The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training has today sent to the autonomous communities the draft of the FP curriculum that it wants to take to the Council of Ministers in May for its approval. The curriculum, which is adapted to the new organic law for the Organization and Integration of Vocational Training, approved in March 2022, is a key element in the Government's project to adapt the training of students and workers to the needs of the system productive.
Thus, it defines a model that deploys training offers that are more versatile, flexible, of varied duration and adapted to the needs of each territory. It also involves city councils and gives greater freedom to the autonomous governments to complete the teachings.
Vocational training centers will integrate educational and occupational training, offering both the cycles that are known (intermediate and higher grade) as well as shorter, accreditable and cumulative modules, up to specialization courses (such as master's degrees). The idea is that the centers (and in some cases, town halls, companies and other entities) offer training to all citizens with agile offers according to the business needs of each moment.
Among the novelties of the royal decree of an educational nature, the training cycles, the obligation to carry out part of the training in a company stands out, the offer of double degree degrees (intermediate or higher), single integrated itineraries (basic and intermediate degree for who have not graduated from ESO in four years), recognition of university degree credits and qualifications shared with centers in other countries. More than 1.1 million students are currently enrolled in cycles (22.5% more than three years ago) and this figure is expected to increase given current needs.
Double degrees and internationality.
There will be an offer of two joint degrees that the student can take in a period of three years (if the regional government so decides). The possibility of promoting cycles with a double curriculum, Spanish and another nationality, is also included.
At the Spanish-French summit held recently in Barcelona, the respective Ministries of Education signed an agreement to create binational VET campuses for priority sectors such as industries of the future, the green economy, innovative tourism and agriculture. To this end, alliances will be promoted between the French professions and qualifications campuses and the integrated Spanish FP centers in the same sector.
The objective is to promote exchanges between its students and teachers, as well as exchange good practices.
Catalonia does not yet have regulations on integrated centers, although they plan to publish the decree ordering them soon, as the Department of Education recently reported to this newspaper. Therefore, the Catalan centers will be able to join these programmes.
Training by modules.
A system is established by degrees of professional training (A, B, C, D and E) according to its scope and duration. The modules are cumulative, so that with the sum of several of short duration a higher degree can be obtained, including the training cycles as we understand them up to now.
In this way, students who need more time to complete a cycle or active workers who want to complete training are released.
Likewise, the possibility of compacting training into one or two days a week can facilitate training for active workers. It is also planned to promote online training.
Grade A are microformations that partially accredit a competence.
Grade B fully accredits the competence and has a workload of the corresponding professional module.
Grade C grants a professional certificate in line with the accreditations that the administrations are promoting (more than 10 million people do not have accredited skills acquired through experience and the objective is for them to officially have this recognition).
Grade D are the intermediate or higher grade training cycles that are known up to now.
And grade E are the specialization courses (FP master) to complement and deepen the skills of those who already have a FP degree. They range from 300 to 900 hours. Training up to and including intermediate level cycles may be given in town halls, entities, second chance centers and companies.
Training cycles.
They last two or three years. The compulsory core curricular part includes professional (technical) and associated modules (a personalized itinerary for employability, digitization applied to the productive system, sustainability and technical English both in intermediate and higher grades).
Students must also complete a final degree project. Optionally, the autonomous communities can incorporate complementary learning appropriate to the needs of the territory.
Dual formation. Learning in the company is reinforced. They are not practices but curricular training in production centers. Center and company, which will have a framework agreement or cooperation agreement, will be jointly responsible for the results.
There may be joint tutors, that is, a tutor for several companies, and to encourage SMEs to participate in the dual training students, the regional administration may give financial aid.
In the dual training there are two modalities according to their intensity. Students enrolled in the general regime will spend a minimum of 25% of their timetable and a maximum of 35% in the company. With this training, between 10% and 20% of the learning results will be acquired.
The intensive dual FP lasts between 35%-50% of the hours in the production center and will include at least 30% of the curriculum. In this modality, students will contribute to Social Security, but the type of remuneration they will receive is still being worked on with the Ministry of Finance.
new figures.
A teaching figure similar to the associate professor of the university is created. In the decree he is called a “senior company expert”. These are expert professionals who can join to give classes or update the center's curriculum. In addition, the administrations may request teachers who are not active to mentor young teachers, without receiving a salary. Finally, the figure of company prospector is created to facilitate agreements with the productive sector.
