vitae Method” — which allows us to adapt and evolve it year after year to match the sector’s reality.

The model is built on three very basic concepts: reality, doing, and improving. In short, the first pillar, “reality”, is about working with what is currently happening in the sector, as well as addressing immediate and future challenges. The second, “doing”, is based on the idea that practice should come before theory, as a strategy to support learning. Lastly, “improving” relies on the concept that the entire method functions like a scientific method, under the motto: “What cannot be measured, cannot be improved.”

What strategies do you use to ensure that the knowledge of your experts reaches students in a clear and useful way?

Undoubtedly, this is one of the major challenges we face in academic institutions: how to transfer training to the classroom in a way that not only helps students integrate more effectively into the industry, but also equips companies with professionals who can help them move forward and reach their goals. Achieving this requires close collaboration between academic institutions and industry players.

As we mentioned earlier, our own method allows us to systematise the academic plan. From the three pillars of the method, several variables arise. For example, when hiring teachers, we prioritise active professionals who can bring the current reality of the sector directly to the students. Another element is infrastructure: in Vocational Training, we prioritise schools that deliver most of their academic programme in sports facilities, which creates an immersive learning experience where students spend much of their day alongside members and users of the facility. Regarding equipment, we invest continuously or partner with leading companies in their respective sectors to ensure students work with the same tools and technologies they will find in the industry. Our curricula are up to date, with a forward-looking approach and current learning outcomes.

What trends are you seeing in student or professional behaviour that could influence the future of the sports and health industries?

Among students, we see a generation that has grown up with digitalisation, but this doesn’t always translate into the specific skills that companies need. This presents one of the main challenges we face in education: transforming these digital habits and knowledge into productive tools with added value for businesses and institutions.

Regarding active professionals, their challenges are often similar to ours as educators and institutional leaders — we are part of an analogue generation trying to make sense of where these technological changes are heading. Our role is to maintain a forward-looking approach and provide updated programs that help these professionals reconnect with developments in the sector.

Overall, we’re optimistic. There’s certainly a lot of work to do, and in a globalised world we can’t only look inward — there are great initiatives happening elsewhere. But we believe we have all the right ingredients to continue being a global leader in the sports industry, and we must not allow the current technological revolution to leave us behind or make us lose our competitive edge. We’re confident we’ll do it well.

What is the most important challenge you face in the short term? And in the long term, what are your main goals?

In the short term, we’re working on two major projects. One is to fully develop the University School of Sport, led by the Bachelor's Degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, but also by expanding our portfolio of master’s degrees and our own courses, and enriching its ecosystem (including collaborations with companies in the sector, internationalisation, and more). The other is to consolidate and expand our Healthcare Vocational Training so it can reach the same level as our sport-related education.

In the long term, in terms of sport, our goal is to become a European benchmark training centre, with the capacity to train professionals beyond our borders and help shape the future of the industry.

At INDESCAT we promote collaboration between companies. What kind of businesses do you think you could create synergies with, and why?

Our vision of sport and health is very cross-disciplinary, so we’re interested in exploring synergies with all types of companies. At present, we’re particularly focused on collaborating with companies in the audiovisual and technology sectors — the former to find distribution and communication partners to reach new audiences, and the latter to stay constantly at the cutting edge of the sector.

What do you think being part of a cluster like INDESCAT brings to your organisation?

First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on your work. We believe INDESCAT plays a crucial role in the sector, combining long-term strategic vision with the day-to-day realities of the organisations involved.

Being part of INDESCAT offers us the chance to grow through networking, access strategic knowledge, and share experiences with other stakeholders in the sector. It’s an opportunity to innovate together, create real impact, and actively contribute to the development and positioning of our industry at both national and international levels.