Vocational Training in the Education System: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted on Oct 15, 2024 in Social sciences

Principles of Education

The quality of education for all students is paramount, regardless of their conditions and circumstances. Equity ensures equal opportunities, inclusive education, and non-discrimination, acting as a compensator for personal, cultural, economic, and social inequalities, with special attention to those derived from disabilities. Education transmits and implements values that favor personal freedom, responsibility, democratic citizenship, solidarity, tolerance, equality, respect, and justice, helping overcome any discrimination. Education is conceived as a lifelong learning process. Flexibility tailors education to the diverse skills, interests, expectations, and needs of students, as well as societal changes. Educational and vocational guidance is crucial for achieving customized training and comprehensive education that promotes knowledge, skills, and values. Individual effort and motivation are essential, along with the joint effort of students, families, teachers, schools, administrations, institutions, and society. Autonomy is vital for setting and adjusting organizational and curricular activities within the framework of State, Autonomous Communities, local corporations, and educational institutions’ powers and responsibilities. The educational community participates in the organization, governance, and operation of schools. Education promotes conflict prevention, peaceful resolution, and nonviolence in all areas of personal, family, and social life. The development of equal rights and opportunities promotes effective equality between men and women. The teaching function is a critical factor in educational quality, deserving social recognition and support. Research, experimentation, and educational innovation are developed and promoted. The entire educational system is evaluated, from programming and organization to teaching and learning processes and results. Cooperation between the State and the Autonomous Communities is essential for defining, implementing, and evaluating educational policies. Education authorities cooperate and collaborate with local authorities in planning and implementing education policy.

Purpose of Education

The purpose of education is the full development of students’ personalities and abilities. It educates in respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, equal rights and opportunities between men and women, and non-discrimination of persons with disabilities. It promotes tolerance and freedom within democratic principles of coexistence, conflict prevention, and peaceful resolution. It educates in individual responsibility, merit, and personal effort. It trains for peace, respect for human rights, community life, social cohesion, cooperation, solidarity among peoples, and respect for living beings and the environment, particularly forests and sustainable development. It develops students’ ability to regulate their learning, relying on their skills, creativity, personal initiative, and entrepreneurial spirit. It trains in respect for and recognition of Spain’s linguistic and cultural plurality and multiculturalism as an enriching element of society. It fosters intellectual habits, study skills in scientific, technical, humanistic, historical, and artistic fields, and develops healthy physical and sports habits. It trains for professional activities and communication in official and co-official languages, as well as foreign languages. It prepares students for citizenship, active participation in economic, social, and cultural development, and a critical, responsible, and adaptable attitude in the knowledge society.

Vocational Training

  1. Vocational training encompasses activities enabling individuals to perform various occupations, access employment, and actively participate in social, cultural, and economic life. It includes initial training, worker insertion and re-employment actions, and lifelong learning in enterprises, facilitating the acquisition and updating of professional skills. This Act’s rules on initial training are part of the education system.
  2. Vocational training in the education system prepares students for work in a professional field, facilitating adaptation to industrial changes throughout life, contributing to personal development and democratic citizenship.
  3. Vocational training comprises training cycles with a modular organization of variable duration and theoretical and practical content tailored to various professional fields.
  4. Intermediate and higher-level vocational training refers to the National Catalog of Professional Qualifications, constituting middle and higher-level vocational training, respectively. Their curricula conform to the National System of Qualifications and Vocational Training and Article 6.3 of this Act.
  5. Vocational studies can be undertaken in schools regulated by this Act, integrated centers, and national reference centers as per Article 11 of Organic Law 5/2002 of June 19, on Qualifications and Vocational Training.
  6. The Government, in consultation with the Autonomous Communities, establishes qualifications for vocational studies and basic curricular aspects.
Article 40: Objectives

Vocational training helps students acquire the technical skills to:

  1. Develop general competence for the relevant qualification(s).
  2. Understand the productive sector’s organization and characteristics, professional insertion mechanisms, labor laws, and rights and obligations in labor relations.
  3. Learn independently and collaboratively, train in conflict prevention and peaceful resolution in all areas of life, and promote equal opportunities for men and women in accessing and exercising all career options.
  4. Work in safety and health, preventing potential work risks.
  5. Develop a professional identity encouraging future learning and adaptation to changing production processes and social change.
  6. Strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit for activities and business ventures.
Article 41: Terms of Access
  1. Those with Compulsory Secondary Education can study middle-level vocational training. Those with a Bachelor’s degree can study higher-level vocational training.
  2. Candidates lacking academic requirements can access training through an entrance examination regulated by Education authorities. Accessing intermediate training cycles requires a minimum age of seventeen, and nineteen for higher-level courses, completed in the year of the test, or eighteen with a technical title related to the desired access.
  3. The tests certify sufficient knowledge and skills for middle-level vocational training and maturity and skills related to the professional field for higher-level training.
  4. Regular education authorities may exempt parts of the relevant tests for those who have passed an initial professional qualification program, an intermediate training cycle with a certificate of professionalism related to the training cycle, or certify labor experience or qualifications.
  5. Education authorities can program and offer preparatory courses for the entrance tests. Grades in these courses will be considered in the final entrance test score.
Article 42: Content and Organization of Supply
  1. Education authorities, within their powers and with local and socio-economic collaboration, program training respecting the rights recognized in this Law.
  2. VET curricula include practical training in workplaces, which can be exempted for those with relevant work experience. Education authorities regulate this stage and exemption.
  3. Training content promotes the integration of scientific, technological, and organizational aspects, ensuring students acquire skills related to areas outlined in the third additional provision of Law 5/2002 of June 19, on Qualifications and Vocational Training.
Article 43: Evaluation
  1. Student learning in training cycles is assessed by professional modules.
  2. Passing a training cycle requires a positive assessment in all modules.
Article 44: Titles and Validations
  1. Students passing middle-level vocational training receive the title of Technician of the relevant profession. This title allows direct access to all forms of secondary education for students who passed according to Article 41.2.
  2. Students passing higher vocational education receive the title of Senior Technician. This title provides access to university studies determined by the Government, after consultation with the Autonomous Communities and a report by the University Coordination Council.
  3. The Government, after hearing the University Coordination Council, regulates validations between university studies and higher vocational education.
  4. Those not fully completing training cycles receive a transcript of passed modules with cumulative effects for accrediting acquired skills.