FP will play a fundamental role in population aging, social integration and the fight against school dropouts, according to a study by CaixaBank Dualiza and Orkestra.
The employment of technicians in Vocational Training will tend to increase in almost all economic sectors in Spain between now and 2035, according to the conclusions of the latest Observatory on Vocational Training Vocational Training in the face of social challenges, prepared by CaixaBank Dualiza and Orkestra-Instituto Basque Competitiveness. The report, which estimates that 3.8 of the 14 million employment opportunities that will be generated in that period will correspond to vocational training graduates, focuses on the central role that this training will have in the face of major social challenges such as population aging, social integration, early school leaving (through Basic FP) and even the gender gap.
Of the 20 economic sectors cataloged by the National Classification of Economic Activities, the presence of FP graduates will grow in all but three (construction, energy, gas and steam, and extractive industries). On the contrary, where they will increase the most will be in the manufacturing industry, reaching 40.8% of professionals in the sector, in a similar way to what will occur in the health sector and in “Other services”.
An occupation that, on the one hand, responds to the needs of the productive fabric, but that also follows a basic logic: if the number of people with vocational training qualifications increases, something that will undoubtedly happen after the approval of the new Vocational Training law, approved in 2022, it is foreseeable that the percentage of those employed with said studies will also do so.
- FP and population aging:
Factors such as demographics and migrations reveal to what extent Vocational Training will play a central and integrating role in the short, medium and long term. And the fact is that, although the birth rate projections in Spain, which is already one of the oldest countries in the world (with all the social, economic and health challenges that this entails), contemplate a slight rebound in the next decade, “it will not be enough the minimum values necessary to guarantee population sustainability.”
- Why will FP be so relevant?:
Firstly, because it has a role in training young people who will support our older society, both at the health level and in care and other services for the silver economy (for older people). But also because it has an important role in the professional requalification of older people of working age, between 55 and 64 years old; and because it will also train people to facilitate the generational replacement of the significant volume of people who are going to retire in the coming years.
In fact, the weight of graduates with a medium or higher degree vocational training in the Spanish labor market, which currently stands at 24%, will rise to 26%, according to the CaixaBank Dualiza observatory, an aspect that will be enhanced by value FP itself, “so that employers who have been hiring people without professional studies (that is, ESO, Baccalaureate and lower educational levels) opt [for FP] and understand that the profiles linked to FP are more productive than the others,” says Juan Gamboa, researcher at Orkestra-Basque Competitiveness Institute.
On the other hand, he points out, VET profiles are the most prepared to address the changes that technical professions are undergoing, as a result of technological changes in work processes and the transition towards a sustainable economy.
- FP and job placement:
Faced with the slight increase in the birth rate mentioned above, and in parallel, there will continue to be an increase in the foreign population, which will approach 24% in 2033. This, they point out in the report, will pose an important challenge when it comes to “facilitating the active participation of foreigners in the economic and social life of the country, because this is one of the groups that suffers the greatest risk of social exclusion due to having a lower educational level, a higher school dropout rate and higher unemployment.”
The challenge, however, is not exclusive to immigration, even though it is the most affected sector: the population residing in Spain between 26 and 64 years old whose studies do not exceed compulsory education reaches 35.3%, figures that are even higher among men (38.6%) and foreigners (44%). With regard to insertion into the labor market, the data indicate that the unemployment of the foreign population is higher than that of the Spanish population, both in men (16.2% compared to 10.6%) and, especially, in women ( 26% compared to 13.7%). A rate that, precisely, “decreases among those foreigners who have completed Intermediate Vocational Training studies compared to those who have a Baccalaureate or compulsory education, which proves the integrative potential of FP,” they point out from CaixaBank Dualiza.
Acting on this challenge involves several strategies: on the one hand, says Moso, “the recognition and accreditation of professional experience [as contemplated by the FP reform] is an important mechanism to recognize the real training level of people without recognized training. ”. Secondly, stimulating the completion of VET studies among people with a low educational level, something that the 2022 law favors, “with teachings that have been significantly made more flexible through modularization, an aspect that makes it easier for people of older and with work and/or family responsibilities can access creditable and cumulative training that allows them to increase their qualifications.
Thirdly, encouraging the participation of women in VET studies related to families in Science and Technology (the so-called STEM disciplines), where a significant gender gap persists; and, finally, through the prevention of early school leaving, where Basic Vocational Training plays a fundamental role.
- FP against early school leaving:
“Basic Vocational Training is understood as an itinerary for re-engagement in the educational system. This means that those people who do not have a Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) degree can continue studying within the educational system in age ranges that are expanding and range from 15 to 21 years old depending on different cases. ”explains Gamboa. A bridge that is key to avoiding early educational abandonment, and that is even more important in those groups where this abandonment is higher than average, as is the case of the immigrant population. “The ultimate goal of the Basic is that, once achieved, the Intermediate Degree is continued, which provides a qualification with quality value in the labor market,” she adds.
- Good practices in Basic FP:
On November 10, Educar and CaixaBank Dualiza foundations, together with the FP Company Association, brought together more than 300 teachers and professionals dedicated to Basic Vocational Training at the Faculty of Medicine of the Complutense University of Madrid at the FPB congress. Online, with the aim of making visible the best experiences implemented in Spain within this educational level, and thus be able to replicate them in other territories. According to data from the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, only half of all students who begin Basic Vocational Training end up graduating after four years.
