Last Tuesday, March 14, the BCN Vocational Training Foundation presented the Yearbook of VET with the support of the Barcelona City Council, Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB). This edition gathers information on the demand for studies, characteristics of enrolment and the training offer of the VET system of Barcelona and metropolitan area. As a novelty, on the one hand, it includes a file with the training demand, profile of the students and place of study of each municipality and also a document that collects the opportunities, challenges and recommendations about the future of Vocational Training.
Maria Truño, Commissioner for Education of the Barcelona City Council, opened the event, thanking all the attendees for their presence and making a special mention of the BCN FP Foundation for the work carried out.
Next, Sara Berbel, President of the BCN Vocational Training Foundation explained how Vocational Training is at its best. Registration figures have gone from 35,000 in the 2004-2005 academic year to 63,000 today, a stable figure for three years and which means an 80% increase in enrolments over the last 17 years. This evolution has meant that 24% of the current population studying in the province of Barcelona, is studying a degree in VET.
Berbel also denoted that in addition to the current growing demand for VET professionals, the need for generational replacement of the workforce (jublations) must be added: around 80% of the employment opportunities until 2030 in the Spanish labour market will be generated by the so-called “replacement” opportunities and most of them will be technical. The volume of generational replacement in the province of Barcelona will be 500,000 jobs in 10 years[2]. Therefore, it is important to have documents with the Yearbook of VET as a reference and roadmap for Vocational Training.
Javier Gracia, technician at the Professional Training Observatory, exposed the increase in the VET system for 2021 where almost 180 000 people have been formed by VET compared to 2016 (matriculations year 2015-2016). In addition, there is a very sharp increase in registrations for 14 professional families, including computer science, marketing and health. On the contrary, there is also a very denoted decrease in 8 other professional families such as energy and water, food industry, building and civil work causing a significant handicap in covering the high demand for labour in these sectors.
There is a gender gap in the FPI (Initial Professional Training) prior to their choice, that is, women opt for higher rates of upper secondary education instead of a professional pathway after ESO with respect to men (2 out of 10 for women with respect to 3 out of 10 for men). There is also a gender gap in the choice of textile education. 75% of women in the IT sector. Finally, Gracia explained that VET is usually chosen vocationally and not by location, as a result of the analysis of the mobility of Vocational Training students.
On a territorial and political level, the increase in VET as a training option is also supported through a deployment of specific regulations, as Àngel Tarrinyo, coordinator of the observatory of the BCN F Foundation, pointed out. On the part of Spain we find Organic Law 03/2022, known as the VET Law, and by the Generalitat de Catalunya, Law 10/2015 on Vocational Training and Qualification. Without a doubt, this focus on VET on the part of the different administrations obeys the negative effects of having such a low percentage of VET qualified with respect to the needs of the labour market today and the future. This percentage is very low compared to other European powers.
Despite the general increase in VET and its political support, “Spain is still the country with the highest rate of overqualification compared to other EU countries, where 36% of people with studies have jobs that do not correspond to their instructive level,” Tarri’o said, “this mismatch is partly due to a lack of knowledge or undervaluation of the potentialities of VET.” As a result, the productive sector has a very great difficulty in covering qualified technical labour positions: 41% of the vacancies of the pushed in Spain include graduates in VET and 8 out of 10 companies show that they have difficulties in occupying vacancies[3] coming from Vocational Training.
When youth unemployment is compared to levels of ESO or Baccalaureate vocational training, at which time there are great differences between unemployment rates, VET places people around the average unemployment rate and represents a great qualitative leap compared to lower instructive levels. Vocational training is better options in the labour market, since in Barcelona province the average unemployment rate of the working population (population of 16-67 years) is 9.4%, while that of graduates in vocational training is 8.4%, which means a reduction of almost 12%. This reduction is even more pronounced when we compare these rates registered at the level of ESO or baccalaureate. In a context of youth unemployment (16-24 years) which is very high, reaching 26.4%, VET manages to reduce it to 20%, a figure still high but mitigated in part by the effect of VET.
Unemployment rates per group of age and level of instruction. Province of Barcelona. IIIT 2022.
| Total | ESO or less | 14,90% |
| Batx | 12,40% | |
| FP | 8,30% | |
| Universitari | 4,40% | |
| Total | 9,40% | |
| 16-24 | ESO or less | 37% |
| Batx | 25% | |
| FP | 20% | |
| Universitari | 18% | |
| Total | 26,40% | |
| 24-34 | ESO or less | 22% |
| Batx | 24% | |
| FP | 10% | |
| Universitari | 4% | |
| Total | 11,70% | |
| 35 i + | ESO or less | 10% |
| Batx | 6% | |
| FP | 6% | |
| Universitari | 4% | |
| Total | 6,30% |
Source: Own elaboration from EPA data
At present, Tarri’o continued, all productive sectors go in the direction (or are already) of digitization and sustainability. This implies for the near present and future of jobs and professional profiles certain hybrid, transversal and flexible skills and skills. VET is a very good response to these immediate changes, being able to adapt more easily and more acutely to the needs of the new labour market: curricular adaptations by the education system, specialization courses and by the world of work of training for the best of employment. The VET also has a service of hours, called “free hours”, which implies the possibility at the discretion of each center, to adapt the composition of its degrees according to the needs detected in the work positions.
The challenges of VET
Early school leaving in VET, in the first year of middle-level training cycles, reaches levels of 40% while in Baccalaureate it accounts for 24%[4]. The causes have been associated with a lack of academic orientation, the disinterest generated by second or third options in the process of assigning a place and specific situations of vulnerability[5].
Low participation of women in STEAM degrees
There is a low participation of women in STEAM degrees[6] compared to men. Overall, among the professional families considered STEAM, there is a participation of women of 32.2% in the context of the AMB and 33.2% in the context of Barcelona city.
Internally, among the different STEAM professional families, there is a heterogeneous evolution from the 2015/16 academic year to the present: while in the professional families Building and Civil Work and Security and Environment there is a certain increase in the percentage of women enrolled, in others such as Computer Science and Communications, Installation and maintenance and Transport and maintenance of Vehicles the presence of women is practically non-existent.
Different rhythms, different technologies, lack of teachers and updating
New technologies, speed and lowering knowledge transmission costs are generating unprecedented speed in technological innovation. This innovation generates a cascade of new training and competence needs and in parallel another cascade of skills and knowledge that are obsolete at a speed that increases almost exponentially. This fact, transferred to the VET system, translates into an impossibility of matching the pace of evolution of new technologies with technologies available to training centers and with the knowledge that can be reached by teachers at a rational rate. Also, the lack of professionals precisely in the technological fields places the VET system that seeks this type of teacher, in direct competition with companies in the same sector that also seeks this talent but that offer more advantageous salaries. Finally, the updating of teachers, a key piece of the system, is a line of work to be addressed and intensified for the same reason.
What the BCN Vocational Training Foundation Yearbook recommends
Rethinking training facilities through integrated and sector-based reference centres, generating mechanisms to share costly training resources, Adaptability of training offered (Accompaniing the generation of new profiles and training offer with communication and guidance actions, Advanceing to the need for professional profiles, Re-skilling / Up-skilling of teachers and Shock plans for groups (against abandonment of STEAM training)
The presentation ended with Montserrat Ballarín: Vice-President Area of social and economic development. The vice-president has highlighted the quality of the Yearbook and the commitment to the quality of the VET system. “Professional training is key to improving economic competitiveness and achieving equality,” he said.
