There are not enough companies to comply with the new Vocational Training law that requires students, starting next year, to increase the number of hours they must spend in the company training. Minister Anna Simó said it clearly last Monday in the presentation of the study on labor insertion by the Chamber of Commerce: “The educational system will need more companies than ever, from all productive areas, in all parts of the territory and from all the dimensions". Although she did not specify the magnitude of the problem, one can sense its enormity.
The student who was now in the internship company for between 400 and 700 hours of the 2,000 hours that it takes on average to obtain a degree, starting next year will be between 500 and 1,000.
Catalonia has about 200,000 VET students (both in-person and online) and Educació estimates that they will increase their stay in the company by about one hundred hours per student, between the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years. Therefore, if the same number of students as those in this course is maintained, as seems likely, 20 million more hours will be needed in the workplace, spread over two courses. Hours that are not agreed upon right now. In some educational centers consulted, they estimate that they will have to increase the internship time by between 20 and 25 percent more. That is if the more intensive duality modality does not advance, which would be the most desirable.
This need to increase the length of student stay in companies is not sudden. Starting in September, all centers will have to apply the new FP model that came into force with the Spanish law approved in 2022 and whose final application was set for the 2024-2025 academic year.
According to this norm, the entire FP becomes dual, which means that students will alternate their education between the institute and the company, which will be co-responsible for education from the first year. Companies will evaluate the student because they assume the result of their learning in work skills.
The law establishes two types of FP. What is called general, in which the student will spend between 25 and 35 percent of their hours in the company (between a minimum of 500 and a maximum of 700 hours). And the intensive FP, which will be 35 to 50 percent (between 700 and 1,000 hours). In this second case, it charges a fee so it is more difficult to find companies that are committed to training future professionals even if they do not ultimately retain them. In Catalonia, last year 14,000 young people graduated with this modality, according to the general director of FP, Mercè Chacón.
The fact that the student increases the time in the company and part of their learning is carried out there is a system celebrated by everyone: education, companies and unions because they improve their professional skills and their experience in the work field. Large companies have signed up, but the requirement is greater for small companies (some 40,548 participate).
The young person is not a worker but a student who must be trained and evaluated. Some SMEs, distrustful after the obligation to register students with Social Security (this year, the small cost and management is assumed by the administration), view the role of evaluator with some reluctance since it means professionalizing the role somewhat more. that they performed until now. In the case of small businesses, to facilitate the promotion of this system, a shared tutor in a union or several companies is proposed.
With the new law, what can be expected? The Catalan administration believes that companies will extend students' stay periods with those hypothetical 100 extra hours per student. But this contrasts with other visions.
To begin with, they believe that increasing hours is what is in the spirit of the law and is the objective to improve the skills of students. Although it is true that it is achieved by going from 400 to 500 hours, the margin allows us to reach 700.
Likewise, the administration does not seem to contemplate the development of intensive dual vocational training (700 to 1,000 hours).
On the other hand, Educació sources assess the possibility that the increase in hours will occur in the second year of the degree, starting in 2025-2026.
Companies' commitment could be limited by their circumstances. If a hair salon trained two students per course, the increase in hours required with the new law may mean that only one student is left, warns Jesús Martín, from UGT.
In any case, the pressure is on the central managements who must make a living and convince businessmen as they lack a map of resources. Some high school directors, removing drama and understanding that transitions require time to adapt, do believe that many more companies will be needed. And many cases will have to be addressed. “In the end, despite the improvisation, we will come out, as always,” summarizes one director.
The situation affects institutes differently depending on their activity, their location and the ratios (more difficult if they have 33 students). In the health cycles, which are very numerous, the hours in work centers had already been increased so the application of the law does not affect them.
Furthermore, the administration is the main provider of internships with hospitals (in education the same thing happens with educational centers). So the risk of the student paying for the internship is dissipated, as has happened with the private health sector in the Community of Madrid, which has left the public with difficulties.
In other sectors, they do not want to work with minors if it poses an occupational risk (construction sites, laboratories or workshops, for example). Until now, internships were left in the last year, but starting in September there are modules (such as subjects) in the first year that are, in part, evaluated by the company tutor. Therefore, if the student does not do her internship, she will not be able to have grades in June 2024.
This also represents a change for collaborating companies. Until now, students were received after they had accumulated some 1,600 hours of theoretical and practical teaching. Now, they will go to slightly “greener” companies, which will increase dedication.
