The Law of Professional Training of the Spanish Government has led to a series of changes that we reported in LA LUZ. One of the changes is that from the first grade students are required to do internships in companies – they are even supposed to provide curricular content in companies! – which has put more than one teacher in a port so that all students can do internships in search of companies.

There is a larger network of companies linked to some areas of study in Vocational Training, but in other areas there are great difficulties in finding companies for all. “Some teachers are looking for companies like crazy people, they spend a lot of time on it, and they don’t have any hours of freedom to look for the practices of first-year students,” says Professor Xabier Jiménez, when asked about the panorama of the Basque Country. According to Mikel Bilbao, a teacher from Navarre, the teachers have become salespeople: “In the competition between the centers, we have to go to the companies to sell the youngsters so that they can dedicate themselves to them, so we are totally at the service of these companies.”

First-year students, who still have little knowledge and often do not prepare well, have to go to companies for a three-week internship. “The law says that they put into practice in the company what they have learned in school, but it is not true, in such a short time, even in the first level... In any case, they put them into very specific tasks in the companies and do not do much, just waste time. What we’re getting from a lot of small businesses is that they’re burnt out, that they’re poorly trained by students and that even if they’re good workers, it’s not worth it for three weeks,” says Jimenez.

In Navarre with filters

Mikel Bilbao tells us that they are quieter in Navarre, and the reason is clear: By order of the Government of Navarre, students who go to companies to do internships in the first level must pass the filter: those who have not passed several subjects do not go to internships, nor do those who have a serious lack of attitude, nor do they send the student who exceeds a certain amount without going to class to the company... As a result, the list of students is greatly reduced.

The only source of concern for these practices is not the number of students. According to the new law, and as we explained in the article, during these hours that the student will spend in the company, he must receive curricular content - something that has never been requested before - and that this is not real at all are clear to both Jiménez and Bilbao: “On paper everything will be OK for the company, that they have learned this and that, but in practice it is not real, they will not give any content. We will all have to lie in official documents and the inspection will ignore it.”

Also evaluate, the tutor of the company will evaluate, he/she must ensure that the knowledge associated with the modules has been internalized by the student in the company. The teacher from Navarre is clear: “There will come a time when the company will say ‘if I have to give 20% of the knowledge, in return for it you have to give me money (public money)’, and it is logical because they are asked for a job and a responsibility; it will become another source of income for the companies.” In fact, in the Spanish State, the employer has already anticipated that, if they need to format students, they must offer economic incentives to companies.