The integrated vocational training (FP) offer for the next academic year will be 445,818 places, 6.42% more than the previous academic year. The Minister of Education, Josep González-Cambray, has indicated that it is the highest offer of professional training made to date. In this way he has explained it in an act of the Government to present an unprecedented agreement with the employers and the unions to plan the FP in Catalonia.
Cambray has also commented on the changes in pre-registration and the data to participate in the process and has highlighted that this year will be the first in which all students who do so by ordinary route will have a place assigned before the start of the course.
The increase in FP in the educational field is accompanied by 698 new teachers, who will be added in September to the current 9,390. The growth of places materializes in 3,927 of intermediate degree, 2,937 of superior degree, 400 of FP of basic degree; 295 from the Institut Obert de Catalunya and 270 from training and insertion programs (PFI).
The areas that are growing the most are health, electricity, electricity, commerce and marketing, which were most in demand in the last registration. "We are not only faced with the need to increase jobs, but above all to do so in those sectors with the greatest demand in the labor market and immediate incorporation," Cambray stressed.
One of the novelties of the next course will be the higher level training cycle of Training for safe and sustainable mobility. There will also be new specialization courses, content such as 'Master d'FP', such as Energy Audit, Collaborative Robotics or Remotely Piloted Aircraft, drones, among others.
With regard to dual vocational training, the forecast for the next courses is to reach 14,000 students. The Minister of Education has indicated the average of dual VT in Catalonia is 21.7%, while in the rest of Spain it is 4.8%, and that the objective is to reach 30% of the European average.
The pre-registration for the training cycles is advanced this year and Education is committed to ensuring that all students who participate in the ordinary process can start classes from the first day. "It seems obvious, but that had not happened until now," Cambray pointed out.
In the middle grade cycles there will also be two different processes this course. Preference will be given to students with continuity of schooling, those who come from the fourth year of ESO and PFI and, as a novelty, those from adult training centers and first year of Baccalaureate.
Pre-registration for the middle grade cycles for continuity students will be from April 12 to 18 and, for the rest, from May 9 to 15. With regard to higher grade cycles, pre-registration will be from May 26 to June 1.
Last year, with the application of the preferential access criteria for continuity students, 97.5% of these students entered the cycles that they had requested as the first option, compared to 65% the previous year.
With these changes in pre-registration, the department wants to guarantee educational continuity and fight against school dropout. According to the latest data provided by Education, one in four students in middle grade cycles did not finish the first course (2021-22).
Beyond initial and basic VET, the Government has presented the integrated offer, which includes all vocational training throughout life. It does this through the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC) and the Consortium for Continuing Education of Catalonia (CFCC). The Department of Business and Labor provides an investment of 210 million euros, 30.7% more than last year.
Thus, there will be 243,467 continuing education places and 31,323 professional certificates. In total, the offer of FP places for employment grew by 3.4% to 274,790.
The Government and the trade union and employer organizations have signed the agreement for the planning of professional training to agree on the criteria. The Business Minister, Roger Torrent, has stressed that VT is created to play a decisive role in the "transformation of the productive model".
