Private education takes advantage of the 'boom' in vocational training: "Creating a cycle is easy and fast"

PalmaVocational Training (FP) has become one of the great areas of growth for education in the Balearic Islands, but it is also a terrain where private initiative is increasingly gaining weight. The demand for professional studies is increasing and, while the public network expands places, teaching staff, and cycles at the pace it can, private centers take advantage of the gaps left by an administration that needs more time to launch new offerings. The result is that the private sector is no longer a marginal player within vocational training. In Mallorca, in fact, it already has more presence than the charter network.

The data from the Department of Education for this academic year measures the growth of vocational training. There will be more than 21,000 students and 14,479 first-year places –464 more than last year and 1,507 more than the 2023-2024 academic year. The staff reaches 2,088 teachers, 81 more than a year ago and 359 more than two years ago. Also, 25 new cycles are being incorporated –five basic grade, ten intermediate grade, and ten higher grade– and two specialization courses. In total, the offer reaches 136 cycles from 24 professional families.

This growth is not exclusively public. In Mallorca, according to data provided by unofficial sources, the public network adds up to 346 cycle offerings, compared to 74 in the state-subsidized sector and 76 in the private sector, counting basic, intermediate, and higher vocational degrees. This does not mean 346 different qualifications: each center where the same cycle is taught is counted as an offering. Thus, if a qualification is offered in five centers, it adds up to five offerings. In Menorca, the offer adds up to 51 cycles in public centers, 3 in state-subsidized ones, and 1 in the private one; in Ibiza, 68 in public ones and 2 in private ones; and in Formentera, 6 in public ones. According to the professor and researcher at the UIB Francesca Salvà –she is the lead researcher at the Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Vocational Training–, this increase in the private offer is part of a broader process of privatization of education. "Vocational training is within this package," she points out. In her opinion, the private initiative grows "when the public one does not respond to the needs of the population." "We have run campaigns to say that vocational training is very important to increase the educational level of the population, but the administrations have not done their homework. The private sector has seen a niche here," she states.

Speed is one of the keys

The Ministry admits that there are professional families where demand exceeds the available supply. The Minister of Education, Antoni Vera, highlights in particular Health, Administration and Management, Informatics and Communications, Physical and Sports Activities, Sociocultural and Community Services, Electricity and Electronics, and Transport and Vehicle Maintenance. "We know that there are families on waiting lists, but the supply is based on market demands," he explains.

It is at this point where, according to Vera, one of the keys to private expansion appears. “For the Administration, it is difficult to activate higher degrees,” she acknowledges. Launching a new public degree implies planning, teaching staff, equipment, and, in many cases, adapting spaces or creating new ones. The response may arrive, but not always at the same pace as the demand. Vera exemplifies this with healthcare. If the Administration expands intermediate vocational nursing assistant studies, but does not simultaneously grow other higher degree specialties to follow up with, such as those linked to the dental field and parapharmacy, “the private sector sees the gap and enters it.” The increase in private initiative does not necessarily respond to the creation of a new market, but also to the ability to occupy spaces where public provision has not yet arrived.

The general director of the business school ESERP, Xisco Enseñat, speaks directly of a business opportunity. “Landing here is profitable,” he assures. In his view, “the success of the degrees and the business opportunity exist because the university cannot keep up, nor can the public vocational training offer.” “Creating a private cycle is relatively easy and fast,” he explains. According to Enseñat, groups linked to the educational sector have been entering Mallorca because they detect a combination of demand for studies and a need for professionals. Training related to marketing, web development, healthcare, and the nautical sector are some of the areas where they see opportunities.

The director of the CIFP Juníper Serra, Manel Aragonès, also points out this ability to react more quickly. The difficulty in creating new offerings, he says, varies according to the professional family: a vocational training in automotive and hospitality, with specific facilities and equipment, does not require the same as a degree that only needs classrooms and computers. “We see that the private sector focuses a lot on fields such as healthcare and computing,” he explains. “The professional market needs many hands,” he adds.

