Developing prospective tools for the observation of skill requirements in Spain

In the last decades various tools have been developed in Spain to observe skill requirements and to translate these requirements into provision of adequate initial school-based training, occupational training and continuing training. Although the tools developed in Spain were at first oriented to the different types of training, different territories and different methodologies, they all played an essential role in the general orientation and modernisation of vocational education and training in Spain. This paper describes the tools for identifying skills requirements in Spain and informs on an observatory (OBINCUAL) which is now being set up. This observatory is closely associated with the creation of the National System of Vocational Qualifications. OBINCUAL has been conceived as a ‘network of networks’ which can function as a nucleus of information and exchange on skill requirements and vocational training between the different vocational training subsystems in Spain.