“…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.…”