Exploring the Intensity of Relationships with Vocational Education Centres: A Typology of Spanish SMEs

Cristina Lavía, Beatriz Otero, Eneka Albizu and Mikel Olazaran
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Cristina Lavía: Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Barrio Sarriena, s/n, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Beatriz Otero: Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Barrio Sarriena, s/n, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Eneka Albizu: Institute of Applied Business Economics, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Avda. Lehendakari Aguirre, 83, 48015 Bilbao, Spain
Mikel Olazaran: Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Barrio Sarriena, s/n, 48940 Leioa, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-12

Abstract: Even though the availability of skilled labour and technological know-how is critical to the sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the relationships between industry and the vocational education system have received little attention in the recent literature regarding social aspects of innovation. The objective of this paper is to analyse the intensity of relationships between industrial SMEs and vocational education and training (VET) centres from the firms’ perspective. The study is based on a survey carried out with a sample of 1388 Spanish industrial SMEs with vocational education graduates among their employees. Multivariate hierarchical segmentation techniques were used in order to identify the main explanatory variables. As a result, we obtained a typology (“tree”) of eight organizational profiles associated to different intensity levels (from higher to lower) of relationships between firms and schools. The results show that most industrial SMEs maintain relations with vocational education centres, reflecting the importance of the latter for the companies. The organisational type having the highest level of relations refers to SMEs with experience in external cooperation (cooperation with other actors in innovation projects) which have vocational education employees (graduates) in technical areas and which are bigger in size. Likewise, the results suggest that fruitful collaboration between SMEs and vocational education centres depends on the existence of an established culture of innovation among the smaller firms. This work sheds light on economic and social sustainability. Its results and discussion are linked to the objectives of United Nations sustainable development goals and the recent communication from the European Commission to the European Parliament entitled “European skills agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness, and resilience”.

Keywords: SME; vocational education and training; VET; relationship; collaboration; innovation; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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