Access to the teaching profession

This issue was still on the political agenda in 2019, but political instability did not allow for concrete measures. The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MEFP), in collaboration with the Ministry of Universities and the Conference of Deans of Education, are reviewing the initial training of teachers, both the early childhood and primary grades, as well as the master degree in secondary teacher training.

One of the proposals that the new legislature's education minister presented in her first Congress appearance is the introduction of a year of supervised practice - an induction programme - that will allow the intake of new teachers to their tasks with the guarantee of adequate supervision.

The reform of initial teacher training and access to teaching careers in the education system is still pending.

A new Education act (Ley Orgánica 3/2020, known as LOMLOE), reversing a large part of the previous law (LOMCE, 2013) and leaving in place provisions established in the LOE (Ley Orgánica de Educación 2/2006), was approved at the end of 2020, modifying some of the requirements for access to the teaching function in VET.

The LOMLOE specifies (article 95) that the same formal requirements apply for VET teachers as those for general education teachers in secondary compulsory education/secondary school-leaving baccalaureate programmes (a university degree and a master's degree in teacher training, article 94). Other qualifications for teaching purposes can be authorised by the government after consulting the Autonomous Communities.

The LOMLOE also opens the possibility of levelling the conditions of technical vocational training teachers to those of secondary teachers within the teaching staff.

COVID measures: Royal Decree-Law 31/2020 of 29 September adopted urgent measures for non-university education. It approved the temporary exemption from the requirement of postgraduate pedagogical and didactic training, or equivalent, for interim civil servants appointed on an exceptional basis for positions necessary for teaching caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Royal Decree-Law 31/2020 allowed, exceptionally, that in non-university private schools, and only for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching could be provided by people who had all the necessary requirements except for the pedagogical and didactic training established in Article 100.2 of the LOE or equivalent. The Autonomous Communities have tried to adapt face-to-face teaching to the health measures derived from the pandemic by recruiting around 40 000 new teachers in the 2020/21 academic year.

This year has been mainly devoted to drafting a new proposal for initial teacher training and for teacher CPD. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shortage of teachers to cope with the circumstances faced by education institutions, various regulatory measures were put in place to ensure education was carried out as usual.

In January 2022, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training presented 24 proposals to the main education unions and the Autonomous Communities to improve the teaching profession, fulfilling the commitment established by the education law approved in December 2020 (LOMLOE). These proposals focus on initial training, access to the teaching profession, in-service training and professional development. Some are only sketched out; the ministry plans to develop those further in the coming months:

1. introducing new requirements for access to the teacher's master's degree and lengthening the duration of master's degree in some specialisations;
2. introducing subjects linked to teaching, particularly didactics, in degree programmes usually chosen by students who decide to pursue a career in teaching;
3. reviewing the curricula of teaching degree programmes to adapt them to the new competence curricula;
4. introducing the dual principle in the training of future teachers by fostering internships in undergraduate and master's degree studies;
5. renewal of syllabuses and new structure of teacher competitions;
6. a new model for trainee teachers in in-school placements;
7. assigning each speciality of the secondary and vocational teaching body to a speciality of the master's degree;
8. establishing qualifications to fulfil specific functions, such as the ICT manager of a school, and reviewing the professional attributions of certain specialities;

The new Organic Act 3/2022 on the organisation and integration of vocational training modifies the current education law, with implications for teachers' access to the profession. It now allows the integration of those teachers belonging to the extinct body of technical teachers of vocational training into the body of secondary teachers, a historical claim in the sector. These teachers need to have a degree or equivalent and be part of the subgroup A2 (one of the categories of the teaching profession).

Two extraordinary selection procedures were set in motion to stabilise the temporary employment of VET teachers, one ordinary by competition and one extraordinary merit-based. Each autonomous community sets its own procedures and deadlines.

The publication of Royal Decree 659/2023, of 18 July, which developed the organisation of the Spanish VET system by the education ministry defined the approach to access the teaching profession in Spain and specified the training requirements for teaching in the vocational training offers integrated into the education system. It also highlighted the need to attract more professionals into teaching, particularly in high-demand fields such as STEM, ICT, and digital technologies.

Recruitment initiatives include offering scholarships, incentives, and competitive salaries to draw talented individuals into teaching, especially in areas with shortages. For instance, there is an ongoing open call for VET teachers to submit their applications for their integration into the Body of Secondary Education Teachers. This application period runs from 23 December 2022 to 19 January 2026. This initiative, retroactive to January 2021, includes improvements to working conditions and salaries for teachers who join the A1 subgroup of civil servants.

RD 659/2023, Art. 170, addressed the engagement of senior company experts from the productive sector. This provision allows VET centres to hire professionals from the productive sector, who do not necessarily have a university degree, under the following circumstances: when there is a need to meet training requirements in vocational training programmes, and all standard channels for securing qualified instructors have been exhausted; when it is essential to ensure expertise in specific processes related to the productive sector.