Presentation issue 7º

The professions advance in the dawn of this 21st century as quickly as the knowledge society and the technologies that support it are doing it. If Europe wants to become the most developed economy in the world, it needs to revolutionize Vocational Training by overcoming the burdens of the past (such as gender segregation), the incorporation of emerging groups (such as immigrants and the elderly) into the processes advanced of the knowledge society; the development of a training model, based on competency-based training, which contemplates the whole universe of new professional qualifications that are being set up and the creation of integrated centers where initial and permanent training is ensured and the professional competences achieved are accredited.

In this new issue dedicated to Vocational Training we have achieved that outstanding professionals from the educational world offer us their different contributions and visions.

Francisca Arbizu, director of the National Institute of Professional Qualifications, explains the hinge character, between employment and training, that the System has. The European objective for 2010 that Europe becomes the most competitive and dynamic economy in the world requires, in Vocational Training, the integration of the training offer in a joint system that will define approximately 700 professional qualifications. At the same time, progress is being made in the evaluation, recognition and accreditation of professional competences, acquired through work experience in non-formal training processes. This catalog will allow to improve professional guidance and information for training.

Francisco de Asís analyzes Professional Training based on competency, listing in the first place the underlying assumptions. It reviews the main characteristics of the approach of this training and the criticisms it raises. Perhaps the most generalized is that which considers that this approach limits the control and autonomy of teachers in the development and implementation of teaching and learning processes.

Carmen López-Fuensalida participates with an article about the Integrated Vocational Training Centers. From the need to train human resources increasingly competent and qualified concludes that the Integrated Centers are the answer to this need. However, in his opinion, it is still necessary to develop a regulatory framework to clarify the organization of these centers and allow greater economic flexibility and integration of labor and education administrations. The author considers that the educational inspection can be the best guarantee of its development and functioning.

Mª José Muniozguren Lazcano, Inspector of Education, analyzes the strategic objectives of the European Union for 2010. It raises the need for a radical transformation of the educational systems and Vocational Training. It also points out the weak points of human resources, such as the need to continue using an aging population that will continue its working life beyond what is expected and is poorly adapted to the continuous technological changes and the lower skills required in the knowledge society. presented by some immigrant groups with low qualifications. Muniozguren affirms that the EU needs to improve the quality and relevance of the Reforms of the Educational and Vocational Training Systems and an adequate complementarity between employment policies, social benefits, youth and social inclusion.

Esther Rubio dedicates her article to analyze the presence of women in technological improvement and professional training. In an analysis that begins in the old craft guilds and workshops of the Middle Ages, believes that it is with the incorporation of mechanical technologies when a process of exclusion of women that reaches the contemporary era begins to develop. The 21st century needs a new perspective. The ETAN report and the GIST project point to the analysis and response to the current situation of segregation, often subtle, of women in vocational training and the need to break with it.

Juan Salamé examines the situation of Vocational Training in Europe, points out the existence of two models, an academic model, more typical of the Latin countries and a technical model, typical of the Anglo-Saxon countries. Below is a brief description of the situation of VET in Spain, France, Portugal and Germany.

In addition to the contributions that make up the monographic section, other articles complete this edition:

Mª Antonia Casanova in a new article states that the evaluation directs the functioning of the Centers and the teaching and learning processes; it guides its habitual task and marks what is valuable and what is not in education. After proposing that not all the evaluation indicators are useful because they do not offer a clear vision of the functioning of the evaluated, it proposes the need to establish the critical indicators: key factors for this start to occur in the necessary change of direction to seek improvement qualitative

Professor Esteve reflects on the contents of basic education along the lines of the new evaluation trends. From the reflections drawn from a research, he deduces that concrete measures can be derived to reduce part of the school failure: the imputable to the lack of reflection about the importance of the selection of contents, of the choice of the learning processes that are wanted enhance, and the correspondence of these two factors with the design of the evaluation tests.

Francisco Galván talks about the basic competences and his recent incorporation into the curriculum in the current Spanish educational reform. Defines basic competence as "knowledge in action". As a knowledge that is applied, capable of adapting to diverse contexts, of an integrating nature, which encompasses knowledge, procedures and attitudes. To be basic, it affirms that it must contribute to obtain results of high social value, which can be applied to a wide range of contexts and relevant areas and allow to successfully overcome complex demands.

To speak of FP is to speak of evaluation and that is to speak of training. The basic skills began their journey in our Educational System in Vocational Training. At the end of the day the mission of our work as educational agents is to ensure that our students acquire the most relevant competences in the training itinerary they have chosen and that allows them to access the world of work (or continue in it) contributing to it. the best of your acquired competence as specialists. Specialized skills that support the competences achieved in basic training and that are complemented by uninterrupted training throughout life.

The next issue will focus its monograph on the New Technologies of Information and Communication. Supervision has a very important challenge with them. Challenge because the new technical means are transforming social relations and schools and challenge because new actors (evaluators, accrediters, emerging media, social organizations and municipalities) demand greater intervention in the control of results, professionals and of school processes.

The editorial board.