Erasmus Generation Participation and Engagement - Castellón, Spain

There were two dialogues which had the focus on education and youth. The following is a summary of what was discussed in the two main points:

Education: Nowadays there is a great variety of vocational training, but either from society, they are not being given the same importance as university, when they are really another kind of education and should not be compared with a lesser relevance. In fact, they have a wide range of work insertion, valuing all the work that exists in internships in which you have worked for practically a whole second year, and it requires jobs that, nowadays, are much more in demand.

It is also necessary to limit the skills that exist within vocational training, as we have been talking about the fact that the professional ladder is being destroyed because there are graduates who, because of many companies, are carrying out jobs in higher categories than those that would correspond to their educational level.

The obligatory use of Valencian as a vehicular language in the Valencian Community was also discussed. In this sense, some participants tried to show that the obligatory nature of a language level, especially when there is mainly a second language in a community, can sometimes lead to detachment or irritation for people who require it for administrative procedures or to be able to apply for public posts, such as teachers, in any competitive examination.

After this topic, the participants talked about the variety of languages within Europe and the lack of interculturality that is understood within schools and society itself. Here we were also able to enter into the Erasmus+ programme as a programme that breaks down barriers, that opens a door to interculturality, to personal and professional learning and to tolerance.

Youth: It was discussed and the whole round table agreed that young people have a great future with different fields of study, from university to vocational training. However, when it comes to entering the world of work, there is a great lack of job and personal security for young people and the professional skills of young people are undermined. In fact, in many cases there are overqualifications in some jobs where experience should be more highly valued. 

The lack of accessible information for young people in our province and municipality was also discussed.Above all, how difficult it is to reach out to young people even if we do activities specifically for them, whether it be training courses, language courses, from the public administration, as well as activities of non-profit associations that can benefit them in terms of alternative leisure.