From March 15 to 17, the International Simulated Business Fair took place with the aim of bringing Vocational Training students closer to the work environment of a fair where simulated companies meet in person to be able to present their products, establish synergies and carry out sales transactions. From the BCN Vocational Training Foundation, through our Simulated Business project, we are committed to this methodology and support VET centers
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.
Last Tuesday, 2nd, we started our new project: EU Water Challenge VET Labs. We also enjoyed the meeting with our EU partners on this new project. It will be a FPLab Metropolis scaled internationally with innovative pedagogy, ecological thematics and FP at the centre of everything. Thank you very much to our partners, let’s do this!
Last Tuesday, day 2, we started our new project: EU Water Challenge VET Labs. In addition, we also enjoyed the meeting with our EU partners of this new project. It will be a MetrópolisFPLab scaled up internationally with innovative pedagogy, ecological theme and VET at the center of everything. Thank you very much to our partners, let us do it!
On Friday, March 3, 2023, we resumed the activity of the Industrial VET and Construction 4.0 sector tables in an industrial environment such as the Stage2 headquarters at the TMDC.
25 people from industrial VET centers, economic, social and VET ecosystem agents participated, with the aim of generating synergies between centers and industrial fabric, startups, in a space of co-creation, entrepreneurship and training for students and teachers.
We met Stage 2, the first industrial startup accelerator in the country, created in 2022 by Oriol Pascual and a group of 10 entrepreneurs, with an investment fund of 15M€ and the challenge of accelerating 150 industrial projects until 2030.
Likewise, we invited the Industrialized Construction Cluster of Catalunya, a new and benchmark platform for the development of Construction 4.0 in Catalonia, which will work around four axes: Industrialization, Digitalization, Sustainability and Training.
And we closed the session visiting TMDC the first coworking for manufacturing artisans located in Poblenou, Barcelona. It is an industrial workshop of more than 2000m2 equipped with portable machinery, industrial machinery and CNC machinery to work on wood, iron and plastic, with very interesting projects.
As a result of this day we will launch actions to respond to two challenges:
To attract young people, and especially girls, to STEAM cycles
To strengthen the relationship between companies and centres to train the talent that companies need.
In recent weeks, several creativity workshops have been carried out, where more than 800 students participating in the MetropolisFPLab have passed! We have given work dynamics to be able to propose complete ideas that solve the challenges posed.
At the same time, we have continued to visit the participating entities to know how they operate and that the teams can make proposals that fit these companies 100%.
On February 2 we visited Campus 42 Barcelona located in the Parc Tecnologic of Barcelona Activa in the Nou Barris district. It is a non-profit programming school that was born in Paris in 2013. It has landed in Barcelona thanks to the promotion of Fundación Telefónica, and the collaboration of the Barcelona City Council and the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Campus 42 Barcelona is an innovative and free programming campus, with a revolutionary, gamified methodology, of an average duration of three years, is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that students can learn at their own pace.
It has a network of 47 campuses spread over the 5 continents. On campus they learn programming, cybersecurity, design, blockchain, etc., as well as communication, leadership, tolerance to frustration, teamwork…
Campus 42 Barcelona is open to all VET centers, organize scheduled visits, programming workshops for non-programmers, Artificial Intelligence immersion workshop, etc.
On February 7, at the Roca Umbert venue in Granollers, the workshops of the Metropolis FPLab began. As the Diputació de Barcelona joins the project, it has been possible to expand to the territories of Granollers and Mataró. Nearly 300 VET students from these territories have started the creativity workshop, which has had the institutional welcome and presentation of Francesc Arolas, Councilor for Education, Children and Adolescence; Open Government and Transparency of the Granollers City Council; and with Miquel Àngel Vadell, Councilor Delegate for Education, Vocational Training and Universities of the Mataró City Council. Also with Neus Gómez, consultant technician of the Management of Education Services of the Diputació de Barcelona.
The participation of the Diputació de Barcelona is framed in the transformative project “New Educational Opportunities 4.10.”
During the last quarter, we have received more than 25 students, from different Europeas cities, from various professional training profiles. We are sure that during their stay they will learn and contribute a lot to the companies where they are doing their internship. We collaborate with companies such as Baluard, DFactory or CIM UPC.
Act Take the flight: Young people who start business next Thursday, February 9 at 5.45pm in the Mirador del Convent room in Barcelona Activa (Plaça Pons i Clerch, 2, 1st floor).
Barcelona Activa, PimecJoves and Metropoli Abierta organize a meeting to share experiences of young people who are growing their projects.
The round table will consist of:
· Marta Rodríguez, CEO of the startup of labour equality BlindStairs
· Francesc Font, Co-Founder & Co-CEO from Incapto Coffee
· Mar Alarcon, promoter and Co-Founder of Therap. me, for mental health and former promoter of SocialCar.
· Moderate: Manel Manchón, Journalist and Deputy Director of Metropoli Abierta
At the end of the event, a networking space will be offered.
You can confirm attendance through this form.
