06/19/2025 • Opinion • Antoni Ruiz Article published in C de Material Eléctrico
A few weeks ago, in a conversation with parents at a school, while discussing the future of their sons and daughters, a mother said out loud what often hangs in the air: “May my daughter be a university student. That’s what we’ve fought so hard for.”
And she didn’t say it with contempt, far from it. She said it with that mixture of pride, aspiration, and fear that many families feel when the time comes to make decisions about their children’s academic and professional future at 16. At that age, most homes still repeat the mantra that university is the only path to success. Everything else, including vocational training, is perceived as a “plan B.”
But that idea is no longer just obsolete. It’s dangerous.
Skilled Unemployment and Unfilled Vacancies
In 2025, Europe is facing a chronic problem: a brutal imbalance between the needs of productive sectors and what educational systems offer. While thousands of young people with general (and expensive) university degrees are unable to enter the labor market, strategic sectors—such as electricity, energy, and manufacturing—can’t find enough qualified technicians to meet real demand. The result? Skilled unemployment, on the one hand, and unfilled vacancies, on the other.
And no, this isn’t just a problem in Spain, although we are champions of “degree-itis” here. It’s a European phenomenon that demands deep and urgent reflection.
Because, let’s face it, what’s the point of investing 20 or 22 years of theoretical training, from P3 to a postgraduate master’s degree, if the young person then finds himself frustrated, disoriented, and without a clear path to professional integration? Do we really believe that accumulating degrees alone guarantees a full life?
The Benefits of Dual Vocational Training
In contrast to this outdated model, Dual Vocational Training represents a new path—more direct, more effective, and more realistic. And it’s no small alternative. In many cases, it’s the best way to acquire both the theoretical knowledge and practical experience that companies demand.
In the field of electricity, for example, a young person can begin training in installations, automation, renewable energy, industrial maintenance, and so on at the age of 16, and do so with companies that are part of the training system. That changes everything. That “chip” connects the classroom with real life. It unites talent with industry. It gives meaning to effort. And it opens doors both to the world of work and to higher technical studies such as engineering.
Because this isn’t about closing doors, but rather opening them wisely.
It is urgent that families, counselors, and the community overcome inherited prejudices and understand that today, in the 21st century, the key is not having a “great degree,” but knowing how to adapt to a changing world, where technology, the economy, geopolitics, and global markets are transforming jobs at breakneck speed.
The future belongs to those who know how to learn and relearn continuously, from the age of 16 to 67.
And those who don’t want to see it will simply be too late.
