The Socialist Parliamentary Group obtained support in the last Plenary Session of the Regional Chamber on a motion to implement measures to reverse the problems derived from the implementation of the Vocational Training (FP) Dual strategy in the islands, such as the promotion of FP by the business sector and educational centers and compensate the hours to teaching staff.
The socialist motion was defended by the spokesperson for Education of the Socialist Group, Marcos Hernández, who recalled that FP has gone through multiple difficulties this school year, “which has led a large part of the teaching staff to feel overwhelmed and saturated.”
In this sense, he denounced the multiple problems of implementation of FP, with the request of different unions for the resignation of the Deputy Minister of FP himself, “a sign of the discontent in which they have plunged Vocational Training.”
“No one could have presumed in advance that there would be such a great lack of coordination this academic year in the operation of the centers with the implementation of Vocational Training, with a workload for teachers, with delays in the publications of the guidelines, problems and losses of places in companies and uncoordinated work from the Ministry itself. In short, very serious problems that for no reason can be repeated,” he denounced.
For Hernández, the Ministry of Education “is there to respond to a legal mandate” on the importance of Vocational Training, “and never to generate so much uncertainty and confusion as has occurred among teachers and the rest of the educational community.”
He also highlighted the approval by the State of Organic Law 3/2002 on the Organization and Integration of Vocational Training, with the vote against of the Popular Party (PP) at the time; “approval that seeks to respond to the needs of citizens, throughout their working lives, as well as to the productive reality.”
“This important and decisive objective cannot be called into question by poor management by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports, and even more so considering that our autonomous community was the first in Spain to have a document to develop the Law, the result of the work of the previous autonomous Executive, which agreed with employers and unions after receiving their support within the framework of the General Social Concertation Table,” he clarified.
The socialist deputy insisted that Dual FP is a powerful tool and lever for transformation, “called to turn this land into a land of more training opportunities and access to the labor market with better salary guarantees, and in no way can the PSOE allow the Canary Islands to be left behind.”
Hernández expressed his satisfaction for the approval of this motion in the Regional Chamber by the rest of the political groups, where the Government of the Canary Islands is urged to promote Dual Vocational Training with the help of the business sector and educational centers, with the involvement not only of the Ministry of Education, but also with the participation of the Ministry of Tourism and Employment, the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and Food Sovereignty, as already stated in the VII Social Concertation Agreements of the Canary Islands.
Through this motion, it was also approved to expressly define the various functions that the teaching staff has to carry out, including the relationship with companies, monitoring and prospecting, as well as specifying and detailing what relates to the compensation of hours during the period in which the student is in the company, determining that the complementary hours of the teaching staff are used exclusively for the functions of these teachings, excluding guards or other unrelated activities.
Hernández warned that the PSOE will be “very attentive” to the new Draft Budget so that the adequate financing for the implementation of Dual FP “is guaranteed and places the Canary Islands in the position it deserves in the educational, social, economic and job creation fields.”
