Vocational students' work experience and other education reforms planned
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Loading... - Samuel Johnson
- 02 Jun 2022
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Pilar Alegría, in charge, says the government intends to invest €7.5 billion on covering 90% of teenagers' 'stamp', or Social Security contributions until 2025 inclusive – backdated to 2020 - with the remaining 10% covered by their work experience providers.
This means they will be eligible for contributory benefits, such as dole money, maternity and paternity leave and sick pay – which are all earnings-related, meaning they are higher than the 'basic' benefits provided instead by the State for these contingencies – and their work experience through their training will also count towards their eventual State retirement pension.
Sra Alegría says this will start from the new 2022-2023 academic year, although she is in talks with a network of companies to agree on how it will work out long term and how the scheme can be extended.
In the meantime, her department has added 28 new subject lines to Spain's vocational training route, designed with considerable industry input, and freed up over 130,000 places for students.
Currently, the vocational education and training route provides qualifications recognised in 119 different industries.
Pilar Alegría stresses the scheme is valuable in increasing 'employability' among students, particularly as it covers 'soft skills' like teamwork and interpersonal communication, and peripheral skills like digital competence, health and safety, and risk management.
Other key areas of education Pilar Alegría wants to focus on imminently include reforming the teaching profession – through retraining, and restructure of existing practices – dramatically reducing class numbers, which she says is 'absolutely essential' to guarantee 'quality schooling', and addressing school 'failure rate'.
In Spain, if a child does not reach the pass mark for a certain number of subjects, including core subjects, he or she will have to repeat the school year – and, at present, can still leave at 16 without even having passed their final ESO exams.
Sra Alegría stresses that the majority of 'repeating' pupils do so 'due to their social and family conditions', and not because they have not worked or studied enough.
She says that 'the most productive countries are those with the best-trained workforces', and that 'the best educational systems' are the ones which have 'the highest quality of teaching staff'.
What is Spain's vocational training and education, or 'FP' system
Unlike a generation or two ago, choosing a 'vocational' route does not mean a person has 'limited academic aptitude', nor does it bar them from academic studies in the future or force them to start again from scratch to achieve it.
These two structures now exist side by side, are equally valued, and one provides credit exemption from another, allowing students to 'change their minds' without 'wasting' what they have already learned or achieved. Read More…
