1. VET Studies in Catalonia
- Structure and Organisation -

2. Spain is organized in 17 Autonomous Communities
and 2 autonomous cities
Spain
Catalonia
505.992 km2 48.351.532 h.
Surface
7.512.000 h.31.896 km2
Population
6,3% 16%
Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System

3. The Spanish
State
Administrative
Division
organises
Catalonia in 4
provinces.
Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System

4. Barcelona
Girona
7.708 km2 5.511.513 h.
Surface
753.046 h.5.882 km2
Population
Lleida
Tarragona
12.022 km2 439.768 h.
808.420 h.6.253 km2
73%
10%
5,8%
10,7%
24,2%
18,4%
37,8%
19,6%
Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System

5. Because of state’s administrative reasons,
Catalonia is divided into 4 provinces
(Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona)
and these are subdivided into 41 comarques,
or districts, according to geographical and
historical criteria, and they are governed by
district councils (consells comarcals)
Barcelona
Girona
7.708 km2 5.511.513 h.
Surface
753.046 h.5.882 km2
Population
Lleida
Tarragona
12.022 km2 439.768 h.
808.420 h.6.253 km2
73%
10%
5,8%
10,7%
24,2%
18,4%
37,8%
19,6%
Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System

6. La Generalitat de Catalunya Moving from a centralised State to a self-
governed state:
• Administrative and political decentralization
• Juridical and legislative capacities
• Regional competence system
Exclusive competencies
Shared competencies
Education:
- State: obtaining, expedition and recognition
of certificates.
- Generalitat: regulation and administration
of all the studies carried out in Catalonia.
Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System

7. Regional Government Ministries (Executive Council)
• Presidential Department
• Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries
• Social Welfare and Family Affairs
• Trade, Tourism and Consumer Affairs
• Culture
• Economy and Finance
• Education
• Governance and Public Administration
• Home Affairs
• Justice
• Environment and Housing
• Town and Country Town and Public Works
• Institutional Relations and Participation
• Health
• Employment and Industry
• Universities, Research and Information
Society
Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System

8. • Proposal of general policies and implementation of non-university education.
• Significant responsibilities:
 Elaboration, approval, implementation and distribution of resources, buildings,
installation and equipment for the schools.
 Ownership of public schools and educational centres, their creation, transformation,
maintenance, etc.
 Negotiating and approval of authorisations for private schools, together with their
classification, recognition, modification and closure.
 Establishing of grants for private schools.
 Organisation of competitive exams to secure teaching or administrative jobs, and job
transfer according to merit.
 Teacher training
 School transport, canteens, residential centres, etc.
 Elaboration and approval of curricular plans, study programmes and pedagogical
guidance which develop and complement basic education.
 Teaching Catalan at all levels and using it as a teaching language in all the schools.
 Research and education experiments.
Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System

10. LabourMarket
16 y
18 y
Entry test
University
Professional Qualification
Programmes (PQP)
Certificate
Intermediate Technician
(qualification)
Advanced Technician
(qualification)
1st
2nd
BAC Certificate
Batxillerat/
Baccalauerate
VET
Intermediate
Level
Entry test
University
1st cycle Diplomate
3rd cycle Doctor/PhD
2nd cycle Bachelor
VET
Advanced
Level
Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) [16 years old]
Without
Certificate
Entry
test
18 y 18 y
20 y
1st
2nd
1st
2nd
16 y
18 y
Certificates
Vocational Education
Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System

11. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
- Public entity
- Employers’ organisations
- Trade Unions
- Ministry of Education
Professional
Profiles
VET
Qualifications
The Path of the Qualification

12. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
 Consist of 2000 tuition hours, distributed generally in two academic years.
 Are classified in different levels:
• VET Intermediate Level (EQF level 4 )
• VET Advanced Level (EQF level 5 )
 Are organized into Professional Modules (PM), that belong to different categories:
• PM linked to one or more profession-related competences.
• Supporting PMs contain information common to several VET qualifications (e.g.
electricity or human anatomy and physiology)
• PMs common to all qualifications, related to guidance for work and
entrepreneurship
• Final project thought to put into practice many of the competences acquired
during the VET course
 Have an in-company training module of a duration ranging between 350 and 410
hours. It is formalized through a training agreement signed by the student, the school
and a company of the related professional field
All VET qualifications:

13. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
 The elements building up the professional modules are:
• Learning outcomes (LO)
• Assessment criteria (AC)
• Contents (C)
 Learning outcomes (LO): The competences acquired by the students through a learning
process, which will allow them to carry out processes and gain learning results.
• Each PM contains typically between 1 and 4 LOs .
• Since LOs will be the reference for teaching/learning and assessment activities, they are the
core element of the curriculum.
• Each LO is associated to the assessment criteria and the contents.
 Assessment criteria (AC): They establish the actions to be taken, the contents and the
conditions for the assessment activities, which decide whether the LO has been achieved or not.
 Contents (C): The contents are the set of basic knowledge the students need to achieve in order
to attain a given professional competence; they consist of procedures (know how), concepts
(knowledge) and attitudes (behavior).
The curriculum in the VET qualifications

14. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
VET Qualification Sectors

15. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
Result: improvement of lifelong learning
and the quality of education, by the
adaptation of the educational offer to
students’ special personal or
professional situations
The strategy
How: by adapting the VET offer and
make it more flexible
How
The curriculum The Timetable
Objectives:
 To increase the training and
qualification levels of the
working population.
 To promote the adaptation and
innovation of the educational
offer.

16. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
Split the curriculum
Split the curricula into smaller units called Training Units (TU), lasting
typically between 20 and 60 hours.
 Easier to be identified and acknowledged by people coming from
the labour market, and they allow them to be enroled in only parts
of the curriculum.
Professional module (PM) Hours Training Units (TU) Hours
PM5 Culinary products 220
TU1: Production and services processes in cooking 28
TU2: Catalan cuisine, Spanish territorial cuisine and
international cuisine
80
TU3: Creative and author’s cuisine 56
TU4: Dishes for people with special nutritional needs 28
TU5: Dish decoration and presentation 28
In the case of the VET course on Cuisine and Gastronomy, the breakup of
the PM of Culinary Products is the following:
Adapting and making the Curriculum flexible

17. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
Curricular hours designed by the training centre
All the qualifications, have curricular hours (around 165) that the training centres
are free to allocate according to its social and economical environment.
 They can be used to reinforce the contents already mentioned in the
curriculum, introduce new ones or increase proportionally the hours already
distributed in the existing TUs.
For instance, in a training centre delivering tourism-related courses
in a town with a high number of German tourists, it was decided to
use these hours to introduce the German language
Adapting and making the Curriculum flexible

18. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
Adapting and making the Curriculum flexible
Curricular adaptations
Curricular adaptations consist in changing part of one specific curriculum in order
to make it closer to a specific professional sector.
A good example would be the VET course on maintenance of
machinery which has been adapted to:
 Maintenance of recreational boats in some training centres
based in coastal towns.
 Maintenance of heavy agricultural machinery in some rural
areas.

19. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
Adapting and making the VET Offer flexible
Adaptations in the VET offer
Measures related to training organizations:
 Different solutions, according to the specificities of the companies, the
territory and the people.
 Easier access for workers, it is now possible to follow the courses not just in
the traditional, two year long schedule, but also fitting the society’s needs.
 Developed and implemented jointly by the Catalan Ministry of Education and
social partners, in the frame of collaboration agreements.
 There are currently 200 collaboration agreements in the whole of the Catalan
territory, concerning 105 VET training centres.
Two main points:
 Adaptation to the companies and the territory
 Adaptation to people

20. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
Adaptation to companies and territory
 Joint implementation of two or more VET courses.
An example would be the creation of a new professional profile combining Office Management
and Trade skills, so that the student can get both diplomas in three years; this is of interest
mainly in small populations where more multi-skilled workers are sought.
 Implementation of a VET course complemented with some professional modules
and/or training units from other courses
 Experimentation with the apprenticeship system in several VET training
centres.
 In Catalan regions with a low population density, blended learning is on offer so
that students don’t need to travel long distances or move to larger urban centres.
For instance in the main Catalan wine-producing region the Sales
Management and Marketing VET course has been complemented with grape
growing and wine production skills.
Adapting and making the VET Offer flexible

21. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
Adaptation to people
 Implementation of VET courses with adapted timetables for workers.
 Partial enrolment.
In order to allow workers or people with other obligations, to follow their training pathways at
a different pace, partial enrolment in specific professional modules or training units is also
possible.
 Blended learning allows a student to attend to at least to 50% of the
lessons; the rest of the tuition will be carried out outside the training
centre.
 Distance learning (IOC).
The Open Institute of Catalonia offers distance learning/e-learning (full VET courses or
professional modules) to its more than 25.000 students in Catalonia and worldwide.
For instance VET courses are offered to workers in a petrochemical complex,
adapted to their timetable and in the company premises.
Adapting and making the VET Offer flexible

22. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
The Validation programme.
 It’s a training validation model, that provides to unemployed and active workers,
guidance and recognition to improve their qualifications.
 There are three areas covered:
 Training offer to specific target groups. VET training centres can implement
training units bearing in mind workers from a company.
 The validation of the training delivered in companies provides
academic certificates to people having successfully
undergone the established assessment procedures.
 The validation of informal education.
 In all cases, the candidates can obtain a training certificate, useful for the
accumulation of training units which lead to the achievement of a VET qualification.
 About 16.000 people have already achieved some kind of validation.
Adapting and making the VET Offer flexible

23. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
Participation in European projects.
The Catalan Ministry of Education has participated in several European projects to develop
the European dimension in Vocational Education and Training.
 The ECVET principles have set the guidelines for the experimentation and
implementation projects.
 The main topics are the transparency, transfer and recognition of learning outcomes,
and the accumulation of credits to achieve a qualification.
Adapting and making the VET Offer flexible
European
Comission - DG
Education and
Culture
Cooking – Electricity –
Sports
Car maintenance – Health
EQF 3-4-5
Hairdressing
Machining
EQF 3-4
Industrial vehicle
EQF 5
International
trade
Commerce
EQF 5

24. Introduction Spanish Education System Catalan Education System
More information:
http://www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/ensenyament
http://www.xtec.cat/estudis/fp/nova_fp/
Study visits for education and vocational training
Specialists from Switzerland
- VET Studies in Catalonia -
Monday, 06, May, 2013, 18:15
By:
José Antonio Martín
Sotsdirector General de Programes Formació I innovació
Direcció General de FPIiERE
joseantonio.martins@gencat.cat
 +34 93 551 69 00 - 6955

26. It is a VET system alternating work
placements with school-based training, in
which the tasks are coordinated between
the training centre and the company with
the recognition of the learning outcomes
acquired by the trainees during their
activity in the company

27. VET in simple alternance
 Simple alternance combines the usual training time at school
with a working weekly time at the company without the
recognition of the knowledge acquired at the company
Theoretical-
practical
Training
FCT*
Work
contract in
a company
through a
specific
agreement
At school At the company

28. Theoretical Practical
Training
Work
contract in a
company through a
specific agreement
At school At the company
Academicrecogniton
 Dual VET System with academic recognition of the
knowledge acquired in a company through:
 work
 An internship grant
 Vocational training in the company

29.  Offer
 It is possible to do it in all the VET qualifications from level 3 to level 5
 It is offered to all the students in a group class
 Duration of a qualification in the VET Dual System
 In general, the same as ordinary VET qualifications: 2 academic years
 The qualification could be organised in three years, especially if some training
alternative or complementary units are added
 In any case it can be shorter than the one stated officially in the curriculum.
 In general the internship grant or the work contract takes place in the second
academic year of the qualification

