The second edition of the APDCAT and EAPC Data Protection Officers Specialized Training Program begins

The director of the Catalan Data Protection Authority (APDCAT), Meritxell Borràs i Solé, and the deputy director general of Research, Innovation and Development of the School of Public Administration of Catalonia (EAPC), Eulàlia Pla Rius, have inaugurated this Friday the second edition of the Specialized Training Program for Data Protection Officers (DPO), which this year is aimed at DPOs at the local level and their public sector.

This training activity, organized jointly by both institutions, aims to provide the DPO with the necessary skills and competencies to ensure advice and supervision of the correct data protection regulations. The aim is also to provide them with the legal and technological knowledge needed to identify and minimize possible risk scenarios for human rights and freedoms. And finally, it seeks to ensure that DPDs acquire the management and leadership skills necessary to perform the assigned functions.

While welcoming new students, Borràs recalled that the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) require entities to make an effective and practical commitment to guaranteeing the right to data protection.

In this line, he stressed that "the top managers of the entities must understand that their responsibility also involves the appointment of a data protection officer who meets the requirements required by law and has the necessary skills to be able to to help the organization to fulfill it”.

These capabilities include, he said, ongoing and specialized training that APDCAT has undertaken, in collaboration with the EAPC, through the Specialized Training Program for Data Protection Officers.

Borràs added that "this training has a desire for continuity and also aspires to create a dynamic study and learning environment that invites debate and deepening in the field of data protection". In short, he concluded, it is about "promoting a network of knowledge that helps all public institutions in guaranteeing the rights of people".

For her part, the EAPC's Deputy Director General for Research, Innovation and Development, Eulàlia Pla Rius, emphasized the importance of solid and dynamic training in a subject such as the right to data protection, which is so closely linked to development. technology in continuous evolution and with a strong impact on people. He also explained the EAPC's desire "to promote and collaborate in all those actions aimed at improving knowledge and specialization in the public sector".

180 theoretical and practical hours

The training, which begins today, will run until early July. The 180-hour course is face-to-face and is developed from theoretical and practical classes distributed in 24 units. Topics covered include the legal framework, principles, data protection rights, agents involved in the processing of personal data, records, or data protection impact assessments. Students will also work on the skills that DPDs need to have, among other issues.

The first edition of this course was held in 2020 and was aimed at data protection delegates of the Generalitat Administration and its public sector.