After fifteen months with activity paralysed due to health restrictions, students have returned to the Valencian port facilities on the guided tours organised by the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV).
The guided tours are carried out according to very strict protocols: in bubble groups, with no mixing of classes or centres, and access to the points of interest is via alternative entrances to those of the Port workers.
Students are once again touring the Valencian port facilities. After fifteen months of standstill, a total of 20 students of the Master’s Degree in International Maritime Law of the Catholic University of Valencia were able to visit the strategic points of the Port last Tuesday and ask all their doubts about its operation. Today, another group of students from the European University of Valencia did the same, thus recovering what had been normal until the restrictions on public and group events due to COVID-19 began.
The Port of València has resumed the organisation of guided tours; this time, under strict security protocols designed ad hoc by the Port Authority. According to José Martín, communications technician in charge of the visits, “we follow very strict protocols: the visits are in bubble groups, a single class, there is no mixing of educational centres and the accesses and transfers use alternative entrances and routes to those of the PAV workers. Safety first and foremost”.
The route has been simplified to guarantee the safety of the students who visit, on the one hand, the Contradique Sur with a wide panoramic view of the Port and, on the other, the Mirador del Muelle Norte with a good view of the future north terminal. There is also an initial talk explaining how the port works and answering the first doubts of the students. “Until September, the route will only be open to university students and those in specialised training; and from the new academic year onwards, it is planned to resume the visits for schools”, added Martín.
Throughout the month of May and until the end of the educational year, the PAV has scheduled visits to its facilities, thus recovering an activity that is in great demand.
“The students love to visit the port of Valencia. They are impressed by the cranes, the terminals, the cleanliness of the water, the rafts where the typical Valencian clòtxinas are cultivated and the movement of lorries and trains. The port – explains José Martín Robles – is an instrument at the service of export and import. The products that are manufactured in the industrial estates of our towns and villages and what is exhibited in the shops pass through it. During the visits, the students see, see, step on and immerse themselves in a major infrastructure that is essential for the proper functioning of the economy. Everyone is impressed and delighted.
In this sense, in 2019 alone, a total of 10,000 students from 250 schools from all over Spain took this route, including pupils from primary school to the popular university.