There was, certainly, a time when a person’s training and professional career constituted two periods that did not overlap. A person finished their degree or degree and, with the exception of a few sectors, stopped studying and began a work career that lasted around 40 years. But that era, and this is a fact, has now ceased to exist.
“We must be aware that the training we receive has an expiration date. The technological revolution goes hand in hand with the reconversion of hundreds of thousands of jobs and professionals who need to reacquire skills and knowledge,” says José Manuel Mas, vice-rector for Academic Policy and Teaching Staff at ESIC. “When I was little they always told me: if you study medicine, you will have to study all your life. Well, what happened then with Medicine, now happens with most professions.”
This is not a fashion or a priority that someone wants to force for their own interest: companies, universities and Vocational Training agree on the need to make access to education more flexible to respond to the challenge and priorities of lifelong learning, which is It is becoming more concrete in the microlearning offer of universities and vocational training centers. A challenge that not only entails a profound process of transformation of the academic field, but also highlights the advantages of constant collaboration with the business community, so that the education received adapts as much as possible to the needs of the market.
Permanent training, training throughout life is, therefore, essential. “It is difficult to think that during the 40 years you have left [de trayectoria laboral], you will not need to recycle or catch up. So, on the one hand, there are those unemployed people for whom training can help them enter the labor market; and on the other hand, those who already work, but have to retrain,” explains Ángel Pazos, rector of the University of Cantabria and president of CRUE Teaching. But then, he adds, “there is a demand in society to continue learning. And although now 90 or 95% of our students are between 18 and 30 years old, the group of people in their 40s, 50s and 60s is going to increase.”
Modularization of training
Balancing training and work, however, is not an easy task. “In people’s lives, there are times when training is their main activity, and more or less extensive training options can be considered. But there are times when it is no longer your priority activity, and you have to make it compatible with other types of obligations, whether work, family or personal,” recalls Clara Sanz, general secretary of Vocational Training of the Ministry of Education. “So, if a system only offers training of 1,000 or 2,000 hours, there will be many adults who will not have the possibility of considering it, even if they need it.”
The answer, both in the field of the university and in that of vocational training, lies in the fragmentation of this training, or in other words, the microlearning or microcredentials: small training modules that allow you to acquire certain knowledge or skills without having to take longer and more complex academic programs.
Ultimately, it is about opening up training possibilities so that each person takes the content they need to improve personally or professionally, using a limited number of hours (15, 30, 60…). “In addition, all these trainings are portable, creditable and cumulative, so it may happen that someone completes a professional certificate, or that they do micro-training until they add up (if they want) the entire professional certificate,” Sanz illustrates.
Communication with the company, essential
If collaboration between companies and Vocational Training has been a constant (recently reformed, moreover, by the new law that generalizes dual training), the same cannot be said between universities and companies. A situation that, fortunately, is already being rectified, and that will be essential for the correct implementation of microcredentials. “I remember that, when I entered university, these were two worlds that practically did not see each other. But since then there has been enormous progress, and all universities have channels for the participation of the employer sectors,” says Pazos.
Both Pazos, Mas and Sanz agree that microcredentials will only be successful if the plan made by each university goes hand in hand with the business community: “If a training product does not solve a specific need, the market is responsible for responding and stops exist (…). Solid and up-to-date training is the best tool for employability,” says Mas, for whom these ongoing training opportunities “democratize and activate access to university; “Not only for kids who finish high school, but for any professional who wants to update their training.”
“It wouldn’t be good for us to make microcredentials based on what my professors can give in, for example, Computer Science, Law or Architecture. Of course, I have to know what they can provide, but the question should immediately be what the IT, law or architecture employer sector needs, whether in my community or in society in general,” adds Pazos. An objective to which future dual degrees and master’s degrees will also contribute, at the university, where, in the style of FP, a significant percentage of the entire degree will be done in the company itself and with company tutors, with shared programs. “We are all already processing it, and some universities have already approved several degrees and dual masters.”
