Vocational Guidance for Workers in Alicante

Vocational Guidance for Workers in Alicante - Spain

Vocational Guidance for Workers in Alicante - Spain

Source: European Union

Regional Policy Concerning Vocational Guidance for Adults
The General Provision of Vocational Guidance for Adults
The Role of the Social Partners in Vocational Guidance for Adults

Regional Policy Concerning Vocational Guidance for Adults

The New National Vocational Training Scheme (1998-2000) intends to implement public and private vocational training plans, seeking the adaptation of the professional qualifications provided by the three vocational training sub-systems (official/initial, vocational and continuous).

The intended result is a professional qualification of higher quality for the person, in whatever educational and professional situation he or she may be, all within the framework of a more competitive production system and of a constantly changing economy with new demands and new social requirements to be dealt with.

One of the basic objectives of the new National Vocational Training Scheme is to "develop an integrated system for labour information and guidance".

This comprehensive system is intended to reach all the groups potentially interested in information on employment. The groups that ought to be given labour information and guidance according to this plan are:

Students in the education system, and where applicable, their families.
Unemployed workers for whom finding a first or later job requires professional qualification.
Occupied workers, in order to maintain employment and employability, as well as their professional promotion, with support in continuous vocational training schemes or forms of vocational training for adults.
Businesses, especially SMEs, in order for these to have the data required for implementing their human resources policy.
Training schools, in order for these to be able effectively to inform and guide their students, and the families and companies in the surrounding areas.
Finally, society in general.

The ultimate purpose of the information and guidance system is none other than to facilitate people's employment and progress. This means that the system has to rest on the network of public employment service centres, with which the other vocational training and guidance services of education centres, concerns and bodies for information and training should be co-ordinated, in order to be able to attain the objectives set.

The following are some of the more important measures for developing professional information and guidance systems:

Reinforcing vocational guidance work, by defining the measures and instruments for co-operation and intermediary work, allowing the information and guidance functions in all vocational training subsystems to be interrelated.
Extending and improving the operation of services and resources and co-operation of training schools located in Autonomous Communities, whether public or private.
Informing the different groups about the contents of vocational training as well as of the professional perspectives and opportunities.
Systematically and continuously updating the human resources devoted to information and guidance functions, in order to improve the quality of the service.
Applying databases and other information/communication technologies for facilitating vocational guidance, guaranteeing their compatibility.
Interconnecting services and institutions connected especially with vocational guidance and information.

Alicante is one of the three provinces which form the Valencian Community and this is one of the seven autonomous communities in Spain which have been assigned employment management powers.

In January 1999 the Valencian Community was given full competence in fostering employment and handling vocational professional training, vocational intermediation and working conditions. This challenge culminated on 17th April 2000 in the creation of a body called the Valencian Employment and Training Service (SERVEF). It has been stipulated that the SERVEF is to exercise its full powers in at most two years from its establishment. At present SERVEF is in the establishment phase.

The Service was set up on three basic principles:

The body's functional autonomy.
The participation of social and economic partners in its governing bodies.
The establishment of operative structures allowing a territorialized and sectorialised design, meaning that this can structure employment programmes assigned to it over specific geographic zones and particular sectors and achieve comprehensive and co-ordinated management of all the schemes involving training and finding employment for citizens in the working world.

To sum up, SERVEF is to act as a concern for achieving the following objectives:

Acting as a support for the Autonomous Community Authority's employment policy.
Guiding the formation of employment guidance measures.
Going more deeply into the analysis and study of the labour market.
Giving effective help to businesses in fields within its competence.

One of its functions in which we are particularly interested is "… the creation of new services for guidance and assessment of a comprehensive nature, at the offices providing services for people and businesses, in the most effective and co-ordinated way, by establishing lines for special support for groups such as unemployed women and others who encounter discrimination".

The General Provision of Vocational Guidance for Adults

As has already been stated, competences in vocational guidance matters were transferred from the National Employment Institute (INEM) to the Valencian Community and the Autonomous Community Ministry for Economy, Treasury and Employment is in charge of handling this function.

The Centres for Vocational training and Employment (FIP Centres) were set up for this purpose. As their name indicates, these are centres for vocational and continuous vocational training meant for both unemployed and employed workers, giving courses designed to match the training needs detected and the sectors of influence in the zone where these are located. Their main objective is to facilitate access to the employment market and to raise the professional qualification level of students.

Its sphere of action is county-based, there being eight administrative counties in Alicante and four FIP centres for the time being in Alicante province, in the city of Alicante, Elche, Elda and Orihuela, covering a geographical area consisting of the following counties: l'Alacantí, Alt Vinalopó, Vinalopó Mitjá, Baix Vinalopó and Vega Baja.

Its functions are:

Seeking out training needs in the zone of influence
Programming courses depending on the needs detected.
Approval of co-operating centres.
Follow-up and quality control of the training given.
Support for active job-seeking: employment information and guidance.
Support for the educational regulation of the most representative professional family in the county.
Running courses for methodology or recycling vocational training teaching staff.

