Some 1,600 Catalan students have pending assignment to a vocational training (FP) place when the course has already started, which still has 14,603 vacant positions in the system. These are data given this Wednesday by the ‘Minister’ of Education, Anna Simó, and that reflect the problem of mismatch between supply and demand.
The figures reflect the imbalance between supply and demand and insufficient guidance
The students waiting for a place have not found a destination in the studies they wanted but the system has plenty of vocational training places. Insufficient guidance, one of the challenges facing the Catalan educational system, also looms in this scenario. The Department has in the phase of preparation of a guidance decree which must come to alleviate this gap and which is part of the new FP map in Catalonia.
All continuity students have started the course with an assigned place
Specifically, in FP middle grade There are 7,375 vacant places and 959 students have been left unassigned, of which more than 200 have already enrolled in other training.
In superior grade There are 7,228 first-year vacancies, which will be available for students, and 879 students have been left unassigned.
Positively, the Department has stressed that the course has started with all the continuity students intermediate level -those who come from ESO, Baccalaureate or adult training-, with assigned place. This is 33,857 students. Of these, initially around fifty were left without assignment, but Educació contacted them to offer them other options and they have been relocated.
Favorite cycles
The most popular intermediate grade cycles by the students who have participated in the pre-registration process are Auxiliary Nursing Care, with 8,917 applications; Microcomputer Systems and Networks, with 6,302 applications; Administrative Management, with 4,412 applications; Guide in the Natural Environment and Leisure Time, with 3,637 applications, and Electromechanics of Automobile Vehicles, with 3,055 applications.
The most requested courses in higher education have been Early Childhood Education, with 4,161; Administration and Finance, with 3,853; Social Integration, with 2,954; Marketing and Advertising, with 2,117, and Clinical and Biomedical Laboratory, with 2,064 applications.
Related news
In the presentation of the 23-24 course, Simó highlighted the incorporation of 698 new teachers in FPwhich has a staff of 81,355 teachers for this course, as well as a higher FP offer, more students and an increase in groups in the most popular grades, among other improvements, to strengthen FP, which has “a strategic role” for the Government.
Pending is the salary equalization of vocational training teachers with secondary school teachers. A no small issue that has an impact on the availability of teachers for these studies.