For its part, the Ministry continues to expand the public network. In two academic years, there are 1,507 more first-year places and 359 teachers have been added. This September, 25 new cycles have been incorporated. Among the novelties are studies in Environmental Health, a higher degree in Training for Safe and Sustainable Mobility, a specialization in Cell Cultures, and new training linked to machine learning, data management, and training. This expansion also has a social dimension, according to the Government. Vera defends vocational training (FP) as one of the ways to reduce early school leaving and provide a training alternative to young people who do not fit into conventional academic paths. The early school leaving rate stood at 15.2% in May, five points below the 20.14% recorded in 2024.

Also distance learning

The private business is not necessarily in the creation of an offer completely different from the public one. A good part of the cycles taught by private centers also exist within the public network. The key to their expansion is the way they are offered. Private centers have bet strongly on distance VET, especially in higher degrees. This modality allows for capturing students who work or who cannot attend class every day and expands the potential market beyond the available face-to-face spots.

This is one of the reasons that explain why private growth is especially visible in higher degrees, according to Salvà. The distance offer allows reaching a larger volume of students and is easier to apply in these studies than in basic VET, where face-to-face attendance and the practical component carry more weight. Enseñat defends that flexibility is one of its advantages. “The private sector has more room to reformulate a degree to adapt to what the market demands,” he states.

The difference between networks is not just about speed and modality. It is also about price. Aragonès calculates that studying a cycle in a private center can cost between 1,500 and 6,000 euros, while in the public sector the cost is approximately between 30 and 160 euros and the subsidized sector, on paper, also moves within the same prices. “Paying thousands of euros is no joke,” warns Aragonès. The difference is relevant when demand exceeds available places. In this case, the issue is not just how many cycles each network has, but what happens to students who do not get a public place and have as an alternative a tuition fee that can cost thousands of euros. "There is a very large social inequality. Those who pay get in and, those who don't, lose a year," he laments. And he puts on the table a reality: the enrollment calendar for public and subsidized vocational training is the same for all centers, and the private sector knows this and takes advantage of the lead time to enroll students before the official period opens.

Aragonès uses culinary studies as an example. In centers in Calvià, Alcúdia, and Sóller there may be unfilled spots, while in Palma there are students who end up on a waiting list. Some of these students end up resorting to the School of Hospitality. "We get students with very good grades. This means that those with average grades are left out," he explains. "The risk is that there are students who end up in private education because they cannot get into public education," he adds. The debate about the privatization of vocational training is not just a question of the number of cycles, but also has to do with who can access the most sought-after qualifications when public capacity is insufficient.

The role of the state-subsidized private sector

The private initiative is not the only one that has grown at the same time as the public one. The state-subsidized network also plays an important role in the expansion of vocational training. The president of the UCTAIB Education Sector and former director of a cooperative school, Kiko López, recalls that the Ministry asked the state-subsidized centers to help expand the offer. “The very slow pace of the public Administration does not allow for their development and you need the support of the state-subsidized ones; otherwise, it would not be possible,” he explains. For cooperative centers, he adds, vocational training has also been a way to create jobs and transform the centers. “The goal is to generate an impact on society and the center.” But López acknowledges that the expansion has not always been carried out in an orderly manner. “We wouldn't grow this way now,” he states.

The discussion is not whether private supply should exist. The private sector argues that public supply must continue to have the main weight. “Let there be public supply, fine; state-subsidized, fine; private, too,” says Enseñat. But he adds: “That everything depends on the private sector is not the best,” he says. “If it were public, better. The private sector must be complementary,” he insists.

Salvà places the Balearic Islands in an intermediate position with respect to other autonomous communities. Madrid, Catalonia, and the Basque Country have a higher weight of private initiative in VET, partly due to the presence of large distance learning companies that offer studies to students from all over the State. The Balearic Islands share with territories like the Valencian Community and Murcia a significant presence of private initiative.

Meanwhile, the Ministry maintains its commitment to expanding the public network. This academic year there will be more students, more teachers, more places, and more cycles. But the Administration acknowledges that there are families on waiting lists and that launching certain qualifications takes time. VET is still mostly public in the Balearic Islands, but the private business is no longer anecdotal. In Mallorca, the private sector exceeds the state-subsidized one. And, as long as demand continues to grow, the question is not only how many studies each network offers, but to what extent the public capacity is able to absorb them and what happens to the students who are left out. VET has gone from being the poor sister of the education system to being the sister with whom everyone wants to share a table.