Vocational upper secondary education comprises basic vocational training (FP Básica) and intermediate vocational training (FP de grado medio).

Types of institutions

According to Article 78 of Organic Law 3/2022 on the organisation and integration of vocational training, the institutions and bodies that may provide vocational training must necessarily be included as a general rule in the regional administrative registry. Subject to administrative authorisation and registration, they may provide vocational training:

• Public and private institutions authorised and accredited for this purpose by the competent administration. Public centres are designated as follows:
  • secondary education institutions (IES), when they provide compulsory secondary education (ESO), bachillerato and vocational training;
  • vocational training institutions, when they only provide vocational training programmes.
• Integrated vocational training centres.
• The national reference centres, with the requirements and under the conditions established for this purpose.
• Public or private bodies with which the competent administrations sign agreements or establish any other form of collaboration, including, in particular and for these purposes, institutions considered as second chance centres.
• Public or private companies which, with their own or outsourced resources, carry out training actions included in the National Catalogue of Vocational Training Provision for their own workers, under the conditions established in the corresponding regulations.

With regard to basic vocational training, Organic Law 2/2006 on education (LOE) as amended by Organic Law 3/2020 (LOMLOE) includes these programmes as part of Basic Education, which means that they are compulsory and free of charge. It is therefore taught in secondary schools or publicly-funded private institutions.

Schools offering Vocational Training programmes must meet the minimum requirements established in Royal Decree 132/2010, as well as Royal Decree 659/2023 and the regulations governing Vocational Training qualifications.

In the 2023/24 school year, the following schools were recorded nationwide for each type of on-site vocational training provision:

	Public schools	Private schools	Total
Basic vocational training (ISCED 353)	1 846	410	2 256
Intermediate vocational training (ISCED 354)	2 165	979	3 144

Source: Statistics from the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFD) on the number of schools that provide each type of education (last accessed 27/11/2025).

In the 2023/24 school year, the following schools were recorded nationwide for each type of distance vocational training provision:

	Public schools	Private schools	Total
Basic vocational training (ISCED 353)	0	0	0
Intermediate vocational training (ISCED 354)	179	153	332

Source: Statistics from the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFD)  on the number of centres that provide each type of education (last accessed 27/11/25).

Dual nature of Vocational Training

According to Organic Law 3/2022 on the Organisation and Integration of Vocational Training (LOOIFP), all vocational training provision aimed at obtaining a professional certificate (Grade C), a Training Cycle (Grade D) or a specialisation course (Grade E) is dual in nature, incorporating a training phase in a company or similar organisation. The dual nature of Vocational Training will be developed by means of an appropriate distribution of the training processes between the vocational training institutions and the companies or equivalent bodies, both contributing to the achievement of the competences established in each training offer. However, the training provision aimed at partial competence accreditation (Grade A) or competence certification (Grade B) may or may not have this dual nature, depending on the characteristics of each training course.

Geographical accessibility

It is the responsibility of the State to promote actions that allow for the choice of any educational option desired, regardless of the place of residence, as long as the established academic requirements are met.

Along that same line, the Education authorities, based on the principle of collaboration, must facilitate access both to education with a limited offer and to institutions in neighbouring areas for students who have no such educational offer in institutions close to or in their own autonomous community. This circumstance shall be taken into account in the student admission processes.

Furthermore, once again based on the principle of collaboration, the Education authorities must facilitate access to their facilities with educational value and the use of their resources by students and teachers from other autonomous communities.

Special attention must be paid to schools in rural areas, considering the peculiarities of their educational environment and the need to encourage students from rural areas to remain in the education system beyond basic education. To this end, the specific nature of rural schools should be taken into account, providing them with the necessary means and organisational systems to meet their particular needs and guarantee equal opportunities. In those rural areas where it is considered advisable, schooling can be provided in a municipality close to the student's place of residence in order to guarantee the quality of education.