But, in addition, the future of micro-formations depends, above all, on ensuring their sustainability. To this end, the Government has allocated 50 million euros with which it wants to train 60,000 people in two years; funds that have already reached the autonomous communities: “The universities have already issued microcredentials this year, but it will be next year (2024-2025) when the plan is completely defined,” says Pazos.
For the Cantabrian rector, the success of these new micro-trainings depends not only on the catalog itself, but on several fundamental aspects: first, intensifying the dissemination work that universities already do, an objective for which they have proposed the creation of a national registry of microcredentials in which people could consult, in real time, the available training offered in a certain area at any given time; second, go hand in hand with the business sector, which, he indicates, “the logical thing is that they spread them among their people, so that they reach the workers,” but also with the Public Administrations and social and cultural institutions of all guy; third, that the financing received is permanent; and, finally, that this new type of training is valued among the educational community itself.
“A certain change of chip is needed; “Begin to realize that teaching these new degrees is also important for the evaluation of the teaching merits of a teacher’s career.” And the thing is that, until now, in the accreditation processes, teachers were evaluated for their teaching in official degrees. “If we want the teacher to be involved in these trainings, both the evaluation agencies, the Ministry and the communities must value them in their teaching.”
The importance of accrediting skills
In parallel to the development of continuing training programs, and as part of the reform of Vocational Training in Spain, it is necessary to remember the initiative for the accreditation of skills, aimed at those people who, even without having anything accredited, have acquired a series of competencies through their professional practice. “Until now we have one and a half million people who have accredited their skills to be in the Vocational Training register with what they already know how to do, or complement it with other training to grow in their positions; and we hope to reach two million,” explains Sanz.
Documentary accreditation of professional skills is something that, in the opinion of the general secretary of FP, has a profound impact on people’s lives. “First, because it is a means of motivation and empowerment for workers, but also because not having the skills they have recognized makes them very vulnerable,” she says. “Because, in the event of a crisis or job loss, they have nothing to prove that they are a good, mediocre or very bad worker.”
The benefits of these accreditations also benefit companies: firstly, “because it is one of the elements that generates the most loyalty and feeling of belonging in workers,” says Sanz, but also because, in this way, organizations They can undertake the training and updating of their own workers and, thus, remain competitive. The accreditation of skills is the first step for each company to know its talent map (what its employees know how to do); and from there, plan the training actions that they need most to do their job better. Turn to reskilling y al upskilling, aims, avoids having to look outside the talent that may already be part of its structures.
Along with the recognition of these professional skills, the Government will launch, in the second half of 2024, a large process of accreditation of basic skills (linguistic, mathematical and digital) that will make it possible for many people, even without having the required academic qualifications , can access mid-level vocational training programs or adult training programs, and even continue training through professional certificates or higher-level training cycles.
How do I prove my professional skills?
With the reform of Vocational Training, Clara Sanz indicates, accrediting professional skills goes from being a one-off process that had to be opened through calls to being a permanent procedure now available in all autonomous communities. Thus, any citizen who does not have a professional certificate or a vocational training degree can prove what he has learned working in his profession, in many cases since he was 16 years old.
The accreditation process is simple: the person has to go to their education department (or provincial directorate), and there they will be told, depending on the specialty in which they want to be accredited, where they have to go: “Most of it is done in the centers that provide training for that professional family: if I am a mechanic and I want to obtain certification in that field, they will direct me to the center that teaches mechanics. In other cases, there are specialized centers for the accreditation of skills, and practically all of them have an online platform where they have all the necessary information,” says Sanz.
Afterwards, they present their work resume and go through a process in which an advisor and an evaluator will check that person’s documentation and whether they need to go to the workplace to verify that they know how to do what they say they know how to do. And, finally, said competence is recognized (or not) and incorporated into the Vocational Training registry. “From there, that worker will be able to access additional training (normally small, for this profile of people) and end up obtaining a professional certificate, a degree. For most of them, it will be the first accreditation they have ever achieved,” concludes Sanz.