A large number of organisations and institutions in both the
public and private sector
provide this type of service. Moreover, it should be borne in
mind that the process of
decentralisation at present under way has meant that government
authorities at local
or autonomous community level tend to develop their own
counselling services.
Since it would be impossible to enumerate and describe every
service, we shall adopt
our previous practice of discussing only those whose structure
or function qualifies
them to be regarded as typical, or which are responsible for
counselling a substantial
number of people, as is the case of INEM.
A number of bodies exist to provide information and guidance
which, here again, are affected by the current process of decentralisation. The system functions
at three levels. The first is the class or group of students who are entrusted to a tutor with
general responsibility for the group, even though tutorials usually only take up a few hours a
week. The second is the school, which is the responsibility of a vocational counselling
department that uses the infrastructure of INEM, and the third the school system in the
district or sector that appoints the guidance teams.
The following facilities exist at the various stages of
education:
primary school: Basic
vocational guidance with a psychopedagogical emphasis;
baccalaureate level:
School vocational counselling departments;
regulated vocational
training: has a compulsory vocational
training and guidance module. It includes an introduction to careers managed by the
school concerned in collaboration with a teacher/tutor from the work-based training
centres for the appropriate cycle. In other cases responsibility lies with the school’s
vocational counselling department;
informal vocational
guidance usually available at
job-centres;
training for
university students. The career
information and guidance centres are the responsibility of the Ministry of Labour, through INEM and the
university authorities. They were set up in order to assist recent graduates to find
employment;
guidance provided
through INEM: Services to the public are
channelled through INEM and the autonomous communities using their own means and
non-profit cooperating bodies which are not subsidised. Principal among these are:
integrated employment
services. These include an analysis of
the employment market and measures designed to improve the chances of finding
work (vocational information, interviews, vocational qualifications, personal
employment and training plan or mixed employment/vocational training programmes);
guidance and
assistance with finding employment or
setting up one’s own business. This includes:
personalised tutorials in
which the counsellor and user agree on the steps to be taken in order to ensure an optimum route to employment;
developing personal
job-related skills, group work designed to influence personal aspects liable to facilitate and sustain job-seeking
activity;
job-seeker groups: a
group activity designed to help with the acquisition and development of skills to facilitate active job-seeking;
interview workshops: a
group activity aimed at increasing job-seekers’ basic theoretical and practical knowledge and personal resources to
enable them to cope with job interviews with a greater chance of success.
assistance in
setting up one’s own businessinvolving
provision of information and motivation to become self-employed and help in assessing
projects for so doing;
guidance through other
bodies. Especially worthy of mention in
this connection are the Institute for Youth and the Institute for Women.
Vocational guidance in the context of regulated vocational
training
Vocational guidance at secondary school level, which covers both
Levels I and II
vocational training and middle and higher level vocational
courses, exists at three levels:
At classroom
or group level. This
is the responsibility of a tutor who assumes general responsibility for the group even though tutorials
usually only take up a few hours a week.
At school
level. This is the
responsibility of a vocational counselling department which uses the information provided by the INEM counselling and
employment departments, at least in the territory for which the Ministry of
Education and the autonomous communities of Catalonia and Andalusia are
responsible. These departments are active in the following fields:
assisting the teaching and learning process;
academic and vocational guidance;
tutorial activity.
At school
system level in the
district or sector which appoints the guidance teams. These:
help to coordinate curricular planning between primary and
secondary schools in a given area;
develop, adapt and disseminate educational guidance material
and aids.
Both middle and higher level training courses include a
vocational training and guidance
module for each specific area. These are developed by the
counselling departments of the
centres concerned using information provided by the employment
counselling services.
Employment information and counselling centres exist at a large
number of universities.
These are managed by INEM, or the autonomous communities with
transferred powers,
and provide information and career guidance for those completing
university courses.
They also act as intermediaries between students and firms for
placement purposes.
Non-profit associations with similar functions also exist at
this level. They are managed by
students and provide opportunities for practical training in
firms within Spain or abroad.
Many professional associations offer training, which is
generally not free of charge,
and also award a number of working scholarships for their
members.
Parents are an important source of information and guidance of
an informal nature,
especially in the initial stages of a person’s career. Most
parents feel responsible for
ensuring that their children achieve a smooth transition to
adult working life.
