On the other hand, the IV Vocational Training of the Basque Government The Basque Plan aims to make progress towards the normalization of the Basque language in Vocational Training. In addition, as in other areas of the education system, new teaching methodologies have already been initiated in Vocational Training. All these signs point to the fact that in the future, in a multi-choice labour market, there will be well-trained multilingual workers.

The promising future, however, cannot blind us, especially with regard to the normalization part of the language. If you start taking steps in this direction, it is because in professional training the situation of the Basque language is next to zero. For example, when pre-enrolment for the next academic year has just ended, of the 140 cycles offered in Bilbao for the 2017-2018 academic year, only 4 have been offered in model D (2.89%), the other 6 in models A and D (4.29%), and the other 10 in models A, B and D (7.14%), so that only the offer of model D is 20 cycles 1. However, this does not mean that these cycles will occur in this language. Evidently, there is a great dispersion in vocational training cycles, multiple specialties, initial vocational training, middle cycles, higher cycles, many families... For this reason, Model D groups are often not formed, or mixed groups are formed together with those of the other model. In other words, the fact that the student opted for the D model does not guarantee that they do so in Basque during their studies.

Offer of vocational training courses in Bilbao for the academic year 2017-2018

However, the offer of childbirth is wide, in all families, in all areas of vocational training and in all disciplines, since 74% of the cycles offered have been exclusively offered in model A, that is, they cannot be selected in another model. In addition, 94.29% of the cycles can be performed in Model A (132 cycles) compared to 14.29% in Model D (20 cycles). As a result, hegemonic languages become even more hegemonic due to the loss of minority languages when forming groups, i.e. when groups are created, preference is not given to minority language, but to hegemonic language.

Offer of vocational training courses by model for the academic year 2017-2018 in Bilbao

However, this is not the only challenge for vocational training in terms of linguistic standardisation, the difficulties that teachers encounter on a daily basis, among them the lack of teaching materials, for the same reason as mentioned above, which is the diversity of families and the dispersion of cycles. It is not profitable for publishers to create learning material, so only in transversal lessons there is Basque learning material. Among the projects that exist is Sabio (jakinbai.eus), a platform for the hanging of learning material in Basque; an institution that is doing a great job, porierto. This platform shares the learning material created by the teachers themselves, both in the framework of the Irale project and in their own way.

Another issue is the difficulties that students face in doing their internships in Basque. The sociolinguistic environment governs the labour market, but the world of work is sometimes not a mirror of society, at least not in Greater Bilbao. The fact that there is no Basque presence in the workplace does not mean that there are no Basques. The detection of these Basques would help to create spaces in which the trainee can carry out the work in Basque and, by the way, take the first steps in the basification of the business environment. It is not enough to say that the linguistic landscape on the Basque planet must be in Basque, or simply be a bilingual customer service person. We are talking about formal and non-formal daily relationships, between colleagues, between staff/clients, trainees, between the learning center and the company... The network of relationships is large and can be done in all areas, whether in writing, orally, externally or internally, either by pen or whatsapp, between peers, between superiors and subordinates. In this section, the Wise are also very active.

But between the world of work and vocational training there is another obvious shortcoming: the continuous training of workers and training for the unemployed, that is, all those courses that are outside the regulated education, of a specific number of hours and at the end, when they give us a diploma, which we put in the section of complementary training in our curricula. In this they are making interesting experiences in the area of Gipuzkoa to attract immigrants working in the care sector and the hospitality sector to the Basque language with the help of the association Bada, Gara; these experiences could be applicable to courses promoted by Mejor or Trades. But reality tells us that we are still a long way from giving these courses normally in Basque. At least in Bilbao, far away.

There are signs and shortcomings, if it is a centre for the promotion of the Basque language in Bilbao and in vocational training, called Harrobia. In the 2017-2018 academic year, and first of all, it offers the Marketing and Advertising cycle, together with the Microinformatics, Sport and 3D animation cycles that it previously offered. So we Basques in Bilbao have the opportunity to study Marketing, between Bilbao la Vieja and Miribilla. An opportunity to promote the world of work could be advertising in Basque. If so, let the marketing of the future be created in Basque!

Txabi del Corte in Elduaien

Teacher and tutor

Head of Linguistic Standardization

Head of Entrepreneurship