Vocational training (VT) has gained popularity among young Spaniards as an alternative to university education, but the lack of public places leaves thousands of students without the opportunity to continue their studies. This year, in Madrid, nearly 50,000 students find themselves without a place in a public vocational training center, which represents half of the candidates. A situation which is not exclusive to the capital and this is repeated in other communities such as Catalonia, where 31,000 students were also excluded from FP.
Marta, a young woman from Madrid, had to resort to private education to be able to study what she wanted: “I applied several times and there were none, and I had to register in the private education. My parents help me pay for the lessons. , thank God”, he comments. Like her, more and more students are opting for private centers. In just a decade, Registrations in these centers increased by 467%.
However, not all young people can afford this option. In Catalonia, The Generalitat released 10,000 additional places this montheven though there are still 5,000 students who cannot study what they want. “Some will be redirected to cycles, refined, and others will find themselves without a cycle,” warns the general secretary of the Catalan secondary teachers’ union.
The General Secretary of Education of the CCAA, for her part, points to the lack of public investment as the main cause of this problem: “There is a lack of public places because there is not enough investment”. The Generalitat of Catalonia recognizes the lack of foresight and assures that “there must be an obvious improvement for the next school year”, with the aim of preventing this lack of places from resulting in an increase in school dropouts.
