Sánchez announces another decree against cronyism in education: this time in vocational training.

Barcelona"The demand for vocational training has skyrocketed, and in parallel, the private sector is seeing an opportunity it previously overlooked and has grown twice as fast as the public sector in just a few years." This is how the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, described the situation of vocational training in Spain, where he asserted that some students pay up to 9,000 euros to study a vocational course. Faced with this surge, the Spanish government has announced its intention to curb private centers that do not guarantee the minimum quality standards for these studies.

In the same way that he announced he would do with the beach bars University professors, Sánchez explained this Wednesday that the Spanish government intends to pass a royal decree to "ensure that those who provide training do so with standards, rigor, and oversight." According to sources at La Moncloa (the Prime Minister's office), the objective of the measure is "to limit the opening of private centers that do not offer sufficient guarantees." It remains to be seen what the decree will actually entail, which Spanish government sources maintain will be put out for public consultation "in the next two months."

Skyrocketing increase

Data on students choosing which courses to enroll in shows that interest in private vocational training has skyrocketed across Spain. This is also true in Catalonia, where in the 2023-2024 academic year – the latest for which data is available – private vocational training It had twice as many students as just five years before.In fact, according to the same data, private vocational training (FP) clearly predominates over state-subsidized vocational training (FP) in the Catalan education system: while state-subsidized schools attract around 22,000 students, the number of students opting for private vocational training rises to 82,000. State-subsidized vocational training remains the most popular with 119,000 students, although it has grown less than private vocational training in recent years. However, distance learning plays a very important role in this dramatic increase in private vocational training. Of the 82,000 students attending private schools, more than half (around 59,000) do so through distance learning. This proportion drops sharply in the case of state-subsidized and state-subsidized schools, where students who teach classes... on-line or at a distance they do not represent more than 10%.

Regarding the situation throughout the State, a report published in 2024 by CaixaBank Dualiza and Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness shows that, in the last decade, the number of students who have chosen a private center to study a vocational training degree has increased. It has skyrocketed by 467% across the stateIn other words, the number of students in private vocational training programs has increased fivefold in ten years. During the same period, across the country, enrollment in public vocational training programs has grown by 31%, while enrollment in state-subsidized private programs has increased by 23%.