Vocational Training for Employment in Spain: Types and Funding
Types of Training Initiatives
There are three types of training initiatives that integrate the subsystem of vocational training for employment:
- Regulated Vocational Training is taught in the educational system. It falls under the Educational Administration, either general or regional, according to the transfers made or to be made in the future. Without prejudice to its educational purpose, its goal is to provide professional qualifications to ensure the employability of its graduates. Within the educational system, it provides training for the skilled performance of various professions.
- Occupational Vocational Training is for the unemployed. As an employment policy, it is aimed primarily at enhancing the integration and reintegration of people seeking work through the qualification, retraining, or upgrading of their skills. It falls under the Labor Administration in general terms, while the implementation of programs and annual plans is for the General or Regional Directors, in terms of transfers made or to be made.
- Continuing Professional Education is aimed at employed workers (or active workers). It takes place in the field of labor relations. Structured since 1993 by way of the National Agreements, a result of social dialogue and collective bargaining, it is coordinated primarily by business and labor organizations.
Demand Training: Recipients
Demand training covers the training activities of companies and individual training leave, wholly or partly funded with public funds, to meet the specific training needs raised by companies and their workers. Demand training employees may participate if they provide services in businesses or public entities not included in the scope of training arrangements in public administration. This includes intermittent permanent workers during periods of non-occupation, employees who join the unemployed when they are in the formative period, and workers covered by employment regulation in their periods of suspension of employment authorized proceeding.
Supply Training: Recipients
Supply training includes training schemes aimed primarily at employed workers and training activities aimed mainly at unemployed workers to provide training that enables them to perform skilled professions and access employment.
Both employed and unemployed workers can participate in the training offer, in the proportion that the authorities determine, considering the proposals made by the national participation of the National Employment System.
Priority Groups for Training Activities
The following groups may have priority to participate in training activities:
a) Unemployed:
- Women
- Youth
- Disabled
- Sufferers and victims of terrorism and violence
- Long-term unemployed
- Older than 45 years
- People at risk of social exclusion
b) Employed workers:
- Workers in small and medium enterprises
- Women
- Sufferers and victims of terrorism and violence
- Over 45 years
- Low-skilled workers
- People with disabilities
Funding the Training Subsystem
The subsystem of vocational training for employment is funded with proceeds from the share of vocational training that enterprises and workers contribute (0.7% based on workers’ compensation contributions and diseases: 0.1% by the employee and 0.6% by the company), with the assistance from the European Social Fund and the specific contributions established in the budget of the Public Employment Service.
Training Activity: Definition and Delivery Methods
Training activity refers to that directed at the acquisition and improvement of professional skills and qualifications. It can be structured into learning modules with their own objectives, content, and duration. The training may be given in person, at a distance conventionally, through tele-training, or mixed.
When the action or training module includes, in whole or in part, distance learning, it must be undertaken with educational supports that allow a systematic learning process for the participant, which is necessarily supplemented by tutorial support. The mode of instruction by distance learning is deemed to be effected when the learning process of the training is developed through information technologies and telematic communication, enabling the interactivity of students, tutors, and other resources.