Dual VET: Growing without leaving anyone behind

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is going through a decisive moment. The 2025-26 academic year comes with significant changes: the number of available places is being expanded, and all VET programs now structurally include work-based training, which will account for between a quarter and half of the training depending on the modality. This clear push opens an opportunity to bring learning closer to employment and better meet the real needs of the labor market. However, it also raises the need to ensure that all young people can access and participate in this model on equal terms.

Ensuring sustainable learning pathways

Access to and retention in the system are not the same for everyone. Fragile educational pathways, lack of prior information, or the absence of professional role models continue to affect many young people’s ability to choose the right path and maintain it over time. In this context, the challenge is no longer only to attract students but to ensure that they can progress, complete their training, and obtain qualifications—an essential goal if we are aiming for quality employment in the medium and long term.

Early entry into the professional environment, even during the training stage, requires early decision-making and a higher level of adaptability from students. Without proper guidance and support, this approach risks reproducing inequalities rather than reducing them. This need is reinforced by the mismatch between supply and demand already highlighted by the VET Observatory, which warns that if the number of graduates does not increase, more than 92,000 job opportunities linked to VET profiles could remain unfilled by 2030.

In this context, at Fundación Exit, we advocate a perspective that recognizes young talent and strengthens confidence in their abilities. Our work starts from this vision: focusing on each young person’s potential, creating environments that allow them to envision themselves as future professionals, and facilitating active participation of companies as a fundamental and necessary part of the process.

Ultimately, the success of the new VET system will not be measured only by the number of places, but by sustainable pathways. If educational centers and companies—especially SMEs and their value chains—take guidance and connection with the labor market as a genuine training commitment, set clear goals, and evaluate based on evidence, every workplace training experience can become a first meaningful and enriching professional and life project.

This is the challenge and, at the same time, the opportunity: growing with quality and inclusion so that every young person with a vocation can find their place.

Article by María Huertas, Project Director at Fundación Exit, published in: “FP Dual: crecer sin dejar a nadie atrás” FP Empresa.