Continuing Vocational Education and Training (CVET) for a Changing World: The Case of Catalonia (Spain)

According to Luengo (2016), in Spain, the percentage of people in their working-age that have low or no qualification is over 22% higher than the EU-27 (including Norway and Switzerland) average. In what concerns people with intermediate qualifications, in Spain their percentage is less than a half compared to that in the EU-27 (including Norway and Switzerland), while the percentage of people with higher education is superior in Spain by 3%. Luengo (2016) argues that this is a serious problem because the projections are that half of the jobs that will be created in Europe in the next 10 years will require intermediate qualifications, therefore, if we do not change this situation, the future looks very negative for the Spanish society. We will present the results of our study carried out between 2015-2016, in this context of the Catalan system of continuing vocational education and training. The goal of our communication is to present the CVET system in Catalonia, with particular attention given to a government-run programme addressed to unemployed. This programme achieves a high rate employment for the people who participate and it offers high quality and innovative training, adapted to the necessities of individuals and of the markets.