Online studies are ceasing to be seen as a minor version of face-to-face studies, and Vocational Training (FP) also joins this paradigm shift. These training cycles are presented as a great opportunity to enter the labor market or change course in a career that crashes against the wall of technological change. According to the latest report Infoempleo From Adecco’s 2020, 38.8% of job vacancies in Spain required a VET degree. Now you can get one without leaving home.
Juanjo Amorín, Edix founder, the Institute of Digital Experts of the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), which has online Vocational Training degrees, highlights several advantages of this type of study: first, learning a trade in high demand in the market, a profession very close to technology and digitization; second, for carrying out studies in a nomadic way: from anywhere and the student being the one who personalizes their dedication according to the availability of their time; and third, the fact that it is a title as official as a face-to-face one.
Digital degrees make their way
Digital degrees are the most conducive to online studies, as they allow remote internships. VET is a form of education in which the practice is clearly promoted: not only the learn, but the to learn to do. In current FP there are three degrees in high demand by companies: Development of Multiplatform Applications (DAM), Development of Web Applications (DAW) and Administration of Computer Systems in Network (ASIR). The three degrees train technicians who are in the TOP of job offers that are published for this type of profile digital worker in Spain.
In DAM, for example, prepares students for the creation of technological applications that we use in our daily lives to communicate or work. It also launches programmers capable of developing video games or new e-commerce spaces on the market, thus training transversal experts, who master different trends that digitization is leading to organizations. “Spain is a country of SMEs with few employees, so profiles that cover different disciplines are required,” says Amorín.
The new opportunities offered by VET
At other times, VET was considered a second-rate training compared to university degrees; a plan B for those who, for whatever reason, were not enrolled in college.
This social perception has already begun to change as a result of the crisis that began in 2008. Now, VET continues to present good employability figures. According to the SEPE Occupations Observatory of 2020, the employability rate of this type of training reached 42.2%. “In FP, the official curricula are more designed so that students can easily join those demanded by companies and society,” says Ascensión Blázquez, director of the Instituto Tecnológico de Edix.
A university education has traditionally taken longer to adapt quickly to the constant innovations brought about by technology. The more practical FP, on the other hand, has a better waist to quickly reflect the needs of the real world. “New educational levels are being created that we traditionally associated with undergraduate studies,” explains Javier Blasco, director of The Adecco Group Institute.
Another advantage of online VET is that it allows you to combine study with working life, so it is also useful for those who need to recycle, improve their knowledge or change sectors due to instability and changes in the contemporary world . We are told that today we must continually train ourselves throughout our lives. “Many people over 50 who lose their job may not find another, and that hurts them a lot when it comes to accessing a good retirement pension,” explains Blasco, “VET can be an ideal way to retrain” . According to Amorín, it is increasingly common to find people who complement their university training not with a master’s degree, as was traditional, but with these studies.
Nateevo is a technology solutions consultancy in which students from VET online carry out internships. Its Human Resources director, Adriana Raposo, assures: “It is a very interesting collaboration: these people come out quite prepared to develop real projects, so that the training time we invest in them is considerably less.” The profiles they are looking for are related to the marketing and the digital world. “There is a lot of demand for these professionals, but not so much supply. Many of the trainees end up joining the company ”, concludes Raposo.
Delve into digital and distance VET
The UNIR Institute of Digital Experts, Edix, has incorporated two Professional Training degrees: Web Application Development, with which graduates will be able to create virtual internet architectures and Multiplatform Application Development, one of the studies that is listed among the ten with the most employment contracts signed by FP, according to the Occupations Observatory of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE).
This center also offers complementary training in specific fields of digital transformation such as cybersecurity, big data or artificial intelligence. “We know that Spain needs almost 30,000 cybersecurity experts. There is a huge shortage of professional profiles specialized in the digital sector in most of the countries of the European Union ”, argues Juanjo Amorín, founder of Edix, UNIR’s Institute of Digital Experts.
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