Continuing Vocational Education and Training in Spain: Current Organization and Challenges

From provider to partner? Main elements of the relationship between schools and small‐ and medium‐sized firms in vocational education work placements in the Basque and Navarre regions (Spain)

“…Using Busemeyer and Trampusch, (2012) categories, the Spanish skill formation system can be seen as characterized by high public commitment to VET (of a ‘statist’ type) and low involvement of firms in initial VET. In this respect, the literature on the Spanish case has documented a lack of company involvement or commitment to the VET system, particularly in the case of SMEs, which only resort to VET schools when they have specific staffing needs, and lack a culture of training (Martín et al, 2020; Rego‐Agraso, 2018; Rego‐Agraso et al, 2015, 2017, 2019; Rigby & Ponce Sanz, 2016). Therefore, one would expect that the difficulties and limits to SME participation in VET documented in the international literature about different types of VET systems (e.g., Baumann & Vossiek, 2022; Bishop, 2015; Nilsson, 2010) be aggravated in the Spanish case.…”