30.  Dual VET projects are implemented through an agreement
 Company’s responsibilities
 Welcoming the trainee with the internship grant or work contract
 Assigning an adequate work place to the agreed training tasks (with enough time to
acquire the agreed correspondent competence)
 Following up of the tasks performance and reporting back to the school
 School’s main responsibilities
 Programming, Organization and Coordination of the training process and recognition of
the learning outcomes acquired by the trainee through work and training carried out at
the company.
 Time allocation to each training module (in general, 2 hours work at the company equals
1 hour of training at school)
 Assessment of the trainee’s performance, both at school and at the company
 Evaluation of the acquired learning outcomes
 Setting up of the actions needed to improve the trainee’s competence acquisition
needed correcting actions on student’s training process to favour competence
acquisition

31.  Work Contract
 All types of contracts, to be fixed by the company
 We recommend: “contrato para la formación y el aprendizaje”
 Salary*: It’s established in the agreement (proportional to the time worked).
 Training grant
 Minimum of 2 months and maximum of 10, in 1 academic year
 Possibility of an extension if the required learning outcomes and competence
have not been acquired
 Monthly allowance*: to be negotiated between the school and the company. The
reference index is ‘IPREM’ (in the percentage of effective time worked)
 Social security as an employee
 Compulsory-in-company-training (FCT)
 An unpaid in-company-period, previous to the contract or to the training internship
grant, some ‘FCT’ hours’, can be agreed to facilitate a first contact with the
company. There’s a special agreement signed by the school and the company
with a contracted insurance policy.
*It’s recommended to fix only one type (contract or grant) and the same amount of money for all the companies
taking part in the same VET Dual Project

32.  An intensive general training period at school during the first year is
highly recommended.
 During the 2nd year, the alternance between the school and the
company happens as follows:
 Daily alternate attendance: some hours at school and some at the company
 Weekly alternate attendance : some intensive days at school and some at
the company
 Attendance in agreed periods:
– Alternate internship; for instance 2 weeks in the company, one at
school,...
– Intensive internships at the company during school holidays,...

33.  The company and the school can agree upon:
 The academic recognition of learning outcomes acquired
through work experience by the company unqualified staff
 The validation of learning outcomes acquired through in-
service training schemes within the company by trainees
and unqualified staff

34.  Increase of trainee's employability due to a greater contact and knowledge of the world of
labour between trainee and company
 The company becomes actively involved in the training of their prospective future workers.
 Advantages for the company
 Direct knowledge of trainee’s potential, which might help the company when replacing
retired staff
 Training at the company with own equipment, processes, values...
 Increase of the company’s potential thanks to new opportunities and the improvement
of the staff’s work competence and qualification
 Greater adaptability of the qualifications of the labour market
 Incorporation of new trainees in the in-service training scheme so that both the
trainees and the unqualified company staff, can obtain the academic recognition of this
training
 ...

35.  Reforma del Estatuto de los trabajadores
 Real Decreto-Ley 3/2012 de 10 de febrero, de medidas urgentes para la
reforma del mercado de trabajo (BOE de 11 de febrero)
http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2012/02/11/pdfs/BOE-A-2012-2076.pdf
 Desarrollo reglamentario
 Real Decreto 1529/2012, de 8 de noviembre, por el que se desarrolla el
contrato para la formación y el aprendizaje y se establecen las bases de la
formación profesional dual.
http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2012/11/09/pdfs/BOE-A-2012-13846.pdf
 Modelo de contrato y de acuerdo para la actividad formativa
 http://www.sepe.es/contenido/empleo_formacion/empresas/pdf/Mod._226.Enero12.p
 http://www.sepe.es/contenido/empleo_formacion/empresas/pdf/Mod._229.Enero12.p