Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2012. It describes the Spanish vocational training system as it stood then, including the FCT module and the hours and timing of placements; vocational training has since been reformed (Organic Law 3/2022), so details may no longer apply.
Discover the talent of the new generations of students.
They started out as “work-linked placements” (Prácticas en Alternancia) and today they are known as Workplace Training (Formación en Centros de Trabajo, FCT). They are compulsory and form part of every vocational training programme in Spain, at both intermediate and higher level, as a subject in their own right.
In many cases this is the student’s first contact with a real job: a first-hand experience of working life, in which they get to know and adapt to the position just like any other employee, full of the theory they have learned in the classroom and eager to put it into practice in a company setting.
Placements as a mutual benefit
Workplace Training is often the student’s first encounter with the job market. It brings a whole mix of experiences, for the student and for the company that takes them on, and if these are well channelled they can turn into a benefit for both sides.
For the student on placement
- They apply the theory learned at school to real production processes.
- They show their talent by adapting to the environment and contributing their own improvements, interests and initiatives.
- They experience first-hand the move from student life to working life.
- It becomes an opportunity to fit into a new social context.
- They develop their skills under proper supervision.
- It is their chance to show their talent and their true professional worth.
For the host company
- It is an opportunity to get support in some production processes.
- It is a way to find out how employable a student is with a view to hiring them straight away.
- It is a chance to get to know a candidate’s talent in all its forms.
- It lets the company see the student as a candidate on good days and bad days.
- It becomes an opportunity to complement the studies provided by the school.
Placement periods
In Spain, vocational training programmes are divided into two groups:
a) Intermediate-level programmes. Some last 1,300 or 1,400 hours and others 2,000 hours, of which 340 are devoted to workplace placements during October, November and December.
b) Higher-level programmes. These last two academic years and include a total of between 1,300 and 2,000 hours of training, of which 380 hours are devoted to practical training in a company during the second term of the year.
These placements are regulated by ministerial rules.
Placements as a selection process
Workplace Training placements are a legal way of getting to know the best candidates to join the company. Far from competency-based interviews, group exercises and other selection techniques, the placement becomes a daily demonstration of the candidate’s skills, abilities, manners and ways of handling each of the challenges that come up every day. It is a hands-on way of assessing their personal and professional interests before they join the host company for good.
Featured image: Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