According to a European Commission report on educational and
vocational
counselling services in the European Community, parents often do
not feel themselves
sufficiently involved in the official counselling process. This,
according to the report, is
due in part to the fact that the counselling services often seem
to distrust the influence that parents might have and are doubtful as to whether their
influence is necessarily
in the best interests of the young people concerned. Not
infrequently parents seek to
inspire their children with their own ambitions. At the same
time, sometimes
pessimism as to the likelihood of finding work may have a
depressing effect.
Consequently, the counselling services generally prefer not to
involve parents in the
interviews they hold, or in other activities used to guide their
children.
Together with training programmes for the unemployed, integrated
employment
services are part of the government’s active employment policy
and are, in a way, a
preliminary stage of training. They are regulated by RD 735 of 5
May 1995 and
subsequently by ministerial orders of 10 October 1995 and 20
January 1998.
It is hoped, through cooperation agreements with INEM linked to
the provision of
INEM grants, to involve public sector and private non-profit
bodies in studies of the
labour market and in establishing career routes which include
information and
vocational guidance, job-finding techniques, job creation
incentives and all those
activities of an innovative nature designed to enhance the
employability of
unemployed workers.
The aim of these various initiatives is to personalise the
counselling given to the
unemployed, so as to adapt it to their particular personal and
work situation and take
account of the psychology of each person in order to choose the
most appropriate
option in each case. This involves combining a number of
services in order to
accompany and assist a job-seeker throughout the process of
finding employment.
The subject matter of a cooperation agreement falls under a
number of headings:
Analysis
of the labour market. This
involves carrying out studies in various regions and sectors of industry in order to discover the typical
features of their labour markets and the differences between them, so as to be
able to plan activities such as information, career guidance and job-seeking.
Devising
processes for enhancing the employability of job-seekers according to the specific needs of each. This
will involve some or all of the following:
An in-depth
personal interview aimed
at identifying the profile of a job-seeker and hence determining what means are best suited to help him/her
find a job.
Occupational
classification: This
involves defining the qualifications of individual job-seekers for a given type of occupation and making an
assessment of practical skills and technical knowledge in order to define the person’s
occupational profile.
A
personal career and training plan: This
is undertaken in the case of job-seekers who have no plan of their own and have not decided on action to
take to improve their chances of finding a job, in order to help them
adopt a systematic approach to job finding.
Job
information: This
is designed to provide sufficient information regarding the regional employment and job situation for each job-seeker.
Work-related
personal development: This
involves activity directed at job-seekers experiencing special difficulty in finding employment because of
the barriers they have themselves assumed or created, including
discouragement, lack of selfconfidence, inhibitions when it comes to taking decisions and seeking
solutions to the problem of unemployment, and an inability to take
responsibility for planning their personal career and training programme.
Active
job-seeking: This
involves providing those concerned with a knowledge of the methods that will enable them to find a job, and helping
them put them into practice.
Mixed
training/employment programmes which combine the process of guidance, theoretical training and the possibility of on-the-job
learning: These activities come under the vocational training and insertion
(FIP) plan discussed in paragraph 3.5.3, and the programmes of the training workshop and
craft centres (see paragraph 3.5.8). The action plan for employment (see
Section 6.2) allows for the creation of a new mixed type of programme combining
training and employment and known as ‘employment workshops’.
Specific
plans for the acquisition of work experience.
Information
and assessment for those contemplating self-employment or other entrepreneurial initiatives: The
purpose here is to motivate, inform, advise and follow up job-seekers who, either because they have difficulties
finding a job or because of their personal inclination, show interest in starting
up their own firm.
Other bodies providing vocational guidance services
The Institute for Youth (Instituto
de la Juventud),
which comes under the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, provides advice and assistance to
young people seeking employment, young entrepreneurs wishing to set up in business or
become involved in a cooperative or other type of business activity, and young
people needing information on the laws governing employment or educational and
training opportunities, training abroad, etc.
The Institute for Women (Instituto
de la Mujer)
also comes under the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and has as its basic objective to
promote social equality. It offers information and guidance on employment, education and
vocational training free of charge.
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".
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.
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.
