It has been a long time coming, but the study on professional prospecting that the Government presented yesterday means an important “leap” in the vocational training (FP) system because it puts black on white the map of companies’ needs and the training offer, in such a way that it serves as information to plan the training offer and guide young people towards highly insertion training cycles.
For the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, who yesterday presented the General Prospective Report 2023-2026, supported by his advisors and the president of the Public Agency for Training and Qualification Professionals of Catalonia, Fabián Mohedano, it is a “change of paradigm” that will allow young people to be guided towards training with job opportunities and close to their place of residence (now the productive needs are being prepared by regions and provinces). It will be more difficult to open disc jockey cycles just because it is a youth demand if there are not enough leisure companies that ask for them. These same young people can be directed towards other well-paid jobs that companies are desperately looking for, even hiring labor abroad, in areas such as digitalization, people care, transportation and maintenance. Or chemistry, especially in the Tarragona area.
At the same time, the planning of the cycle offering will be done on the basis of this x-ray. Is it worth opening more fashion or hairdressing places? The study says no, that there are already enough of them and that they will not be created if there is no reason to justify it. Should we consider offering more laboratory assistant positions? The answer is that they are desperately needed. The existing places are filled and many students are left out.
And what happens to those cycles with enough offer, but that students do not choose? More information and guidance is required. In this sense, the Government has yet to approve the guidance decree, a key piece in a modern FP system, which promotes the development of students’ knowledge about their interests and abilities throughout ESO and deploying professional guidance from compulsory education. It requires, among other factors, training for tutors and more counselors who care for young people in all centers (now there are a hundred).
The next step is to create leading reference centers in their field of knowledge that attract young people for their excellence and that are references for other institutes. This is the Barcelona model that also exists in other towns in Catalonia. Barcelona has spread out in a ring-like manner very specialized centers that, as soon as they are established, have a strong demand (image and sound, sports, food, health, computing). Most of them are closely linked to the economic activity they serve, such as the Food Institute in Mercabarna, logistics in the port, IT in the 22@ district, the epicenter of innovation, which reinforces the good work of the Technological Institute of Barcelona. Health projects are paradigmatic. The Bonanova institute is a reference in healthcare families and is linked to the Parc de Salut del Mar. It not only trains young students who have just finished ESO or high school, but also workers who want to revalidate their experience with professional certificates or employees who They seek to learn throughout life. They are what are known as integrated centers (they provide all types of offerings), and they move away from the model of compulsory education and vocational training institutes.
The example of the Mar hospital will be extended to the Vall d’Hebron hospital, which starting next year will have its linked vocational training institute, the Sant Pau hospital, and, outside of Barcelona, ??to the Camilos de Sant Pere de Ribes or Trueta in Girona.
Some of the integrated centers have been named “centers of excellence” as part of an extensive Spanish network that qualifies them for their capacity for innovation, research, entrepreneurship and internationalization. They are the Compte Rius, Pere Martell, the Escola de Treball de Lleida and the Escola de Treball de Barcelona and the ITB. They organize teacher training actions at the state level and collaborate in their professional sector, in detecting the need for new profiles and in reviewing curricula.
