NEARLY half of Spain's working-age population aged 25 and over has no qualifications beyond compulsory schooling – the equivalent of GCSEs or O-levels in the UK, known as the ESO in the Spanish system – and some do not even have this level, according to a recent survey.
Although those at the end of their working life, aged 65, would have been at school somewhere between the years 1955 and 1966 – during Franco's dictatorship and at a time when many left at a very young age to work – which would account for their lack of post-16 qualifications, the fact that even those who would have been at school between the 1980s and the first decade of the 2000s are unqualified has raised concerns about the country's education system.
The research by the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (FEDEA) effectively reveals that those who have been on the dole for many months or years have not been studying or training to improve their existing skills or learn a new trade or profession.
Back in 2007 when unemployment levels – although still high – were nowhere near those of today, only 14.6% of people on the dole with no qualifications beyond compulsory schooling took training or further education courses – but this number fell to 13.6% by 2013.
Whilst the average number of adults aged 25 to 65 inclusive in the European Union whose education does not go beyond the equivalent of GCSEs sits at 24%, in Spain this rises to 43.4% - almost double.
Only Portugal, where more than half the adult population has no post-16 training or education – 56.7% - and Malta, with 57.8%, are behind Spain, and taking Europe as a continent, Spain's figures are only better than Portugal, Malta and Turkey, where 67.4% of adults have not studied or trained since school.
Lithuania and the Czech Republic have the lowest number of barely-qualified working-age residents – 6.7% and 6.8% respectively – and in Estonia, Slovakia and Poland, over 90% of adults have at least a sixth-form education or vocational training aimed at school leavers as a minimum.
In Latvia, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Slovenia, Austria, Sweden, Hungary, Croatia, Norway, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, between 80% and 90% of the potential workforce has a minimum education level of sixth form or the equivalent.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com