In order to achieve all of the above, in those cases in which schooling is required in schools further away from the place of residence (due to the absence of closer institutions), the existence of residences (boarding schools) is available, which allows students to return home at weekends. In the case of basic education, this service is provided free of charge in this situation, together with transport and school meals. For intermediate vocational training programmes, there are grants and financial aid, offered both by the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports (MEFD) and by the autonomous communities, for residence, transport and school meal services.

Basic vocational training

It is the responsibility of the Education authorities, within the scope of their competences, to programme the provision of vocational training studies. To this end, the autonomous communities establish the procedures for identifying vocational training needs in the productive sectors existing in their respective territorial areas. In this way, this programming takes into account the socio-economic reality of the territory in which it is developed, the expectations and interests of citizens, the demand for training, as well as the perspective of economic and social development

The provision of vocational training education can be flexible, allowing people the possibility of combining study and training with work or other activities, including those activities arising from a disability situation, thus responding to personal needs and interests.

Furthermore, these programmes can be offered either as a whole or partially and, in those professional modules in which it is possible, they can be followed in face-to-face or distance learning modalities.

Intermediate vocational training

As this is a post-compulsory education stage, intermediate vocational training does not benefit from free residence, transport and canteen services. However, these studies are provided free of charge in public schools. In turn, Article 82.3 of Organic Law 2/2006 on Education (LOE), as amended by Organic Law 3/2020 (LOMLOE) stipulates that the education administrations shall encourage the increase of enrolment of students from rural areas in non-compulsory education. Likewise, they will seek a diversified offer of these studies, related to the needs of the environment, adopting the appropriate measures so that this offer provides quality training, especially with vocational training programmes linked to the activities and resources of the environment, in secondary education and vocational training institutions in rural areas.

Admission requirements and choice of school

Basic vocational training

Access to basic vocational training cycles requires for the students to simultaneously comply with the following conditions:

• to be 15 years of age, or to reach the age of fifteen during the current calendar year;
• to have completed the third year of compulsory secondary education or, exceptionally, the second year;
• to have been proposed by the teaching team to the parents or legal guardians, through a guidance council.

Intermediate vocational training

Access to intermediate vocational training cycles is voluntary, provided students comply at least  with one of the following requirements:

• hold at least one of the following qualifications:
  • Compulsory Secondary Education certificate;
  • Basic Technician or Technician certificate;
• to have completed a specific training course in order to gain access to intermediate vocational training in public or private educational institutions authorised by the relevant  Education authority, and being over 17 years of age in the year they complete the course;
• to have passed an entrance examination organised by the Education authorities and to be 17 years of age in the year in which the examination is held.

The entrance examinations must allow accreditation of the competences acquired in compulsory secondary education. These tests are carried out adopting the necessary measures to ensure equal opportunities, non-discrimination of students with specific educational support needs and universal accessibility for people with disabilities, including the implementation of reasonable adjustments.

In the case of students who, having completed basic vocational training, have not passed the cycle in its entirety, but have passed all the modules within the professional field, the Education authorities may establish an access test of a specific nature adapted to the professional profile of the training cycle.

The Education authorities organise these entrance examinations at least once a year. The qualification obtained is valid throughout the country. A candidate cannot sit the entrance examinations in more than one autonomous community in the same school year. Whenever the number of candidates applying exceeds the number of places available, the  Education authorities can establish certain admission criteria. It is also the responsibility of the educational authorities to regulate the exemption of the parties to the examinations on the basis of pre-existing training accredited by the student body.

The final grade of the entrance exam, between 0 and 10 points, is calculated as long as at least 4 points are obtained in each section, and is the resulting average expressed with 2 decimal places, being positive the grade of 5 points or higher.

With regard to specific training courses, they are aimed at people who do not meet the access requirements, respecting the principles of accessibility and non-discrimination. The successful completion of all or part of these courses has the effect of total or partial exemptions from the entrance exam. Likewise, being in possession of a certificate of professional experience related to the training cycle to be studied or accrediting a certain qualification or work experience is also taken into account for the purposes of exemption.

Both in the entrance examinations and in the specific training courses, the most appropriate measures must be established so that the conditions in which the assessment tests are carried out are adapted to the needs of students with specific educational support needs.

