Europeanisation of VET – the Spanish Vocational Education and Training system and the influence of European education policy

ABSTRACT

The paper discusses the development of Spanish Vocational Education and Training (VET) over the past four decades and the extent to which and ways in which joining the European Economic Communities in 1986 contributed to the transformation of Spain’s VET system. The paper is structured in five sections: the justification of our choice of Europeanisation as a theoretical approach, a presentation of the system prior to accession into the European Union (EU), a description of the European VET policy defined in the Bruges-Copenhagen process, and an examination of changes in the Spanish VET at the turn of the century. The relations between the European and Spanish VET policies are then discussed in view of Europeanisation theory, particularly considering their specification in terms of the National Qualification Framework approved in 2002 and the European Qualification Framework (EQF) established in 2008 to examine adaptation and accommodation. The paper finishes by discussing how top-down and bottom-up trends based on the theory of Europeanisation have resulted in the current Spanish VET system adhering to its own national identity while converging with European recommendations.

KEYWORDS:

• Europeanisation
• history of education
• policy analysis
• comparative VET

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Legislative references

• Ley de 20 de julio de 1955 sobre Formación Profesional Industrial [Law of 20 July 1955 on Industrial Vocational Training] (BOE de 21 de julio de 1955)
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• Ley 14/1970, de 4 de agosto, General de Educación y Financiamiento de la Reforma Educativa [LGE] [Law 14/1970, of August 4, General Law of Education and Financing of the Education Reform] (BOE de 6 de agosto de 1970).
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• Ley Orgánica 1/1990, de 3 de octubre, de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo [LOGSE] [Orgánic Law 1/1990, of October 3, Overall Organization of the Educational System] (BOE de 4 de octubre de 1990).
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• Ley Orgánica 5/2002, de 19 de junio, de las Cualificaciones y de la Formación Profesional [LOCFP] [Orgánic Law 5/2002, of June 19, on Qualifications and Vocational Education and Training]. (BOE de 26 de junio de 2002).
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• Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación. [LOE] [Organic Law 2/2006, of 3 May, on Education.] (BOE de 4 de mayo de 2006).
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• Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre, para la mejora de la calidad educativa [LOMCE] [Organic Law 8/2013, of 9 December, for the Improvement of Educational Quality]. (BOE de 10 de diciembre).
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Notes

1. In Spanish; the law that changed the education system by extending compulsory education to the age of 16 in an attempt to establish a comprehensive secondary education system (see Martínez et al. 2015).

2. We must, however, consider that mobility in Spain has traditionally been scarce in in terms of labour force and even more so in education; instead, migration has been a hallmark of the country in difficult times, particularly in the 1960s, when migrants headed to industrialised European countries, and again after 2008 due to the financial crisis (Carmona et al. 2018). Other than migration, long-distance commuting rarely happens within the country and people tend to study and work where they live. Geographical mobility has not yet been a relevant driver in education or labour policies.

3. Detailed figures of these changes have been provided elsewhere (Martínez-Morales and Marhuenda-Fluixá 2020).

4. There were previously 22 in formal I–VET and 28 in non-formal VET.

5. There is no official demand from the EU concerning the number of levels. Given that there is an official translation mechanism that helps to relate the five Spanish levels to the eight EQF levels, comparability between qualifications is formally given, and this has never been perceived as a problem by Spanish authorities or social actors.

6. From 22 broad vocational qualifications into more than 170 specific ones and more than 300 vocational accreditations.

7. Take as an example the category (see Table 1) ‘operator’, which puts on the same level (level 1 of the Spanish NQF) those workers who have ‘basic general knowledge’ (EQF level 1) and workers who have ‘basic factual knowledge in a field of work or study’ (EQF level 2) (see Ros-Garrido 2014, pp. 249–250).

Table 1. Correspondence between the European Qualification Framework (EQF) and the Spanish National Qualification Framework (CNCP). Source: Ros-Garrido, A. (Ros-Garrido 2014)

8. In Spanish.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission [Erasmus+].