Search

The paper discusses the development of Spanish Vocational Education and Training (VET) over the past four decades and the extent to which and ways in which joining the European Economic Communities in 1986 contributed to the transformation of Spain's VET system. The paper is structured in five sections: the justification of our choice of Europeanisation as a theoretical approach, a presentation of the system prior to accession into the European Union (EU), a description of the European VET policy defined in the Bruges-Copenhagen process, and an examination of changes in the Spanish VET at the turn of the century. The relations between the European and Spanish VET policies are then discussed in view of Europeanisation theory, particularly considering their specification in terms of the National Qualification Framework approved in 2002 and the European Qualification Framework (EQF) established in 2008 to examine adaptation and accommodation. The paper finishes by discussing how top-down and bottom-up trends based on the theory of Europeanisation have resulted in the current Spanish VET system adhering to its own national identity while converging with European recommendations.

Our contribution attempts to review the development of the field of didactics in Spain in the past 35 years and its contribution to the development and improvement of vocational education and training. We intend to show that the concern of didactics is an issue of great concern (and dispute) in Southern Europe, for which we will use Spain as an example. We will particularly analyse from a didactical approach (taking didactics as a normative applied discipline well established in academia) the possibilities that a traditionally school-based discipline has to improve the development of vocational education practice in and out of schools, for young and adult people, in terms of pedagogical innovation.

The system of validation and accreditation of professional qualifications in Spain is offered as a certification opportunity, especially for vulnerable groups. The procedure is presented as an evaluative proposal that allows some inequalities associated with training and employment to be addressed. In this article we analyse whether this system really fosters social cohesion, considering the political situation that frames the procedure and the educational approach underlying it. The research methodology combines the documentary analysis and interviews with the application of the Delphi method. The most relevant results show that the socio-political context is favourable to competences accreditation, while the lack of expectations of the population, as well as of financial resources is hindering its implementation. The educational approach focused on learning outcomes and the evaluative control give the process an instrumental and credentialist value. The government intervention on the accreditation system can turn the procedure into a new instrument of political control of curriculum and education. Learning responsibility is shifted to those that access the procedure, both accrediting and generating new risks of exclusion. In conclusion, the system will offer inclusion opportunities if contextual aspects that humanise the procedure are taken into account.