The application for admission to a traning cycle is submitted to the institution providing the chosen studies by means of an application form. In addition to stating the training cycle and the institution of preference in the first place, it is possible to apply, in order of priority, to other institutions or even to apply for other training cycles.

As for new admissions, the educational institutions offer, for each training cycle, all the authorised vacant places they have, with the exception of those which are reserved for those students who are going to repeat. If the number of places reserved for students repeating the year is greater than the percentage established by the Education authority of each autonomous community, the institutions have to apply for authorisation from the unit in charge of the admission process.

When there are not enough places in the requested institution, given that there are different access routes to intermediate vocational training cycles, the Education authorities establish certain reserved places according to these criteria:

• of the total number of places offered, the following must be reserved:
  • a minimum of 5% for athletes who accredit, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 2 and 3 of Royal Decree 971/2007, the status of high-level or high-performance athletes (in compliance with the provisions of Article 9.3.a of said royal decree);
  • a percentage for applicants with disabilities (in compliance with the provisions in Article 75.4 of the LOE, amended by the LOMLOE).
• after deduction of the above reserves, the remaining school places are distributed according to the following criteria:

  • between 75% and 85% of the places for students holding a Lower Compulsory Secondary Education certificate or a Basic Vocational Training Technician certificate, with priority given to those who have completed these studies within the last three calendar years;

  • between 10% and 20% of the places for individuals who have passed a specific training course or an entrance exam;

  • up to 10% of the places for individuals holding a Technician or Higher Technician certificate;

  • between 5% and 10% of the places for individuals who have completed one or more Grade C levels integrated into the training cycle and need to take professional modules to complete Grade D. These places are counted only for the purpose of splitting the professional modules to be enrolled in, but not in the overall number of places offered.

Whenever a reserved space in any of these options is not filled, vacant spaces shall be allocated proportionally to the rest of the reserved spaces. The Education authorities regulate the priority given to each of the students’ previous studies within the reserves described above.

The agreements and decisions on student admission, adopted by the School Council and schooling commissions in public schools and by the owners of the institution in the case of publicly-funded private schools, may give rise to a claim before the ECurriculum, subjects, number of hours

The curriculum is understood as the set of objectives, competences (key and specific), contents (stated in the form of basic knowledge), pedagogical methods (through learning situations), assessment criteria and learning outcomes.

The Administration, through the MEFD, after consulting the autonomous communities, establishes the basic curriculum (compulsory minimum teaching throughout the country in terms of objectives, competences, content, assessment criteria and learning outcomes) in order to ensure common education for all students. 

The Education authorities of the autonomous communities establish the curriculum in their respective administration spheres, in compliance with the rules that regulate the different vocational training programmes. In any case, the extension and development of the basic curriculum, established by the Government, must refer to the qualifications and units of competence of the National Catalogue of Professional Competence Standards (CNECP) included in the corresponding studies.

The curriculum of vocational training education is organised into successive levels of concretion, which  progressively adapt to the specificities of the school environment and the students who attend it. For this reason, educational institutions also play an active role in implementing the curriculum in accordance with the characteristics and expectations of the students, with special attention to the needs of those with disabilities. They also take into account the training possibilities offered by their surrounding area, especially when it comes to the organisation of internships in companies. Along these lines, they prepare a series of tools for formulating their pedagogic and curricular organisation:

• the school educational project, which includes the application of the established curricula by the Education authority;
• the didactic programmes;
• the written report at the end of the school year, which reflects and evaluates the school activities and the running of the school.

The educational community takes part in the elaboration of these documents through the respective government and coordination teaching bodies of the school. The curricula established by the Education authority are set and approved by the school staff, as well as the educational aspects of the yearly general programme.

Structure

In higher secondary vocational education, vocational training is structured into training cycles that correspond to:

1. Basic Vocational Training Cycles;
2. Intermediate Vocational Training Cycles

Currently, there are 34 basic vocational training qualifications belonging to 19 occupational families and 67 intermediate vocational training qualifications belonging to 27 occupational families (Source: Todo FP [last accessed 27/11/2025]).

