Spain and France agree to promote the creation of bi-national vocational training campuses in key sectors

Among other educational issues, the agreement foresees fostering cooperation to create bi-national vocational training campuses for training in selected priority sectors such as the industries of the future, the green economy, innovative tourism and agriculture, and promoting mutual recognition of these trainings.

"The promotion and modernisation of vocational training is a priority of our education policy and a key element in the transformation of the Spanish economy to adapt to the challenges of sustainability and digitalisation", said the minister during her speech at the plenary session of the summit.

"We are therefore very excited about the possibility of creating Franco-Spanish training campuses to broaden the horizons of our respective vocational training systems," she added.

To create these Spanish-French campuses, alliances between French vocational and qualifications campuses and Spanish integrated vocational training centres working in the same sector will be encouraged. The aim is to promote exchanges between their students and teaching staff, in addition to study trips and the exchange of experiences and good practices, thus promoting the employability of young people from the two countries.

The treaty also places special emphasis on strengthening the promotion of Spanish language and culture in France and French culture in Spain, through the promotion of international mobility programmes for students and teachers and the development of international programmes, including the Bachibac double degree programme, the development of Spanish sections (there are 14 Spanish sections and 4 Spanish international sections in France) and the promotion of Spanish centres (there are currently two Spanish-owned centres in the neighbouring country).

In addition to bilingual education programmes, over 3.3 million pupils study Spanish as a foreign language in France and 25,000 teachers teach it. France also has 394 Spanish language assistants this academic year and Spain has 434 French assistants.

"These agreements will further strengthen the mutual knowledge and admiration that French and Spanish society have for each other's languages and culture," the minister concluded.

Alegría, who held a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart, Pap Ndiaye, also pointed out that the strengthening of educational collaboration between the two countries will be reinforced by the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of the year, during which the development of vocational training, the promotion of female talent in science and technology and the promotion of civic and democratic values in education will be priority objectives.

Non official translation