Over 50% of the unemployed are between 16-25 years, so the Spanish youth is one of the sectors hit hardest by the economic crisis, along with long-term unemployed adults. Because young people are also responsible for the generational change, the problem affects not only the present but also the future. Companies cannot find workers with the expertise they need and graduates of different educational levels do not obtain the preparation required by today's challenging job market. Is in this context in which the growing importance of strategies such as Dual Training can be focused, which is aimed at the professional qualification combining the processes of teaching and learning in the workplace and training center. It is about encouraging collaboration and participation of companies in vocational training systems, promoting businesses and vocational training centers strengthen their links and promote greater integration of students into employment during the training period. However SMEs, which makes up 98% of our business, highlights the enormous difficulties they have, given their limited structure to accommodate Dual Training students according to requirements of facilities, personnel in charge of student, etc. Alianza promotes the development of an innovative project in the field of Dual Training, encouraging the implementation and use of a tool aimed at strengthening the role of SMEs in the system by encouraging their participation through a management system that facilitates it. Improving the quality and effectiveness of education and training by developing Dual Training programs really adapted to the needs of SMEs and its structure is fundamental to the Alianza project, hence the development of a strategic cooperation framework between the worlds of training and enterprise, is the challenge that we consider addressing the identified priorities. The project will provide an increase of opportunities for Vocational Training students to enhance their employability through internships in the business, which can be taken according to their actual circumstances, from the point of view of its structure and from the sector itself. Alianza will also allow Vocational Training centers themselves to coordinate with the SME the Dual Training processes, adapting them to their forecasted skill needs.
Over 50% of the unemployed are between 16-25 years, so the Spanish youth is one of the sectors hit hardest by the economic crisis, along with long-term unemployed adults. Because young people are also responsible for the generational change, the problem affects not only the present but also the future. At the same time, companies cannot find workers with the expertise they need and graduates of different educational levels do not obtain the preparation required by today's challenging job market. Is in this context in which the growing importance of strategies such as Dual Training can be focused, which is aimed at the professional qualification combining the processes of teaching and learning in the workplace and training centre. It is about encouraging collaboration and participation of companies in vocational training systems, promoting businesses and vocational training centres strengthen their links and promote greater integration of students into employment during the training period. However SMEs, which makes up 98% of European business, highlight the enormous difficulties they have, given their limited structure to accommodate Dual Training students according to requirements of facilities, personnel in charge of student, etc. The metal sector in Spain, for example, consists of almost 100,000 companies that employ more than 1,130,000 people, with significant growth rates in the last 7 years. The metal industry is looking for qualified employees to respond to market demands and therefore it has been estimated that the number of FP students should grow at least 20% to cover the employment offer in the sector during next years. Faced with the demand for a specific sector such as metal, the Dual Training represents the most appropriate model to respond to the needs of companies. However, this sector is made up of 99% of small and micro enterprises that find enormous difficulties, due to their size, to host students in training. Achieving favourable results as in Germany, where 71% of SMEs are authorized to provide Dual Vocational Training, requires that they be provided with enabling tools. ALIANZA project has developed a tool to strengthen the role of SMEs in the Dual Training system, promoting the implementation and use of a management system that facilitates their participation. Our purpose has been to foster strategic cooperation between companies in the metal sector, offering them an interactive tool that allows them to share their characteristics, interests and resources, and find related companies with which to cooperate for the implementation of Dual FP programs with training centers. Although companies are the main target group of the system, VET centers can also use it to connect with companies and offer opportunities for educational collaboration, bringing together the world of work and education around a common goal: improving and increasing employment opportunities for students of vocational training, through practices in a realistic business framework from the point of view of its structure and the sector itself. To achieve these objectives, the ALIANZA team (formed by 2 business organizations, 2 economic research centres and 2 training centres) has created and promoted an online interactive tool that facilitates the meeting between SMEs with similar needs and interests, but also with VET centres, aiming to create partnerships for the promotion of Dual Training opportunities. The platform has been presented to more than 200 representatives of the business and VET worlds and has been tested with 65 companies and 28 VET centres that registered their data and began to build synergies for Dual Training. The assessment of the tool by the target group has been positive and this makes us consider the possibility that this approach, applied in the ALIANZA project only to the metal sector, could be extended to other economical and VET sectors.