Vocational training qualifications have the following characteristics:

• They correspond to the training cycles established in Organic Law 2/2006 of 3 May on Education (LOE) as amended by Organic Law 3/2020 (LOMLOE).
• Each vocational family groups together various training cycles.
• It comprises a set of training cycles organised into areas (basic vocational training) or modules (intermediate vocational training), of variable duration and with theoretical and practical contents appropriate to the different professional fields in which they are integrated.
• The different training cycles refer to the CNECP.

Organisation

Basic vocational training

The basic level training cycles are aimed preferably at those who have the greatest possibilities of learning and achieving the competences of compulsory secondary education in an environment linked to the professional world, taking care to avoid the segregation of students for socio-economic or other reasons, with the purpose of preparing them for the continuation of their training. According to Article 44 of Organic Law 3/2022 on the Organisation and Integration of Vocational Training (LOOIFP), basic level training cycles are, in general, those linked to level 1 competence standards of the National Catalogue of Professional Competence Standards.

The basic level training cycles include three areas and one project: 

• Communication and Social Sciences area, which includes the following subjects:
  • Spanish language;
  • foreign language for professional initiation;
  • social sciences;
  • co-official language, in the territories where it corresponds.
• Applied Sciences, with the following subjects:
  • applied mathematics;
  • applied sciences.
• Professional Field, which will include at least the training necessary to obtain a Grade C professional certificate linked to level 1 competence standards in the National Catalogue of Professional Competence Standards.
• Annual collaborative learning project linked to the three previous areas.

In addition, other teaching that contributes to the development of the competences in Compulsory Secondary Education may also be included.

All training cycles are developed, on a dual basis, between the training centre and the company, including an in-company training phase.

The pedagogical criteria with which the training programmes of these cycles are developed are adapted to the specific characteristics of the students, preferably adopting an organisation of the curriculum by collaborative learning projects from an applied perspective, and encourage the development of social and emotional skills, teamwork and the use of information and communication technologies.

Intermediate vocational training

According to Article 45 of the LOOIFP, intermediate level training cycles are those linked to level 2 competence standards of the National Catalogue of Professional Competence Standards.

The curricular contents of the training cycles are organised into different types of vocational modules, including:

• A mandatory core part, determining the scope of the cycle and ensuring the corresponding general competence, consisting of:
  • vocational training modules of the Modular Catalogue of Vocational Training associated to the professional competence standards;
  • modules associated with transversal skills and abilities, labour orientation and entrepreneurship relevant to the knowledge of the productive sectors and professional maturity;
  • at least one intermodular project, to be developed throughout the courses in the cycle.
• An elective part consisting of vocational training modules that provide greater flexibility in the configuration and adaptability of the training provision, in order to cover the diversity of the productive reality in the corresponding territory and the personal interests and motivations in the construction of each training and vocational itinerary, allowing for a more in-depth study of certain elements of the training cycle.

The corresponding Administrations determine the optional professional modules that provide a greater depth in the development of transversal competences such as: in-depth study in digitalisation applied to the industry; in-depth study in business initiative and entrepreneurship; foreign languages and in-depth study in sustainable development applied to the industry, or that provide general training complements to facilitate the monitoring of the individual training itinerary such as, among others, increasing humanistic knowledge, increasing scientific-technical knowledge, or social skills.

Educatio authorities may also:

• Incorporate, while respecting the basic curriculum, optional complementary modules linked to further training in the competences of the training cycle or to the acquisition of additional competences which, by complementing the training, allow a broader professional profile to be acquired, either during the period of training provided in the educational institution or in the company. The duration of the training may, in this case, be extended within the framework of what is laid down in the relevant basic regulations. These curricular extensions do not modify the diploma and may only lead to its complementary certification by the appropriate administration.
• To authorise optional modules, jointly designed by vocational training centres and universities, that facilitate the progression of students’ educational pathways from vocational training to university studies.

