The Government, on the proposal of the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, has approved to allocate more than 35 million euros to Asturias for the promotion of educational support programs and Vocational Training for workers.
The Council of Ministers has authorised the proposal for the distribution and the criteria for the distribution of four educational programmes for territorial cooperation and one for Vocational Training for working people, with a value of more than 1.17 billion euros for the autonomous communities. The territorial distribution and distribution criteria of the programmes included in this budget package were proposed within the Sectoral Conference on Education.
It's about Program to Strengthen Reading Skills, Mathematical Competence Strengthening Program, Inclusive Education Program, Territorial Cooperation Program for Educational Orientation, Advancement and Enrichment (PROA+) and Vocational Training for Working People in the year 2026. The Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Milagros Tolón, said that this investment “reflects in figures the value that this Government gives to education and Vocational Training”. The Programme for the Strengthening of Reading Competence is endowed with 56.2 million euros, of which 1.4 million euros correspond to Asturias; and the Programme for the Strengthening of Mathematical Competence has 120.6 million euros, with 2.3 million euros for Asturias. Both programs focus on offering students with more difficulties a more personalized attention, reducing the gender gap in both competencies, and training teachers in methodologies and strategies for learning (in the case of reading, in different mediums). Both aim to improve the level of performance of students in the second cycle of Infant Education (only in the case of reading), Primary, ESO and Basic Degree training cycles.
The Territorial Cooperation Program for Educational Orientation, Advancement and Enrichment in centres of special educational complexity (the so-called PROA+), it has a budget of 105.9 million euros, of which 2.6 million are for Asturias (co-financed by the Ministry and the European Social Fund Plus). It responds to the need to improve school success and ensure the permanence of students in those centers supported with public funds in which a high percentage of young people in a clear situation of socio-educational vulnerability are concentrated. It will be the communities that select those centers that due to their characteristics and vulnerability of the students must be part of PROA+. The objective of this program is to promote a progressive transformation of the centers, based on the generation of positive expectations for all students and the consolidation of an inclusive school climate, so that all students achieve educational success.
For its part, the Inclusive Education Program (co-financed also by the European Social Fund Plus), with 28.7 million, of which more than 835,000 euros correspond to Asturias, aims to promote the transformation of educational centers towards fully inclusive environments.
In this way, it aims to identify and eliminate physical, social, communicative, methodological or organizational barriers that may make it difficult for all students to access the educational system in equal opportunities, participate fully in school life and develop their learning in conditions of equity and inclusion.
The term of execution of the aforementioned programs will be extended from September 1, 2026 to August 31, 2027. Adding together all the territorial cooperation programs, since 2018, the Ministry has transferred more than 4.425 billion euros to the autonomous communities for their development.
Professional training for working people.
The Council of Ministers has also authorised the proposal for territorial distribution of more than 867 million euros, of which 27.7 million for Asturias, intended for Vocational Training for working people in the financial year 2026.
Most of the total of this funding, EUR 696.5 million, will go to training initiatives for unemployed workers, while EUR 145.9 million will go to training actions for employed workers. In addition, 24.8 million euros are reserved for extraordinary actions of the Vocational Training for Employment system provided through the public network of training centres. These actions will promote qualification, requalification and the development of lifelong learning pathways.
The distribution, as in the other programmes, will be carried out according to the criteria agreed by the Sectoral Conference. Since 2021, the government has transferred more than 4,000 million euros to the communities for this type of action.