Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2011. It describes the procedure for recognising professional competences as it worked then, including calls for applications by province and sector and the RedTrabaja portal. The procedure and its requirements have since been reformed.
Spain’s Ministry of Labour, together with the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), offers the Recognition of Professional Competences Acquired through work experience. In other words, if you have worked for some time as, say, a hairdresser, you can now get the official qualification even though you never earned it through formal study.
1. What can you have recognised?
You can have recognised the units of competence in the National Catalogue of Professional Qualifications that are included in vocational training (Formación Profesional) qualifications.
2. What are professional competences and units of competence?
A person’s professional competences are the set of knowledge and skills that allow them to carry out a professional activity to the standards required by production and employment.
These competences can be acquired through training or through work experience.
A set of units of competence that is meaningful for employment makes up a professional qualification.
A person is qualified when, in doing their job, they achieve results at the level the productive system demands.
3. What are the requirements to apply for recognition of professional competences?
- a) Have Spanish nationality.
- b) Hold an EU citizen registration certificate or an EU citizen’s family member card, or hold a valid residence permit or residence and work permit in Spain, under Spanish immigration law.
- c) Be at least 18 at the time of registering for units of competence belonging to level I qualifications, and 20 for levels II and III.
- d) Have work experience and/or training related to the professional competences you want to have recognised.
We break this last point down into work experience and training. For work experience, you must show at least 3 years, with a minimum of 2,000 hours worked in total, within the 10 years before the call for applications. For level I units of competence, 2 years of work experience with a minimum of 1,200 hours worked in total are required.
For training, you must show at least 300 hours within the 10 years before the call for applications. For level I units of competence, at least 200 hours are required. Where the training modules linked to the unit of competence you want recognised are shorter, you must show the hours set for those modules.
4. How do you apply?
The first step is to register and identify yourself on the RedTrabaja website. You can do this with an electronic ID card (DNI electrónico) or a digital certificate, or with a username and password issued at your nearest employment office. Then go to the website’s application page.
You can also choose between two assistants on this other page, one for recognition based on work experience and one for recognition based on training. Pick yours from either of the two tabs: Choose an assistant.
Next, look for the open calls for applications, which I imagine will gradually increase. This search tool lets you filter by province and by the sector in which you are seeking recognition: Search calls for applications.
Good luck!
Featured image: geehairimages, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