Within the framework of the basic elements of the curriculum of each qualification and the modular organisation of vocational training cycles, Education authorities promote flexibility and specialisation in their training provision with the aim of promoting innovation and employability.

Teaching methods and materials

Teaching methods

The teaching methodology is the set of strategies, procedures and actions consciously and thoughtfully organised and planned by teachers with the aim of guaranteeing student learning and the attainment of the stated objectives.

The general strategy for the methodology of vocational training is the design and development of innovative methodologies that have an impact on the quality and impact of these programmes. These methodologies promote the skills associated with innovation by applying, through projects, inclusive and innovative methodologies close to the work reality which encourage training linked to initiative and creativity in new situations.

The MEFD establishes the methodological principles that must guide the teaching practice in vocational training. They feature the following characteristics:

• Educational activities in vocational training must be adapted to the specific characteristics of the students, adopting an organisation of the curriculum from an applied perspective.
• Special attention must be paid to students with specific educational support needs, maintaining educational inclusion as one of the principles of these programmes. To this end, the organisational and methodological alternatives and measures to cater for diversity must be established, using the principles of Universal Design for Learning, in order to facilitate these students' access to the curriculum.
• It must be guaranteed that students acquire skills related to digitalisation, career management, innovation, entrepreneurship, technological versatility, knowledge and professional project management, commitment to sustainable development and the prevention of occupational and environmental risks, and professional responsibility.

Within their pedagogic autonomy, schools are in charge of defining the teaching methods in the classroom, according to the said pedagogic principles. They also decide on curricular materials and didactic resources. In this regard, they must develop their pedagogical proposals for all students, taking into account their diversity. Likewise, they must adopt methods that take into account the different learning paces of students, favour their ability to learn on their own and promote teamwork.

Each teacher can make their own methodological decisions, which must respect both the agreements made at school level and what the relevant Education authorities establish.

Curricular materials and teaching resources

Textbooks and teaching materials do not require the prior authorisation of the Education authorities for their adoption and publication, although they are subject to supervision by the educational authorities as part of the ordinary inspection process that they carry out over all the elements comprising the teaching and learning process. In any case, curricular materials must: 

• be adapted to the scientific rigour adequate for the students’ age group and to the approved curriculum set by each Education authority;
• reflect and promote respect for the principles, values, freedom, rights and constitutional duties, as well as the principles and values set out in current educational laws and in  Organic Law 1/2004 on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence, with which all educational activity must comply.

In the exercise of pedagogical autonomy, it is up to the educational coordination bodies of each public educational institution to decide on the textbooks and other materials to be used in the development of the different areas.

Students and their families pay for textbooks and school materials. However, the MEFD promotes, within the Sectoral Committee for Education, programmes that facilitate the availability of textbooks at no cost and other curricular materials through a system of loans or grants. This Sectoral Committee, through the General Education Commission (support body), agrees on the objective criteria for distribution, as well as the amounts to be transferred in favour of each autonomous community in each budget year. Here you can access the agreement and distribution for the year 2025.

At the same time, there are a number of regional and local aids for the purchase of textbooks and school materials for students attending publicly-funded private schools.

Regarding the homework that students must do outside school hours, in Spain there is no specific legislation regulating this aspect at a national level. It therefore remains at the discretion of each teacher or whatever arrangements are made at the school.

Information and Communication Technologies

Education authorities and management teams at public schools should promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the classroom as an appropriate and valuable educational medium for carrying out teaching and learning tasks. For years, the use of digital devices in schools has become widespread in response to the importance of the development of the students' digital competence. However, the widespread use of personal devices like mobile phones has a negative impact on aspects such as privacy and internet security, distraction, and coexistence in schools. In order to ensure the protection of minors in the school environment from risk situations arising from the improper use of ICT, with particular attention to online violence, Education authorities are responsible for regulating the prohibition or limitation of mobile devices. In 2024, the State School Council approved a series of recommendations for this regulatory framework by the different Education authorities. Furthermore, in accordance with the law, confidence and safety in the use of technologies must be fostered, paying special attention to the elimination of gender stereotypes that hinder the acquisition of digital skills under equal conditions.

