In Spain, participation in early childhood education and care is almost universal. However, and despite recently positive trends, the Spanish education system faces a persistently high rate of early school leavers, low achievement in basic skills and an inefficient transition from education and training to the labour market. There has been some progress on implementing vocational education and training (VET) reforms, but links between education and labour market policies still need to be improved. Tertiary educational attainment continues to be among the highest in Europe, but the high levels of unemployment of university graduates and skills mismatches in higher education remain a concern. Education and training reforms are part of an overall programme to address the wider economic context of high youth unemployment, slow recovery and fiscal consolidation.
The 2014 European Semester country-specific recommendation (CSR) on education and training focused on: (i) continuing with efforts to increase the quality of primary and secondary education by effectively implementing the new educational schemes; (ii) providing enhanced support to groups at risk of early school leaving, while addressing regional disparities; (iii) increasing the labour market relevance of vocational education and training and higher education, in particular by enhancing the cooperation with employers and supporting the training of trainers and tutors.