“I wanted to do a higher degree in diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine. I looked online and there was only one public institute that offered it in Madrid. I applied and was rejected. Then I started looking into private centers: prices, scholarships, etc. The only thing similar to mine that I could afford was a private center in Canillejas in mixed face-to-face-online mode because in the morning shift, the one that takes place in person and that I wanted, there was no more space. It was my best option. It will cost me around 6,500 euros for two years, or 250 euros per month. Since my parents can’t help me, I used some savings I had from last year and I also work as a waitress to pay for it.
The story of Natalia, 20, is that of several tens of thousands of young people throughout Spain who see their aspirations interrupted because they cannot access a public vocational training position. If you are looking for the definition of “dying of success”, the evolution of vocational training in Spain should be right next door. Also, at least in the case of the Community of Madrid, what are the privatization policies.
The data shows the growth of the private sector recorded in the last decade. The public sector has also grown, but at a much slower pace than the private sector, which is gradually closing the gap, as the graph shows. The private sector has grown by an average of 205% in the last decade, with peaks in Catalonia and Madrid. The public sector does not reach 75%.
The result of this evolution? That in ten years the private sector has gone from a quarter to a third of all vocational training. Once again, Madrid and Catalonia take the prize with half of the system in private hands.
From “study FP” to “sorry, no spots”
After years and years of campaigning to raise the image of what has historically been the poor sister and “for those who are not worth studying”, after convincing society that vocational training is such a valid way out and sometimes better than the level of employability that the university options (Baccalaureate and University), after investing hundreds of millions of euros, now make tens of thousands of people understand that they cannot follow the training cycle they want. That there are no public places, that they study something else or that they go private to pay thousands of euros for something that they could have for free or for a handful of euros. If things go wrong, they will join the statistic of people who have never obtained a high school diploma, a statistic that the State, at least in its speech, aspires to reduce.
Or wait a year, as Andrea Muñoz decided to do, who unfortunately has the experience of being excluded from the FP. Two years ago, he tried to do the Intermediate Diploma in Video Disc Jockey and Sound Technician. He applied for seven centers. Water in the seven. He returns to the fray in 2023, with the same result. He decided, in order not to sit idly by, to study the baccalaureate, an increasingly common option among those excluded from the FP and which at the same time leaves without a place the students who wanted to do the baccalaureate. So far, he has not lost confidence, he says, and he will try again next year.
This young woman has experienced first-hand the stubborn reality, beyond the institutional messages that value vocational training or the fact that Moncloa periodically allocates millions of euros to the autonomous communities to create public squares. For several years, the supply of public vocational training has not been able to absorb the demand.
In the Community of Madrid, the number of students enrolled in private centers has increased in a decade by 1,523% in the middle classes (which is equivalent to multiplying by 16) and by 844% in the upper classes (nine times more for this alternative stage to secondary school). university)
In the Community of Madrid, every year more and more people are rejected by a system that has given priority to the private over the public, without concealment. The number of students enrolled in private centers has increased by 1,523% in the middle classes in a decade (which is equivalent to multiplying by 16) and by 844% in the upper classes (nine times more for this alternative stage to the university). There are degrees in high demand and employable, especially in caring families (as happened to Natalia), which are little taught in the public network. Translating all this into the daily lives of so many people: the 40,000 excluded last year have increased this year to 50,000, according to a first study by the CCOO that does not even include all the centers because the information is not public. One in two candidates is excluded.
In Catalonia, they are more transparent. The Generalitat recognizes the problem, measures it and tries to solve it, but so far without success. Every year, the number of candidates without a place increases. Last year, there were 20,000 in the first round and now there are more than 30,000, with some nuances: today we will know which of these 30,000 will enter in the second round in one of the 10,000 vacant places in studies that they did not choose. and, in addition, the Ministry of Education realized after the fact that half of these 30,000 did not meet the requirements to follow a vocational training course (these are students who pre-registered before obtaining the ESO diploma but who then failed).
It’s very frustrating because it feels like you’re never going to get there. Why do I have to enroll in something I don’t like just to study something?
Virginie, 32 years old
They are not the only autonomous communities that exclude people from the public network, but they are the ones that do it the most, also the only ones that charge for studies on the public network and that also have the loudspeaker to make them transcend. But Rebeca Sánchez or Pablo Rodríguez in Asturias, Daniel Bernal in Zaragoza or Virginia J. in Jaén represent a national problem.
“I feel like I’ll never make it”
Virgina, 32, says she wanted to go back to school. She wanted to enroll in an intermediate nursing assistant in Linares, Jaén. With his average of 8.5 in the higher level that he obtained in 2018 and 7 in the baccalaureate, he was confident of achieving it. He was not accepted and is in position 8 on the waiting list. “I have only tried it in one center, because it is the one that interests me, but I remember that before it was much easier to access FP,” he reflects. “It is very frustrating because you feel like you will never achieve it. Why should I enroll in something I do not like just to study something?” he asks.
Because the alternative, however crude, is to go private, like Ana RM, who already has some experience of Madrid closing the door in her face. This young woman applied for the intermediate nursing assistant diploma three years ago and was not accepted, so she went to work to earn money. “I have been working since I was 18, almost four years in a gym, before that as a saleswoman and security assistant. “Everything that happened to me and it allowed me to combine it with my life and my studies.” The following year he asked for more, with the same result. But he did not want to wait any longer and opted for a private center. In Santa Gema Galgani paid 310 euros per month.
Unlike some friends (“they went straight to the private sector because they knew they weren’t going to get into the public sector”), Ana is resistant to failure, she wanted to continue her studies and tried the public sector again. He applied for a place in the Higher Diploma in Early Childhood Education in Madrid. With his experience, he opened his doors and tried his luck in many centers: Villaverde, Fuenlabrada, Móstoles… “I even had the opportunity to play in San Sebastián de los Reyes, which is very far from me”. But even that didn’t work out and she had to opt for the private CCC center to continue her higher studies in early childhood education. As it is private, he has to work to pay the 264 euros per month that it costs him.
Anyone who has not found a place in the public sector and cannot or does not want to go to the private sector can only wait. That is what Pablo Rodríguez is doing in Asturias after applying for a higher degree in multiplatform application development. Rodríguez has outlined everything, in person or remotely. Expanding his options has not helped him. He still has a small hope that he will be called at the end of October, when the lists have just closed, but since he does not have much confidence, he has looked for a job in sales.
