Vocational Education and Training offered in Second Chance Schools in Spain: Possibilities and Limits from an Organizational Analysis

The paper provides theoretical and empirical analysis of how second chance schools are addressing the challenge of early school leaving through provision of vocational training and vocational and personal guidance.

            Our research context is provided by accredited second chance schools in Spain, which are undergoing an external evaluation process since 2017 which is also part of the strategy that these schools have to gain visibility, respect, legitimation and funding as well by education and employment administrations.

            Our theoretical approach builds upon South American literature on the weight of the institutional dimension in providing formal and non-formal vocational training, in an attempt to differentiate what are the crucial elements of the curriculum and the organization of training that introduce differences in what seems to be otherwise a similar vocational offer. We focus upon five different aspects, one of them clearly curricular (training itself) while the other four are more likely organizational: selection and admission processes; intermediation processes as training comes to an end; networking with other organizations that receive or submit young students to second chance schools; and the organizational culture, values and identity that help stressing differences among institutions. We also rely upon five quality criteria: pertinence, relevance, integrality, efficacy and efficiency, that are explained in relation to the appropriateness of training for the needs of the labor market, the students, and the means available to organizations.

            We apply that framework to analyze 18 second chance schools in several Spanish regions, in order to assess how different they are and how relevant the organizational culture is.