Year after year, Vocational Training graduates gain positions in both employability and salaries. The latest data from the Ministry of Education and FP support the growing recognition of this training modality , whose number of students maintains an upward trend.
The number of students enrolled in higher grades has increased by 25% in the last three years and is already close to one million (974,445, almost 100,000 more), while the number of middle grade students has increased by 16.2% and It is close to 400,000 (55,000 more).
Already positioned as the profiles most in demand by companies, ahead even of university graduates, these positions represented 41.3% of job offers in 2020, according to a recent report by Infoempleo and Spring Professional.
Currently, 176 VET degrees are taught in Spain (28 Basic VET, 59 Medium Degree and 89 Higher Degree) and 15 specialization or postgraduate courses distributed in 26 professional families. With such a wide offer, it is convenient to have clear ideas to try to find our professional vocation, although knowing the trends in the labor market and their salaries can also help us make decisions.
The Youth Labor Market Report prepared by the SEPE shows a decrease in employment in three of the five branches of activity with the highest volume of employed persons (Traditional trade and vehicle repair; Manufacturing industry and Hospitality) and an increase in the two following: Health and social services activities, on the one hand, and Education, on the other. Only these two account for 26.6% of the employed young people between the ages of 16 and 29.
Different studies place Health and Education in the locomotive of youth employment, largely due to the consequences of the pandemic. To these are added those related to marketing, technology, computing and data.
“Higher-level vocational training covers the main needs of the labor market, allows acquiring the professional skills to work, while facilitating subsequent academic progression towards university studies. And that without forgetting the international vision in a globalized world”, points out Arturo García Ceva, managing partner of Campus FP.
These are some jobs and their corresponding salary bands to which the different Higher Degree VET qualifications give access.
EDUCATION : The demand for professionals with digital skills has grown in these times of pandemic. Also that of early childhood educators, whose salaries can be around 1,200 euros per month. VET degrees in this sector allow working, for example, as educators in the first cycle of early childhood education, in programs with minors at social risk, in family support environments or in leisure and free time programs or activities.
SUPPORT SANITARY : They have become essential and much needed professionals in recent times. People trained in health and social services register the lowest unemployment rates in the EPA in the first quarter of 2021 (9.1%).
Some outstanding titles of the training offer in this field are those of superior technicians in Clinical and Biomedical Laboratory; Pathological Anatomy and Cytodiagnosis; Oral hygiene; Imaging for Nuclear or Dietary Medicine and Diagnosis.
The average salary for clinical and biomedical laboratory technicians can be between 17,000 and 25,000 euros per year, although it can exceed 35,000 for the most senior professionals. Meanwhile, the salary of a nutrition and dietetics technician can range between 1,500 and 3,000 euros per month.
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND DIGITAL MARKETING : The retail sector employs more than 2.23 million people in Spain (11.5% of the total). E-commerce and marketing coordinators and consultants, distributors or logistics supervisors are gaining ground among the most sought after. Here we can find training for superior technicians in Marketing and Advertising or in International Trade. Salaries can range from € 25,000 for an SEO specialist to € 70,000 per year for digital marketing directors.
COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGY : You don’t have to go through university to become one of the most desirable professionals on the market. The Professional Training guarantees the competencies and skills necessary for senior technicians in Computer Telecommunication Systems; in Development of Multiplatform Applications; Web applications development; Administration of Networked Computer Systems or Multiplatform Applications, among others.
A web developer can start his career from around 17,000 to 22,000 euros, between 25,000 and 30,000 with only one or two years of experience. An inexperienced network IT system administrator can earn around € 2,000 gross per month.
BIG DATA AND CYBERSECURITY . To the previous profiles we can add those related to data science and cybersecurity. They are two of the last specialization courses, also called postgraduate courses, approved by the Ministry of Education and FP. Salaries range from € 28,000 to € 41,000 a year for Big Data, and from € 30,000 to € 60,000 for a cybersecurity expert.
