Vocational training centers (FP) and companies are urging the Generalitat to solve the management of Social Security registrations and contributions for intern students, which are mandatory as of January 1. The institutes want to have it resolved before Wednesday because the holidays begin on Thursday from which they do not return until January 8.
They see the administrative management of all students as unaffordable before that date and fear not being able to deal with the cases that may arise. At the moment, they have requested the Social Security number of the young people.
The measure, which incorporates the days contributed to working life, affects students in unpaid internships who have started this period in 2023 and end it in 2024, as well as those who already start it in 2024, as announced yesterday The vanguard. Specifically, it is applied in the training module in work centers of basic, intermediate and higher degree training cycles, specialization courses, specific itineraries and training and insertion programs. In Catalonia there are about 150,000 students with these profiles.
The companies, for their part, want the administration to assume the management and cost of the students because they would sooner terminate the agreements with the educational centers than run the risk of committing an illegality. “We have received emails informing us that the agreement will be terminated if we do not discharge the student,” explains Ester Giró, coordinator of the La Guineueta institute, with 1,700 students. “We believe that there are also small business owners who ignore the measure,” she adds.
“The regulations indicate that the legal responsibility falls on the companies,” says Silvia Miró, director of employment and training policies for small and medium-sized companies (Pimec), “but since students are dependent on the educational system, the administration can take charge of management, and I think that is what will happen,” he confides. If this is the case, and it is considered “administration personnel”, the regulations would allow more time to regularize the registrations, 30 more days, explains Miró. Some companies or businesses, now committed to training future workers, could stop offering these opportunities if bureaucracy became complicated.
“There are sectors where microenterprises have a high representation, with difficulty in increasing complexity in their already complicated survival, and this measure (from the start) has scared them,” says Alberto Vilà, director of the ITB institute. In your sector, technology, there is demand and bureaucracy takes over. “At mid-level, the productive sector does not look for such young people. The internships are carried out mainly in public organizations.”
“At the Bonanova Institute it is solved,” explains its director, Montse Blanes. Every month, the data of the students who go on internships will be passed to the Hospital del Mar and they will carry out the procedures. “The hospital is very committed to us and considers the students as its own.”
The Department of Education has informed the institutes that it will send a clear instruction on Monday. “We are working on several negotiations at the same time,” sources from the ministry told this newspaper yesterday. “We cannot get ahead of events,” they added.
On Monday, the regional administrations meet with the Ministry of Education and FP, from which they will ask for a new moratorium on the application of this rule. Some communities, such as Madrid and Castilla y León, have decided to assume the management and cost (100% bonus in the first year). The Balearic Islands, Valencia and Murcia are evaluating this possibility, while Cantabria could outsource it to the Cepyme employer association.
Educational centers, companies and unions consider that the measure is positive for students, despite the anguish that its application is causing.
“It is unfortunate that, knowing that it came into force on October 1, the date was postponed to January 1, and no one has taken the matter seriously,” says Jesús Martín, head of FP at UGT. He sets his sights on the ministry and companies. Wasn't it the FP legislature for this Government? And don't companies want well-trained workers? he asks.
From CC.OO., Xavier Pérez believes that the administration should assume management in a simple way and “not force educational centers to rush through the last few days, with improvisation,” he says.
