The data on mid-level vocational training is devastating in the OECD report. There is more dropout, longer time to graduate and less acquisition of work experience than the rest of Europe. Furthermore, access to higher stages (continuity is the highest grade) is limited by the reservation of places.
Thus, the OECD highlights that in Spain the number of students who have abandoned their studies without graduating and are not enrolled in another educational program "is always higher than those who continue studying two years after the theoretical duration of the programs."
This is out of 10 students who enter the first course, only 4 graduate after two years (the duration of the two courses). Along the way, those who have dropped out completely have left (at this stage 29.3%), those who change cycles, repeat, or those who partially enroll, extending the duration of their studies. In the OECD the dropout rate is 22.6%.
On the other hand, 7 out of every 10 students finish high school in two years.
Experts consider that the lack of orientation, over-ratios, insufficient supply, and poorly planned maps frustrate the intentions of training. The directors of VET centers also allege the low level of basic skills that students have been arriving with in recent years, since the outbreak of the pandemic, and that it prevents them from following classes well.
This panorama is especially worrying at a time when this option is ascending compared to the baccalaureate.
On the other hand, middle-grade students, once graduated, can only continue to a higher degree. But there is a paradox that higher education cycles reserve places for high school (40%) and for those taking the entrance exam (20%). The reservation of places for those in middle cycles is 20%.
The increase in demand in recent years for higher cycles is leaving out middle cycle students in certain families of knowledge, such as health. Students who want to continue studying then enroll in degrees from other families that do not have such a strong demand or in other intermediate degrees.
On the other hand, the report highlights the lack of work experience that vocational training students leave with.
Unlike Germany, where 94% of Vocational Training students acquire work experience of 7 or more months (paid or unpaid), in Spain only 4% of those who finished vocational training completed an experience of this duration. .
In general, Spanish students finish vocational training with little experience in a workplace, according to the OECD. The new Spanish vocational training law that requires dualization of studies, that is, to increase training in workplaces, while working, aims to turn these figures around.
Germany (or the Netherlands) has a unique vocational training model that is different from that of most countries, with companies very aware of the education of young people. But Spain still falls short compared to the OECD average, which shows that 28% acquired more than 7 months of work experience.
Longer periods of training in workplaces are usually paid: in the Netherlands alone, more than 10% of people between 20 and 34 years old graduate in these courses.
Training in workplaces of shorter duration is more common, including in Spain, where a third of graduates declare having had an experience of one to six months in a company. It is similar to Finland and Sweden.
