Abstract

Vocational training in Spain: Changes in the model of skill production and in management modalities

The challenges that the vocational training system faces in Spain are centred around two subjects. First, the role of professional training systems within the framework of a new model of skill production that seems to be coming for the Spanish economy and, second, how it is possible to structure a management model that will be compatible with the multiplicity of challenges that the globalisation of the economy implies.

The importance of Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVT) in the production of skills for the Spanish economy has been, and still is, quite limited, and is tending to decrease again compared to the growth of students who have obtained baccalaureate and university degrees.

The most important recent change that is still in progress in the vocational training system in Spain is the one regulated by the "Qualifications and Vocational Training Act" (2002). In its fundamental aspects, it is a law of management of the three subsystems (IVT, CVT, OVT) produced by vocational training. The main aim of this law is to create a single system of vocational training on a Spanish scale that includes the offer of the three subsystems and improves the transparency of their certifications.