September 19, 2025
1. It will soon be a year since your appointment as Executive President of the FPCAT Agency. How did you find it? What challenges have you had to face?
When I took office in October 2024, I found an FPCAT Agency full of potential and with a consolidated track record after just over three years of operation. At that time, the Agency had just concluded the IV General Plan of the FPCAT System, had begun to apply Resolution 137/2023, of July 21, which regulates integrated vocational training centers, had published the General Prospective Report, and was finishing the territorial report of the General Prospective Report, among other relevant initiatives. All of this was the result of the excellent work carried out by the Agency’s team, who worked with intensity and commitment on the implementation of Law 10/2015, of June 19, on vocational training and qualifications.
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Nevertheless, it was necessary to continue working to consolidate the major challenges of the FPCAT Agency, such as the integration between vocational training in the educational sphere and vocational training in the employment sphere, which has taken a step forward with the real and effective creation of integrated vocational training centers. Ensuring resources for the centers in the network of integrated vocational training centers so they can deploy the corresponding services is one of the challenges I had to tackle from the very beginning and which, at this point, we have been able to partially resolve.
At the same time, we have intensified efforts to improve people’s professional qualifications through the accreditation of professional skills. We have launched a new modality of mass accreditation, digitized the entire process, and managed to increase the productivity of the accreditation area.
Since my arrival, we have also worked toward more effective coordination between the agents involved in the FPCAT System and, at the same time, to make the strategic value of vocational training in Catalonia more visible, especially after the initial skepticism generated by the change in the FPCAT Agency’s affiliation. Even so, the main challenge has been to promote a shared vision among all actors involved in the FPCAT System to move toward a more efficient, flexible system oriented toward the real needs of the labor market.
At this point, I want to highlight the professionalism and commitment of the FPCAT Agency team, who have facilitated my rapid integration and supported me in the process of leading the organization.
2. What advantages and disadvantages do you see in the integration of regulated VT and VT for employment into a single VT system? What impact will it have on students, workers, centers, and companies?
Until a few years ago, two subsystems coexisted with different cultures, instruments, and governance: on one hand, VT from the educational system, with intermediate and higher-level training cycles leading to academic degrees; on the other, VT for employment, oriented toward the qualification and requalification of workers and unemployed individuals, linked to active employment policies and public employment services. This duality caused duplications in the offer, difficulties in recognizing skills between pathways, low permeability between both circuits, and an irregular connection with the real needs of productive sectors.
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The integration established by Law 10/2015 (and further developed by Organic Law 3/2022, of March 31, on the organization and integration of vocational training) aims to overcome these limitations. Thus, the FPCAT Agency becomes the Government’s instrument to coordinate the FPCAT System, working together with the departments of Business and Labor and Education and Vocational Training—among others—to avoid duplications in the offer, facilitate training pathways for people throughout their lives, and guarantee permeability between occupational and educational training. This includes, for example, creating shared professional guidance protocols and conducting labor market research and forecasting, among many other functions. In this regard, I want to highlight the role of the most representative trade union and business organizations in the country, present in the governing body of the FPCAT System, which provide key information about workers and the professional profiles that companies need, so that the training offer is primarily oriented toward meeting the needs of the labor market.
The advantages for individuals are clear: professional guidance should allow them to know all existing training proposals and be able to choose training pathways at any time during their active life. This offer ranges from basic vocational training (and PFI in Catalonia), through intermediate and higher-level cycles, specialization courses, and professional certificates—at any of their three levels—both in full and modular formats, to continuous training aimed at people who are already working. Organic Law 3/2022 organizes all vocational training into 5 grades (from micro-training, Grade A, to specialization courses, Grade E), which allows people to capitalize on the different training completed throughout their active life. In this sense, the future creation of a single registry by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, and Sports will undoubtedly facilitate the management and recognition of all accumulated training for individuals.
I also want to emphasize the importance of professional skill accreditation processes, which represent a gateway to training pathways for many workers who did not have any official certification or qualification for the professional skills they acquired throughout their lives through experience and/or continuous training within a company. In many cases, the accreditation of skills not only serves to certify professional experience but also allows them to access training pathways that can culminate in professional certificates or a VT degree.
3. The Agency promotes and regulates integrated VT centers. What will be their role in the FPCAT System?
Integrated vocational training centers (CFPI) are conceived as a reality at the service of citizens and productive sectors and must contribute to the qualification of individuals by adapting to their professional situations and expectations, through an integrated offer that includes vocational training cycles, professional certificates, and continuous training for workers, in one or several professional families. And also, through the participation of their professionals in the accreditation of professional skills.
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At the same time, they aim to address the immediate and emerging qualification needs of the productive fabric, becoming reference and guidance centers for their training and business environment. For this reason, all CFPIs must implement the Professional Guidance Protocol Model established by the FPCAT Agency and accredit a quality management system certified with an international standard.
As of today, we have 54 authorized centers in one or more professional families that seek to respond to different professional sectors and territories, either through the individual modality (a single center) or in a group (with a coordinating center and one or more collaborating centers).
