In terms of employability and labor market insertion for young people, VET (vocational education and training) is, without a doubt, an option to take into account.
Most of the jobs in Lanzarote are related to tourism, as a large part of the island's economy depends directly or indirectly on this sector. For this reason, the hospitality and tourism branch is the one with the most professional opportunities in VET and the highest employability in absolute figures of the courses offered by CIFP Zonzamas. Despite this, the healthcare specialty is the most in demand among Vocational Training students.
Every year, the Government of the Canary Islands conducts the Pilot study on labor market insertion in Vocational Training in the Canary Islands. In it, students who have completed their studies the previous year are asked about their situation at that time. This report collects data globally from all CIFP centers in the Canary Islands and for each of them. Due to the pandemic caused by Covid-19, the latest reference available is from students who finished their studies during the 2018/2019 academic year.
In the case of Zonzamas, the only official public CIFP center in Lanzarote, which concentrates the largest number of training courses, the aforementioned study indicates that 65% of professionals are working and 10% are looking for a job. 21% have decided to continue their studies, while the remaining 4% are not looking for work, so only 10% would continue looking for a job.
Víctor Quintana, deputy director of CIFP Zonzamas, explains to Ekonomus that studies related to healthcare are the most in demand, while those in the tourism branch offer the highest employability.
"The hospitality and tourism branch is having quite a bit of employability because agreements with the Chamber of Commerce, business associations, and companies are regulated. It is quite coordinated for students to go directly to these companies. It is quite accepted. They do internships, and most of them stay because they are already known in the company," he explains.
The courses that offer the most insertion into the labor market do not coincide with those that have the longest waiting list among students. A clear example of this is the healthcare branch, "where the difference is noticeable is the healthcare branch. This year we had up to 300 people on the waiting list," says Quintana.
Specialization or transversality, keys to labor market insertion
For Beatriz Salazar, director of the Centro Integrado de FP Microsistemas, the key to getting into the labor market for the first time, both for those who come from VET and for those who do so from any other higher education, is the choice between transversal or highly specialized training.
In the case of specialized training, as in the case of the healthcare branch and the specialty of dental hygiene, "employability could be above 90%".
Transversal training prepares the future professional for an activity that can be performed in practically any sector, as in the case of an administrative assistant, which offers a wider range of companies likely to require these profiles.
The training center located in Arrecife offers a wide catalog of VET courses of intermediate level, higher level, and double degree, covering transversal and highly specialized specialties.
A new training model, Dual VET
VET is experiencing a golden age again since a few years ago, the Government called on young people to consider the possibility of accessing them and not only show their interest in accessing university. This call was due not only to the high demand for enrollment in universities but also to the fact that the labor market insertion of training cycles is higher, as they offer a program with more hours of practical training, an aspect even more enhanced with the incorporation of Dual VET.
Due to the higher percentage of employability, there are university students who are considering switching to VET before finishing their studies or after finishing University, but so far, the validation system only exists from VET to University and not in the opposite direction.
Quintana explains that, in Zonzamas, Dual VET has the same duration as the other model. The cycles comprise 2 years, with the difference that "from the first year, part of the activities are no longer carried out in the center, but in companies." "We have been running Dual VET in Lanzarote for a few years now, the first ones were implemented in the 2018/2019 academic year. The gardening and floristry cycle is new this year, but the first ones have between 3 or 4 promotions of students already."
The novelty of this year in Dual VET, according to him, is the incorporation of the figure of the "prospectors". "Two teachers from the center are prospectors of Dual VET, who, in addition to carrying out their work in the center, are responsible for contacting companies and seeing if agreements can be made for our students to do internships in them."
The deputy director also comments that this year they have brought some specialization courses as a novelty in the center. These courses are aimed at people who have already completed vocational training in their branch and want to specialize a little before starting their professional career. These studies last one year. And he adds: "one of the new things that the new VET law has is that it seems that it is regulated that with certain university courses you can access these specialization courses. But this is still not very clear."
The gender gap in Vocational Training
Regarding the distribution of students by gender, some studies such as those in hospitality or administration maintain comparable percentages in terms of women and men enrolled.
Cycles such as computer science, electronics, or mechanics have been integrated by men almost entirely. Currently, the percentage of women in the classrooms is progressing. "The figures in automotive, for example, are between 2 and 3 girls per year, who finish their cycle, but they are 2 or 3 compared to 20. In the healthcare branch, the opposite happens, with approximately 70% of girls," says Quintana.
"The gap is quite noticeable," although "less and less," according to Quintana, "it will still take a couple of years" for the percentages of girls and boys in the branches of healthcare, personal image, electricity, automotive, or computer science to be equalized. In the rest of the branches, the number of women and men is similar.
"50% of students come from high school"
From CIFP Zonzamas they point out that, of the almost 1,500 people registered, about 200 students are minors, being "between 80% and 90% of the students of legal age." "Then there are those who start their studies being under 18 years old and throughout the course reach the age of majority," says Quintana.
"50% come from high school, the rest come from other higher cycles, from the university or through the access tests." In the intermediate degrees, mainly, they are young people of 18 years. While in distance courses, the ages of "30, 40, 50 years" predominate.
During the 2021/2022 school year, this educational center consists of: 17 face-to-face intermediate-level training cycles, 15 higher-level, also face-to-face, 6 semi-face-to-face (of which 2 are higher-level VET and 4 intermediate), 7 Dual VET (being only one of intermediate level) and 3 vocational training specialization courses, which are a novelty this year.
