Dual vocational training: internship agreement
Patrick Gordinne Perez2024-12-27T08:56:41+00:00Dual vocational training in Spain is becoming increasingly important. Young people are increasingly choosing vocational education and training as a way to get a job.
It is clear that going to university and getting a degree is no guarantee of getting a good job.
It takes many years, a lot of money and uncertainty.
On the other hand, if you do vocational training and also do an internship in a company, it will be much easier and you will get a job quickly.
At the time of writing this article there are 2,586,018 unemployed people in Spain .
And yet, companies are still unable to find workers.
Everyone knows that the most important thing for a company is to have training and experience.
A good option is to train in vocational training and do an internship in a company.
This is dual vocational training.
In this article we tell you how it works to sign up to a dual vocational training system with a training centre so that your students can carry out non-professional internships in your company.
What is Dual DVT?
What is dual vocational training?
Training placements
In the dual vocational training system, vocational trainees at a school divide their studies into two parts.
On the one hand, they receive – as a rule – theoretical training at their school.
On the other hand, they receive practical training in their company through productive activities related to their studies.
For this purpose, an agreement between the school and the company is necessary to establish the distribution of this training.
Dual VET: Two phases
The stay in the company is divided into two phases.
- In the first phase, the student joins the company to do an internship and adapt to its operations.
- Once this period is over, they begin their paid stay, which can be carried out in two ways: by means of an alternating training work contract or by means of a training grant.
Work-linked training vs. training grant
Regulation of dual vocational training
As an employment contract for work-linked training, since it is an employment relationship, it is regulated by the provisions of the Workers’ Statute and the applicable collective bargaining agreement.
If the latter does not say anything, during the first year the salary cannot be less than 60% (75% during the second year) of the salary established in the collective agreement for the professional group corresponding to the functions performed, in proportion to the effective working time; nor can it be less than the minimum wage, in proportion to the effective working time.
On the other hand, the training grant has a more flexible regulation. See below its particularities and differences with respect to work-linked training.
Duration of dual vocational training
While the contract for work-linked training has a minimum duration of three months and a maximum duration of two years (if the duration of the contract is less than the legal maximum and the diploma is not obtained in time, it can be extended until it is obtained, as long as the maximum duration of two years is not exceeded),
The duration of the training grant is specified in the agreement between the company and the educational institution.
As a guideline, the duration of the training grant is usually approximately 1,000 hours per year.

Social Security
In both cases (alternating training contract and training grant), students must be registered with the Social Security under the paid training internship modality.
In this case, the contributions are as follows:
Concept | Company | Worker | Total |
Common contingencies (1) | 53,61€/month | 10,69€/month | 64,30€/month |
Accidents at work and occupational diseases | 3,82 €/month IT (Temporary Incapacity)3,56 €/month IMS (Permanent Incapacity, Death and Survival) | 7,38 €/month | |
Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI) | Excluding |
In 2024, the reduction of 95% will be applied to the contributions for common contingencies, so that the company will only pay 2.68 euros per month and the worker 0.53 euros per month.
Remuneration
As mentioned above, the minimum remuneration to be received by the student with a work-linked training contract is that established in the applicable collective agreement for this specific case.
On the other hand, in the case of a training grant, the salary will be that agreed in the agreement between the company and the educational centre, depending on the hours spent in the company.
See below an example of a calculation of the amount of a scholarship for a higher education student in the dual internship modality.
Company cost of dual vocational training
A student does 100 hours of work experience per month (25 hours per week), and the monitoring committee of the training agreement – which sets the amount of the grant – establishes it at 65% of the current minimum wage for Advanced Vocational Training (15,876 euros per year for 2024).
See what the cost to the company will be:
Monthly grant (100 hours x 5.65/hour) | 565 (1) |
Social security company | 10,06 |
Total company cost | 575,06 |
To obtain the hourly rate, 65% of the annual SMI for 2024 has been calculated and the result has been divided by 1,826 hours per year (this annual working day has been taken into account because the Workers’ Statute does not quantify the annual working day, but the monthly working day). Therefore: (15,876.00 euros × 65%)/1,826 hours = 5.65 euros/hour.
Amount for the worker
Let us now see what would be the net amount of the grant that the student would actually receive for the 100 hours per month mentioned above:
Monthly grant (100 hours x 5,65/hour) | 565 |
Social Security worker | 0,53 |
Retention | 0,00 (1) |
Total cash to be received | 564,47 |
Please note that, as the grant is not considered a salary, no personal income tax withholding should be applied.
However, many payroll programs consider that the amount to be paid to the student is a salary remuneration of a temporary relationship and automatically apply a 2% withholding.
In this case, the amount of the grant to be considered is the same each month so that the net amount to be received is also the same.
In this way, the management of the receipt and the payment of the grant is made easier and more comprehensible for the student and the company.
Paid traineeships can be carried out in two ways: by means of an alternating training work contract or by means of a training grant. In both cases, the company must pay contributions.
Training in alternation
Other aspects to take into account
Qualifications and age
Remember that the work-linked training contract can be concluded with people who meet the following requirements:
- That they lack the qualifications to be able to enter into a training contract for obtaining professional practice.
- If the contract is signed to obtain level 1 and 2 certificates of professionalism, the worker may not be over 30 years of age.
- Contracts linked to vocational training or university studies may be concluded with persons holding another qualification, provided that they have not had another previous training contract at the same level and in the same productive sector.
Already worked
In any case, alternating training contracts may not be concluded when the worker has already worked in the same company under any modality for more than six months.
Related activity
The activity carried out must be related to the training activities being undertaken.
In addition, the trainee must have a tutor appointed by the training centre and another tutor appointed by the company (who must have the appropriate training or experience and whose role will be to monitor the training plan and verify that the activity carried out in the company is related to the course and serves the worker to complete his or her studies.
One or more contracts
Only one contract may be concluded per course (vocational training, university degree, etc.).
However, it may be concluded with several companies on the basis of the same training if different activities are to be carried out (the maximum duration of all the contracts may not exceed two years).
For example, if a person studies a vocational training course in logistics and international trade, he/she could have two contracts in two different companies with different activities.
Moreover, the actual working time in the company must be compatible with the time spent on the training course.
To this end, it may not exceed 65% during the first year -or 85% during the second year- of the maximum legal working day (or the one stipulated in the collective agreement).
Contract or grant?
If these requirements are not met, you will not be able to enter into an alternating training contract and you will have to consider the option of a training grant (provided that it fits in your case).
If you try to disguise an employment relationship with the scholarship, the Labour Inspectorate will sanction you and you risk that the worker’s contract will be considered indefinite.