But for the FPCAT Agency, the CFPI network must go beyond offering the basic services of the FPCAT System: integrated VT training, professional information and guidance, and participation in professional skill accreditation procedures. They must be benchmark centers for both innovation and technology transfer with influential companies and for the training of teaching professionals/trainers, whether their own or from other nearby centers. We want them to be centers that operate with criteria of quality, efficiency, and equity, serving as examples (and helping other centers) in inclusion and gender equality policies.
CFPIs must also be centers open to the exchange of experiences, promoting networking on a national and international scale, fostering the mobility of students and professionals, and actively participating in European programs, through both decentralized (SEPIE) and centralized actions.
Ultimately, the goal is to have a network of centers that, together with the state centers of excellence and national reference centers, acts as the spearhead of vocational training in Catalonia: driving and generous centers, capable of promoting innovation, transfer, and collaboration projects that also allow the rest of the vocational training centers to grow. The FPCAT Agency, for its part, must ensure that this network becomes a benchmark for training and economic development in the territory and in each productive sector.
4. The promotion of dual VT is one of the strategic priorities of the FPCAT System. What challenges do you see in its generalization? How can we face them?
Dual vocational training is a very powerful training modality for connecting training activity at the center with learning at the company, but there are still barriers to overcome. Law 3/2022 represents a paradigm shift for both centers and companies. For the former, it involves reducing face-to-face training hours to spend more hours at the company, which becomes a co-trainer of the individuals in training. This requires a stronger bond of trust and closer collaboration with the productive fabric. In Catalonia, the student must train at the company for at least 515 hours, which corresponds to the general dual system.
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For companies, the challenge is to assume greater responsibility in the training process of the individuals in training. If before they hosted students in the second year, already with a consolidated base, now they must accompany them from the first year—therefore, a more immature student body with less knowledge. However, this also offers them the opportunity to train them from the start and transmit the company’s own culture. Furthermore, contact with the professional sector as early as the first year and the increase in hours at the company can become motivating factors that help reduce dropout rates.
Currently, many companies, especially small ones, still face difficulties in incorporating students in training. It is also necessary to improve the preparation of company tutors and ensure that learning within the company is truly meaningful. To overcome these challenges, we must provide more support to companies, simplify administrative processes, and promote a culture of collaboration between centers and the productive fabric. Dual training must be perceived as an investment in the future, not as a burden.
From the FPCAT Agency, together with the Secretariat of Vocational Training and the Public Employment Service of Catalonia, we will continue working to explain the advantages of the new model and to help attract the necessary companies so that everyone can undertake dual vocational training. Developing the map of companies currently participating in Dual VT and identifying the territories and sectors where more involvement is needed is one of the pending challenges for the next academic year.
It is a paradox, which should disappear, that sectors with a high demand for VT professional profiles and an urgent challenge of generational replacement still have many companies that do not participate in Dual VT. Precisely, this modality is one of the most effective and efficient ways to attract the talent they need.
5. The assessment and accreditation of professional skills is one of the functions of the FPCAT Agency. What progress have you made?
Since my arrival, we have made significant progress in the accreditation of professional skills. Despite the difficulties, at the end of 2024, we were able to successfully deploy the new mass accreditation procedure (exclusively for companies and entities) and, during 2025, more than 40 agreements have been signed with companies, business associations, and similar entities, which positions Catalonia as a benchmark in the deployment of skill accreditation.
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And this has been possible, on one hand, thanks to the progress we have made in the digitization of processes, with a new computer program that centralizes all management, and on the other, to the review of internal work procedures, which has allowed us to increase productivity. However, we are concerned that the high interest in the professional skill accreditation procedure—evidenced by the large number of applications we receive every month—may prevent us from responding with the agility we would like.
We must keep in mind that accrediting the skills that people have acquired through work experience or non-regulated training is fundamental to improving employability and recognizing the professional value of individuals. For this reason, at the FPCAT Agency, we work to make the system increasingly accessible, agile, and transparent, with the goal that no one is left out of the recognition of their talent.
6. Autoocupació promotes the establishment of a VT specialization course (Grade E) in entrepreneurship, transversal in nature for all professional families. What is your assessment of this?
I think it is an excellent initiative. Entrepreneurship is not just about creating companies; it is an attitude that involves initiative, creativity, and the ability to solve problems. Incorporating this training transversally can empower young people and professionals to generate value in any sector. Furthermore, it connects very well with the needs of a changing labor market, where adaptability and innovation are essential skills. At the FPCAT Agency, we value proposals like this very positively and hope it can become a reality shortly.
7. Our motto is “I am what I want to be.” And you, are you?
It is a question that invites reflection. I would say yes, but with nuances. I am what I want to be because I work on a project I am passionate about: transforming vocational training to make it fairer, more useful to society, and connected with people. However, my previous experience as director of the Escola del Treball in Barcelona has shown me that we must be in a process of learning and evolution, to adapt to a society in constant change and respond to new social needs through training.
I like the motto because it focuses on the ability to decide and build one’s own path. And that is, ultimately, what we want to offer through the FPCAT System.