Additionally, vocational training can be provided in face-to-face, blended, virtual or blended modalities, favouring the use of new technologies during the teaching-learning process.

The open educational resource network Procomún, created by the National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training (INTEF), is intended for educational and learning uses, primarily by the teaching community and students, but also by the general public.

Currently, Procomún is a network of open educational resources (OER), where you can search, display and download learning objects in standard formats and with open licenses for use in pre-university education. It integrates a social network as a meeting point for the educational community, which facilitates interaction with other users, creating communities, sharing, valuing and disseminating all kinds of educational resources. At the same time, it incorporates semantic technology linking it to other similar digital networks (Europeana, Redined, National Library, Prado Museum, Hispana y Dbpedia).

These OERs are created using the eXeLearning authoring tool and are offered under an open license (Creative Commons Spain), which allows free access, as well as their use, modification, and redistribution by others without any restrictions or with limited restrictions

Meanwhile, the EDIA Project (Educational, Digital, Innovative and Open) of the National Centre for Curriculum Development in Non-Proprietary Systems (CEDEC) promotes and supports the creation of digital and methodological transformation dynamics in schools to improve student learning and promote new models for educational institutions.

EDIA offers a collection of educational content for primary and secondary education, among other educational levels. These open educational resources are curriculum-referenced and offer proposals for active methodologies and the promotion of digital competence in the classroom. The resources include all the templates, guides, rubrics and documents necessary to implement the didactic proposal in the classroom.

The OERs of the EDIA project have generated networks of teachers who discuss the use of resources and technology in the classroom. This virtual faculty constitutes a framework for experimentation to propose new educational content models that develop aspects such as accessibility and topics such as gender equality or digital citizenship.

Dual nature of Vocational Training

According to Article 55 of Organic Law 3/2022 on the Organisation and Integration of Vocational Training (LOOIFP), all vocational training provision aimed at obtaining a professional certificate (Grade C), a Training Cycle (Grade D) or a specialisation course (Grade E) is dual in nature, incorporating a training phase in a company or similar organisation. The dual nature of Vocational Training will be developed by means of an appropriate distribution of the training processes between the vocational training institutions and the companies or equivalent bodies, both contributing to the achievement of the competences established in each training offer.  However, the training provision aimed at partial competence accreditation (Grade A) or competence certification (Grade B) may or may not have this dual nature, depending on the characteristics of each training course.

The in-company training phase will last at least 25% of the total planned duration of the training and must take place in one or more public or private companies or similar bodies belonging to the production or service sector relevant to the training.

The corresponding administrations must ensure that appropriate adjustments are made so that students with special educational needs can undertake their in-company training phase on equal terms. 

Vocational training centres, whether public or private, authorized to offer this type of education, will establish agreements with companies or equivalent organisations to ensure effective access for all students to the corresponding training.ducation authority, whose final decision can be appealed against. Private schools with no public funding have autonomy for establishing their own admission procedures

Age levels and grouping of students

Basic vocational training

The organisation of this type of provision is flexible in order to adapt to the different situations of students. However, they are generally attended between the ages of 15 and 17. Exceptionally, the  education administrations may authorise specific basic level training cycles for those who have reached the age of 17 when circumstances of school records make this advisable.

The number of teachers imparting teaching to the same group of students is kept as reduced as possible, respecting the educational elements and observing the schedule of all the different vocational modules included in the Basic Vocational Training Certificate. In any case, each group is assigned a member of the teaching staff who tutors the group. The modules associated with the fields of communication and social sciences and the field of applied sciences are taught by the same teaching staff who are authorised to teach any of the subjects included in the corresponding field throughout ESO. With regard to the professional field, each of the basic VT qualifications establishes its own specialisations required for the teaching staff.