As can be seen, vocational training is restricted to the sphere of finding employment. Although these centres are also meant for active workers, this group only benefits from the continuous training provided by these centres. Clearly vouching for this is for example, the fact that if we observe the work programmes developed by the Alicante FIP Centre, we find the following:

Job-seeking programme
Programme for practical training in business.
Programme for remote training.
Workshops for training and job-finding for the long-term unemployed.
Workshops for training and job-finding for women.
Workshops for training and job-finding for people under 25 years of age.
Workshops for training and job-finding for the handicapped.
Workshops for training and job-finding for groups of people in a socially alienated situation.

Six of these eight schemes involve help for finding employment for particular groups at a disadvantage. The other two refer to continuous or vocational training without making any reference to vocational guidance.

What is more, when this was checked by telephone (by calling the telephone service of the Ministry of the Economy, Treasury and Employment's Central Training Administration), we found out that these centres organise vocational training courses only for the unemployed. In the event of the person interested in being given vocational guidance being a worker, all they do is give the telephone numbers of the centres organising continuous training.

These centres are located at the two trade unions and the only business organisation existing in Alicante.

The Role of the Social Partners in Vocational Guidance for Adults

One of the pillars on which the New Vocational Training Scheme is based is the participation of the General State Administration, of social partners and Autonomous Communities, in the General Council for Vocational Training.

Apart from this, the first of the principles of organisation and development for the SERVEF's work that we find is the participation of the most representative economic and social partners in the Valencian Community.

The participation of social partners in both the national and autonomous community sphere is thus a necessary and key matter, as well as the fact that these are entrusted with carrying out the fields of work involving training and vocational guidance for active workers.

By examining the role played by social partners in this sphere it can be seen that priority is given to work as regards vocational guidance meant for the unemployed. Active workers only benefit from continuous training courses for recycling their knowledge and skills. After an analysis of the role played by social partners in matters of vocational guidance, as given below, we only found evidence of one union giving this to active workers.

Comisiones Obreras (CCOO)

CCOO, www.ccoo.es, is the main Trade Union in Spain, as regards the numbers of members and union delegates, representing millions of workers in all sectors of activity.

It has a guidance service for seeking employment in order to put the unemployed in a better position on the employment market and to get greater job possibilities. It offers information, guidance, active employment-seeking and assistance for self-employment, but as has already been seen, only for all the unemployed registered at labour exchanges:

Students of occupational training courses
The unemployed and long-term unemployed
First job seekers

From this service CCOO has got under way a system for information and guidance for active workers taking part in its continuous training courses.

Information and advice is given to be able to promote or maintain the job of work, extend training and even change jobs.

This is a way to take precautions against any negative circumstances affecting work and to anticipate changes by analysing the personal and labour situation, information about the working environment and updating skills by means of training.

The training service can give information on:

Training (courses, assistance…)
Expanding professional sectors and assistance
New sources of employment
Public and private employment offered
Professional profiles
Professionalism certificates
Job-seeking techniques
Setting up companies
Resources as regards employment and training

Advice for workers to help them:

Identify their working profile
Determine their professional objectives
Establish their working course
Techniques developing their personal skills for maintenance and /or promotion at work.

Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT)

UGT, www.ugt.es, is the second biggest trade union in this country, and has the Institute for Training and Social Studies, which is a beneficial-educational body, aiming to act as a technical instrument for occupational/vocational training and able to cover the training requirements of workers as regards technological advances and new emerging professions.

The Institute for Training and Social Studies, IFES, www.ifes.es, considers the worker as the main aim of its training work and schemes, bearing in mind his or her aspirations for individual, professional and social promotion and having clearly-set objectives to achieve this.

Updating and improvement of workers in doing their jobs.
Vocational and occupational guidance of young people in the situation of access to the first job.
Design of courses, preparation of didactic material and audio-visual resources.
Running courses and training schemes though an active and participative methodology integrated in adult training.
Organisation of courses, seminars, conferences, colloquiums and other activities referring to professional and occupational training.
Co-operation with institutions on a national and international sphere connected with vocational and occupational training.

As can be seen in objective 2, reference is again made to vocational guidance, but for the unemployed. Specifically, the Valencian Community branch (with representation in Alicante) establishes as one of its priority objectives the need to carry out active employment policies and for access to the labour market improving the market appeal of job-seekers.

La Confederación Empresarial de la Provincia de Alicante (COEPA)

COEPA is the only business organisation in Alicante province which represents 90% of the companies in all the production sectors of the province. The companies are represented at COEPA through federations and associations, on both sectorial and county levels, apart from the ones whose own particular characteristics mean they are not members of any of these groups.

The training of businessmen and workers, both active and job-seekers, is one of COEPA's priority aims, and the COEPA training department carries out the following activities to this end:

Diagnosis of training requirements
Preparation of schemes for training, assessment and other complementary activities
Giving training courses on its own premises or by co-operating with external media

The constant concern of the Business Confederation for training businessmen and workers led this to create a foundation specifically devoted to this work in 1995. Since it was set up the COEPA Foundation for Training has gained well-deserved prestige, proving it has great capacity in human and technical resources. The particular attention given to adapting the timetables to workers' availability has enabled them to get a high level of attendance and increase the training work done.

At present the service for vocational guidance is offered only to the unemployed in order to help these, through occupational training, to find a job, but they are highly interested in extending this service and making it available to active workers.

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