Cristina Lavía

Vocational education–industry linkages: intensity of relationships and firms’ assessment

ABSTRACT Twenty years since educational reforms were implemented in Spain aiming at the modernisation of the vocational education system and at the improvement of its educational and developmental functions, relationships between education and industry have not been widely analysed. This study reviews the recent international literature on the topic and then looks at one advanced regional case within the school-based, Spanish vocational education context. Analysing data from a sample of 330 industrial firms from the Basque Country, binary logistic regression was applied in order to identify factors especially associated to the fact that SMEs have a greater or lower number of collaboration relations with vocational schools. We also examined the variables that have the greatest impact on whether firms assess vocational schools positively. Results indicate a strong association between intensity of relationships and positive assessment of vocational schools’ educational and developmental functions.

Making visible the role of vocational education and training in firm innovation: evidence from Spanish SMEs

ABSTRACT The interactive learning model argues the importance of incremental innovation, linked to production activities, and the role in that innovation of qualified workers – including those with a vocational training degree – in opposition to the supremacy of scientific personnel that tends to characterize high-tech industries. However, scarcely any attention has been paid to the role of intermediary workers in innovation processes. This study, based on a survey of 1142 Spanish industrial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), examines the degree to which technicians and employees with a vocational education and training (VET) profile are represented in these firms and their involvement in innovation activities. In order to identify the importance of the factors studied in a multivariate model, a binary logistic regression was performed with an index of VET workers’ participation as a dependent variable, segmenting the companies by technological level. The study shows that for sectors with greatest R&D intensity, the presence of VET personnel in technical posts and the existence of external co-operation in innovation were found to triple the probability of greater participation. In more low-tech sectors, these variables continue to exercise a strong influence, but the multiplier effect of another two has also been detected, specifically the innovative capacity of the company and a greater level of involvement of operators in organizational learning practices.

La relation entre le système éducatif et le système productif dans la formation professionnelle: (Le cas de la formation professionnelle au Pays Basque)

L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser la portee de la relation existant entre les centres de formation professionnelle (FP) et les PME industrielles de la Communaute Autonome Basque (Espagne). Pour ce faire, nous nous appuierons sur l’information diffusee, d’une part par les acteurs pertinents du systeme d’enseignement technique a travers les entretiens menes en profondeur, et d’autre part, par les PME industrielles moyennant une enquete. Les resultats obtenus indiquent que la formation professionnelle est un acteur majeur du Systeme Regional d’Innovation et qu’elle contribue, grâce a ses principaux champs d’activites (formation classique, formation continue et services aux entreprises), a ameliorer la competitivite des entreprises et favoriser ainsi leurs processus d’innovation.