The Education authorities are responsible for establishing the number of students per group in each training cycle, depending on its characteristics, the location of the educational institution and the organisation of specific groups. The teacher/student ratio per unit is regulated by the MEFD in Article 22.2 of Royal Decree 127/2014, establishing a maximum of 30 students per unit. However, the seventh additional provision of Royal Decree 659/2023 states that the competent administrations must gradually reduce this number to a maximum of 20 students by the 2028/29 school year. The Education authorities may allow an increase of up to 10% in the maximum number of students per classroom in public and publicly-funded private schools in the same schooling area for various reasons:

• address immediate schooling needs of late starters;
• needs arising from the transfer of the family unit during an extraordinary schooling period, either due to forced mobility of either parent or legal guardian, or as a result of the initiation of a family placement measure for the person attending school.

Intermediate Vocational Training

Intermediate vocational training can be taken as long as students meet some of the admission requirements mentioned. Consequently, the age of access will be 16 or 17, depending on the established requirement.

The duration of these courses varies between two and three years, according to the needs and requirements of the training. It is quite common to have different aged-students in the same group.

A form teacher is assigned to each group, but specialist teachers are responsible for teaching the different subjects.

The Education authorities are responsible for establishing the number of students per group in each training cycle, depending on its characteristics, the location of the educational institution and the organisation of specific groups. Until the publication of the new regulations governing the vocational training system in July 2023, the teacher-to-student ratio per unit was 30 students per unit. However, the seventh additional provision of Royal Decree 659/2023 states that the competent administrations must gradually reduce this number to a maximum of 25 students by the 2028/29 school year. However, the Education authorities may allow an increase of up to 10% in the maximum number of students per classroom in public and publicly-funded private schools in the same schooling area for various reasons:

• address immediate schooling needs of late starters;
• needs arising from the transfer of the family unit during an extraordinary schooling period, either due to forced mobility of either parent or legal guardian, or as a result of the initiation of a family placement measure for the person attending school.

Organisation of the school year

The Education authorities within their jurisdiction, are responsible for annually establishing the school year calendar. In basic vocational education, the minimum of 175 teaching days applies for basic courses. In intermediate vocational training, the timetable is adjusted to the number of hours in the training cycles.

Activity in schools starts on September 1st and ends at least on June 30th. For students, the teaching activity begins during the month of September and ends in June. The exact dates are set by the Education authorities in each autonomous community. The teaching activity is organised taking into account the Christmas, Easter and summer holidays, giving rise to terms of varying length. However, some Autonomous Communities have also tried to divide the year in two-month periods.

School holidays for students are spread out over the whole year in the following manner:

• approximately 11 weeks of summer holidays;
• about 15 days at Christmas;
• between 8 and 11 days in late March or during the month of April, corresponding to Easter;
• between 2 and 3 days for Carnival, depending on each autonomous community;
• around 12 days declared as public holidays or non-school days by the MEFD or the regional or local authorities.

This distribution of holidays, public holidays and non-school days can vary significantly from one autonomous community to another.

During the summer holidays, schools may remain open until the end of July for administrative purposes. Depending on the organisation of each educational institution, the same may occur on non-holiday days during the Christmas and Easter breaks.

Organisation of the school day and week

Schools establish the weekly and daily timetable, respecting the minimum number of teaching days established by law and in the guidelines on school day set by each autonomous community.

The school general timetable, in the school educational project, must specify the following aspects:

• school opening time and conditions;
• teaching hours;
• availability of school services and facilities out of school hours.

The weekly timetable in both basic and intermediate vocational training is organised from Monday to Friday, except on holidays, according to the school calendar. In general, it comprises 30 to 32 lessons lasting 55-60 minutes each, i.e., 6 or 7 daily lessons.

During the school day, there is a 30-40 minute break divided into two periods, usually either after every two or three lessons or as a single period by mid-morning. It is quite common to have vocational training cycles scheduled in the afternoon.

The weekly and daily timetable, as proposed by the management team, must be approved by the School Council and ratified by the Education Administration. If it does not include the scheduled teaching activities, the relevant Education authority returns it to the school so that it can be revised and corrected.