The employment of Vocational Training technicians will tend to increase in almost all economic sectors in Spain between now and 2035, according to the conclusions of the latest Observatory on Vocational Training Vocational Training in the face of social challenges, prepared by CaixaBank Dualiza and Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness. The report, which estimates that 3.8 million of the 14 million employment opportunities that will be generated in that period will correspond to VET graduates, focuses on the central role that this training will have in the face of major social challenges such as population ageing, social integration, early school leaving (through Basic VET) and even the gender gap.

Of the 20 economic sectors catalogued by the National Classification of Economic Activities, the presence of VET graduates will grow in all but three (construction, energy, gas and steam and extractive industries). On the contrary, where they will increase the most will be in the manufacturing industry, reaching 40.8% of professionals in the sector, similar to that which will occur in the health sector and in "Other services".

An occupation that, on the one hand, responds to the needs of the productive fabric, but also follows a basic logic: if the number of people with VET graduates increases, something that will undoubtedly happen after the approval of the new Vocational Training law, approved in 2022, the percentage of people employed with such studies is expected to do so as well.

Factors such as demographics and migration reveal the extent to which vocational training will play a central and integrating role in the short, medium and long term. Although birth projections in Spain, which is already one of the oldest countries in the world (with all the social, economic and health challenges that this entails), contemplate a slight upturn in the next decade, "it will not reach the minimum values necessary to guarantee population sustainability".

Now, why will VET be so relevant? First of all, because it has a role in training young people who will support our ageing society, both in terms of health and care and other services for the silver economy (for the elderly). But also because it plays an important role in the professional requalification of older people of working age, between 55 and 64 years of age; and because it will also train people to facilitate the generational replacement of the significant volume of people who are going to retire in the coming years.

In fact, the weight of graduates with an intermediate or higher vocational training degree in the Spanish labour market, which currently stands at 24%, will rise to 26%, according to the CaixaBank Dualiza observatory, an aspect that will be enhanced by highlighting the value of vocational training itself, "so that employers who have been hiring people without professional studies (i.e. ESO, Baccalaureate and lower educational levels) opt [for vocational training] and understand that profiles linked to vocational training are more productive than others," says Juan Gamboa, a researcher at Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness.

On the other hand, he points out, VET profiles are the most prepared to address the changes that technical professions are undergoing, as a result of technological changes in work processes and the transition to a sustainable economy.