Vocational Training (FP) is no longer the poor and helpless little sister of the Spanish educational system. In recent years, these studios have advanced to position themselves as generators of essential talent for social development. In 2022, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training stated that 60% of jobs will be related to FP. A figure that speaks volumes about the role in employability that awaits this teaching model. If we take into account that Spain is the European Union (EU) country with the highest youth unemployment rate of 30% among those under 25 years of age, VET emerges as a valid way for many young people to build their life project.
The field of action of the FP goes beyond the young. One of the country's challenges is to raise the qualifications of workers in order to meet the needs of the labor market and be competitive. In this sense, a training response is needed that accompanies workers throughout their lives.
A little over a year ago, in March 2022, the Council of Ministers approved a new law for the organization and integration of Vocational Training. An initiative that pursues the modernization of the current model and that promotes the role of companies. The new text promotes the so-called dual training by which the student is prepared both in the educational center and in the company. The call for elections has interrupted the parliamentary procedure that was to establish the development of this new regulation. The law exists, but the details of its application are still up in the air.
At the gates of a new course and in the midst of a context of evolution and transformation of VT, La Vanguardia Talks brought together a group of experts in the field that represent the main actors directly involved in the training of talent and employability with the premise of discussing how society prepares for the new FP. This session was broadcast live via streaming on the La Vanguardia website.
Regarding the expectations surrounding the new law, Ricard Guillem, territorial coordinator of Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Murcia and the Balearic Islands of CaixaBank Dualiza, highlighted that "I am hopeful that the new legal text can respond to the challenges we have posed." In this sense, Guillem made reference to the fact that "we are in a country with many workers who do not have a qualification or do not have it recognized and the law will allow us to address this issue." In this sense, the head of CaixaBank Dualiza highlighted the fact that the new regulations "will make it possible to design itineraries that accompany people and their training throughout life".
For Sílvia Miró, director of the PIMEC Work Area, this law "comes at an ideal time because we are in a moment of transformation and, furthermore, we have been facing great difficulties and challenges with regard to the professional training system." The representative of the employers' association of micro, small and medium-sized companies lamented "the lack of correspondence between the training offer and the needs of qualified labor that companies have". Miró assured that this demand will increase and is one of the great challenges "of our companies to be competitive".
For his part, Josep Ramon Domingo, VET coordinator of the Consorci d'Educació de Barcelona, was convinced that the first effect of the new law will be to "improve the perception of what VET is in society in general". . For Domingo "it will be a quality environment" and stressed that "families will see it differently. It is no longer that reviled second option system and is becoming a first option and of sufficient quality”. Among the conceptual innovations, this teacher valued the commitment to collaboration, especially with companies. Domingo explained that "the word company in this law seems to me to appear ten times more than in the previous one and its role will be that of a training agent." The final purpose of the proposed changes is that "we can train people so that some companies do not have to relocate because they cannot find talent and even get other companies to come here because we have talent."
The Secretary of Labor and Economy of CCOO-Catalunya, Ricard Bellera, considered that the new law “provides a new perspective, is ambitious and points to a change. The problem is that it has no regulatory development”. Pending the result of the 23-J elections and the impact that this may have on the future of the approved regulations, Bellera assured that "we must wait for the institutions to really create the law because one of the problems we have in this country is that the laws change depending on the government we have”. For the trade unionist it is necessary that the law be created by companies, professionals and teachers "or else it will be very difficult for it to work".
One of the fundamental aspects of the change that is proposed in FP affects the prominence of dual training and the role of the company in the training system. For Guillem, this measure will contribute to solving the problems that currently exist in finding the professional profiles that companies need. “Companies will be able to specialize students in the tasks they need. It is the advantage of dualization: the student goes to the company and learns what the company needs”.
This process requires flexibility and the ability to adapt to a market that changes faster every day. Miró assured that “we are skeptical about the possibility of always being up to date”. All in all, the PIMEC board recognized that there is a wide margin for improvement on this point and regretted that in the changes provided for by the new regulations "has not taken more account of the fact that in Catalonia we have a business fabric made up of SMEs and micro-enterprises that They are organized through unions and associations that are able to find out what the needs of the companies are, group them and share them with the training system”.
Domingo stressed the fact that "VT has become something more resilient and within the framework of the law, specialization courses or micro-training can be developed to respond to urgent needs, although it is true that in the business world many Sometimes they just don't know these possibilities”. However, the representative of the Consorci d'Educació de Barcelona claimed that "now a curriculum is generated to develop a new training very easily". Before, these changes were very slow and depended on European approval, but "this has changed and any center can create or adapt a curriculum and mount it in their own way." This allows us to respond to changing needs.
In this sense, Bellera recalled that "needs are not set only by the company, society also participates". The leader of CC.OO. Catalonia recalled that "three years ago we were at home and we had an economy that was capable of producing cars but incapable of manufacturing masks." At this point, the union representative recalled that we are facing a climate transition and a technological one, but there is a third one that is the demographic transition and that gives greater prominence to permanent training”.
Measuring and analyzing, having data is essential in decision making. In this sense, FP has not historically been the subject of sufficient studies. Something that has been changing for six years and thanks to CaixaBank Dualiza. “We saw that a lot of research was done in education, but very little in FP. From there we decided to develop a knowledge map and start our own research”, recalled Guillem. The next step was "to build an observatory (www.observatoriofp.com) that makes it possible to have and analyze the consolidated data on training and employment." A process that has made it possible for us to no longer need to feed on rumors "now we can go to the data and make decisions", concluded the coordinator of CaixaBank Dualiza, who invited companies and teachers "to use this data and contribute to disseminating the good work that is being done in the FP”.
Regarding the participation of companies in the new FP, Miró assured that "we want to participate, we want to be co-responsible". The PIMEC representative referred to the figure of joint tutoring that exists in Catalonia to organize Dual Vocational Training, but regretted the absence of recognition by the administration for companies that must allocate their own resources to face this task. Miró called for a model of aid or tax relief for companies for this work. A task that is especially "difficult to tackle for micro-SMEs".
On these issues, Bellera claimed the mechanism “of collective bargaining. It is a mechanism that is more than proven and that works”. The union representative stressed that the praised dual training systems in Germany, Austria and Switzerland "arise from broad consensus within companies". On this point, Josep Domingo stressed the fact that "we are flexible and professional enough to ensure that things are not imposed on us" and claimed the need for continuous dialogue between all the parties involved.
Regarding the image that society has of Vocational Training, Bellera highlighted that "there is a big difference between the consideration of Higher Level Vocational Training and that of Medium Level". The representative of the workers raised that improving the quality of the Intermediate Degree, extending the dual intensive FP, in order to facilitate the improvement of the disposable income of working households, and reinforcing the continuity between FP and University, are some of the great challenges who demand a solution.
Domingo agreed that there is a different perception of the two levels, but that "Intermediate students and graduates realize that with this level they can access many jobs or continue studying. This is something that students at equivalent levels, such as high school, cannot do so easily.” The teacher also differentiated between the perception that the FP student has of this training and that of society, which is unaware of many of the tasks around the research that are already being developed from the FP system.
For her part, Sílvia Miró assured that “we have come a long way in recent years. The stigma surrounding Vocational Training has been eliminated and we can see this in the interest generated by pre-registration for training cycles”. Along the same lines, Ricard Guillem concluded that "FP is positioning itself where it should be and young people are seeing it that way." The coordinator of CaixaBank Dualiza explained that more must be invested to better visualize the possibilities in terms of employability, but "families are becoming aware that this training is also a social elevator." For Guillem "little by little and together we are building a FP that will help us to have a more cohesive society".
