The 2nd grade students high school have finished the course and are immersed in the preparation of the selectivity exams to access the college. Not all. There are students, still a minority but increasing year by year, who have already decided that they will do a higher degree of Vocational Training, an alternative to the university that is becoming more and more prestigious, largely due to the practical and more professional training and the high employability of its students once they have finished their degree. Increasingly students contemplate this option and increasingly the families they see it with good eyes.
It is the case of Igor Lalan. He just finished high school Claver School of Lleida. He is clear about what he wants to do: a higher cycle of Forest Management and Natural Environment. It will do it in Huesca. “I like nature and there are many subjects that interest me in this cycle,” says this resident of Esplús, in the Strip. At the time of deciding, the most practical training and job opportunities weighed on him. “I wanted something more practical, not so much theory to throw up on a test,” he explains. He has also taken into account that “there are university degrees without job opportunities.”
At home, his parents made the decision well. “What they did ask me was to finish high school and to do the selectivity, without pressure. But in the end, I won’t do the selectivity. I was already tired,” he confesses. The his mother, Cristina Labat, a teacher at the Claver, explains that when the time came to decide, they decided to trust the boy. “We decided that Igor would decide what would make him happy. University is not always the best option. The best thing is that he decides, that he finds his place,” she says, happy that her son has taken charge of what his life will be. future. She admits that in many families the option of a higher degree has not yet been normalized as a path as valid as university. Labat, who points out that the school guided Igor “very well”, has been able to verify the “incredible” change that FP has experienced.
Jana Salas He has completed a Bachelor of Performing Arts at the Maragall Poet Institute of Barcelona. He will not do the selectivity because he is clear that he will not go to university. “I’ve been looking, and there’s no grade I like.” Instead, she will attend a training cycle of Higher degree of Production for Audiovisuals and Shows. And he will combine it with a preparatory course for the entrance exam to the Higher Degree in Modern Singing, a four-year training comparable to a university degree. “I looked to see if I needed selectivity for this, but seeing that I didn’t, I decided not to do it,” he explains.
He has chosen the degree because it is the field of study that he likes. “And because it’s more practical. I learn from practice. And in a cycle you really learn and it gives you tools to move in the world of work.” “I really want to finally do something I like,” she says.
Salas is very critical of the guidance she has been given since high school. “They don’t guide you. They don’t explain anything about FP.” “It’s a shame,” says her mother, Carme Navarro, who believes that “guidance should be the great vindication.”
At home they always took it for granted that they would follow the high school-selectivity-university path. “Even years ago I was already anguished thinking about selectivity,” she says now, liberated. It is the path that her older brother began to end up leaving him and opting for a cycle. “He started Political Science and in the second year he saw clearly that it was not what he liked and he left it. Now he is doing a higher cycle of Sound for Audiovisuals and Shows. For his mother, he is an example of bad orientation. “He lost two years for a bad orientation. And he had a hard time when he had to tell us that he was leaving the university, “she recalls. Now, the boy is” happy, getting excellent and dedicating hours to what he likes “.
Navarro admits that the university has always been in the imaginary but at home they have always seen the option of FP as a good thing. “Now we are seeing that the university is not as much as one thinks and that FP works very well and, in general, has more professional opportunities than some university degrees.”
“Is it compulsory to go to university?” was the question that marc llorens he did to his parents when, in his 2nd year of high school at the Claret in Barcelona, the time came to consider which path to take. “I wasn’t sure about going to university. I thought about doing a degree in Business Administration, but there were subjects that I didn’t like and mathematics didn’t go too well for me,” he explains a few days after finishing the higher degree of International Trade. His parents supported him and were the ones who helped him in his search for options. “The school did not give detailed information about the training cycles, beyond pointing out the option. I missed that orientation,” recalls Llorens, who carried out and passed the selectivity. “At school they emphasized the university,” confirms his mother, Silvia Galiana.
This young man and his family went to the website of the Department of Education and there they analyzed all the higher education cycle options that matched the interests this student had. He found the one for International Trade and one for Administration and Finance. He chose the first. And the feedback now is very positive. “I liked it. He has been very practical, you see the utility of what you study and put yourself to the test”, says Llorens. His path will now continue through the college: in September the degree in International Business will begin. His family is happy with the way they have come. “It was a right choice. The practice encourages Keep studying. They see the utility”, Galiana points out. She explains that there are still people who are “shocked” that a good student chooses a training cycle, but points out that “when you investigate and inform yourself, you see that it is an equally valid path and with many options”.
the same road traveled Cristina Munoz. “I decided to study a higher degree because I wasn’t sure what career to study. I saw that the cycle was a good option because they are more practical and they teach you things that perhaps the university does not”, she recalls. She finally decided after friends told her about her experiences in the training cycles. So after finishing high school, she enrolled in the higher cycle of Laboratory of Analysis and Quality Control in the Miquel Biada Institute of Mataró. “I’ve always liked science and I wanted to know if working in a lab would be something I’d like,” she explains. This month she graduates and the experience couldn’t be better: “Luckily I loved it. I don’t regret my choice at all. I’ve learned a lot and it’s opened many doors for me,” she says enthusiastically.
His steps are now directed to the university. It will start in September Chemical engineering.
At home, the choice of Cristina was taken with initial prudence. “They have always supported me so that I could study whatever I wanted, but at the beginning, when I told them that I wanted to do a higher cycle, they were not very convinced because they did not know what it was and what it could contribute to me,” she says. Information was the key to change. “When they found out what it was about and the starts it offered, it seemed like a good decision. Now they are very happy.”
Timid change of expectations
The vision that the familys they have the option of a higher degree training cycle is changing, although there is still time to equate it to university. “Families do not see it badly because VT has evolved for the better and has gained prestige. They see that it is a good way out, that it allows them to get to know the terrain and access specific knowledge,” he says. Theresa Commasdirector of the Miquel Biada.
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“Transmission to families is very important,” he stresses. Nerea Guerendiaincounselor of Joan d’Àustria Institute. “We find ourselves with the family that only contemplates that their son go to university; others that value that you inform them of options and then there are those that in principle reject the option of cycles but then call you so that you explain it to them again.” The greater offer, the growing prestige of the cycles and the greater information are elements that are helping the change. “Families are receiving more and more information, they see that there are options open and everyone knows a neighbor, friend or cousin who has chosen the higher cycle path,” confirms Guerendiain, who warns that “there are still a few years of awareness.
the same way you see it Oriol Rodondirector of El Joncar Institute of Barcelona and promoter of a pioneer project in Catalonia for Baccalaureate aimed at FP in the Joaquima Pla i Farreras Institute of Sant Cugat. “Families have expectations and most of them expect their children to take the Selectividad exam and go to university,” she points out. She thinks that mentality has begun to change. This has been helped by the prestige of FP, which has higher cycles such as Radiology, “with a very high access mark and brutal professional opportunities”. He warns, however, that more time is needed and that educational centers open the way to make the path of cycles visible, just as they do with the path to university.