Training to Care: Employment, Professionalisation and Quality
The future of care will not depend only on how much we invest, which technologies we adopt, or how many services we are able to deploy. It will depend, above all, on the people who provide care: on their preparation, their working conditions, and their ability to build a recognised professional pathway in a sector that sustains the autonomy, dignity, and daily life of millions of people.
Caring requires humanity, but humanity does not replace knowledge. Good will is essential; improvisation cannot be the model. In long‑lived societies, improving the training of those who care is not a secondary issue: it is a condition for providing better care.
An essential sector that needs professionals
Care work is already one of the major employment sectors in Spain. The CENIE study The Right to Care and the Care Economy in Spain estimates that around 1.3 million people were working in care‑related activities in 2024, roughly 6% of national employment. Eighty‑seven percent were women. Yet the social importance of the sector still does not match the recognition given to those who work in it: it shows high rates of temporary and part‑time contracts, below‑average wages, and uneven professionalisation.
The issue is not only correcting a present injustice. It is also anticipating a future need. By 2030, more than 260,000 additional professionals may be required even in a continuity scenario, and more than 400,000 if the goal is to achieve universal coverage of the services within the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency.
It is not enough, therefore, to say that more people will be needed. We must ask how they will enter the sector, how they will be trained, which competencies will be recognised, and what possibilities they will have to remain in the field without burning out or leaving it.
Professionalising is not dehumanising
There is some resistance to talking about professionalisation when we talk about care. As if training, certifying, or establishing procedures could cool down an activity that is deeply relational. But professionalising does not mean turning care into a sequence of protocols. It means providing tools to respond better to complex situations.
Caring requires technical knowledge, but also relational abilities: listening, observing, respecting decisions, recognising changes, accompanying without undermining autonomy. It requires understanding that a person is not just a set of needs, but a biography, preferences, and a personal project.
Training does not eliminate the human dimension of care. It protects it. It ensures that empathy does not depend solely on voluntarism and that care is not left vulnerable to improvisation, fatigue, or the absence of shared criteria.
Training as a gateway, not a barrier
One of the main challenges is designing training pathways capable of responding to very different trajectories. There are young people seeking their first qualification, professionals coming from other sectors, workers with years of unrecognised experience, and migrants who possess valuable skills but struggle to have them validated.
A system that is too rigid may exclude precisely those who already know how to care. One that is too lax may compromise quality. The answer is not to lower standards, but to build more accessible, modular, and flexible pathways that allow people to learn, update their knowledge, and have their experience accredited.
Recognising competencies does not mean handing out certificates. It means rigorously assessing what a person can do and ensuring that years of work do not remain administratively invisible.
Quality employment, quality care
Sustained quality care cannot be built on precarious jobs. Constant turnover prevents the creation of bonds; fragmented schedules hinder continuity; overload increases the risk of mistakes; insufficient wages drive away experience and talent.
The CENIE report highlights a relationship that should be obvious: the quality of any care system depends on the quality of employment. Improving wages, reducing temporary and part‑time contracts, strengthening training, and protecting occupational health are not measures separate from care. They are part of it.
When we care for those who care, we are also caring for those who receive support.
A necessary conversation in El Escorial
With this in mind, IMSERSO is organising, on 13 and 14 July 2026, within the Summer Courses of the Complutense University of Madrid, the course Training pathways for care professionals. Employment quality and professionalisation of the sector.
The event will address barriers to employment access, competency accreditation, the need for more structured and flexible training pathways, regulatory changes linked to the new professional certificate in care and personal assistance, and the progress of the SAAD Technical Committee on Quality. It will also include national and international experiences on training, work organisation, and innovation in care.
This is not just a course on training. It is a conversation about the model of care we want to build. Because deciding how we prepare, recognise, and protect care professionals is also deciding what level of care we consider dignified.
From stop‑gap jobs to professional careers
For too long, part of care work has been treated as entry‑level, transitional, or last‑resort employment. That view is incompatible with its complexity and growing importance.
The future requires transforming fragile positions into professional careers: with initial training, continuous learning, recognition of experience, opportunities for specialisation, and conditions that allow people to remain in the sector.
Long‑lived societies will need more professionals. But above all, they will need professionals who are recognised, prepared, and heard. Numbers matter. Quality decides.
Practical information
The course will take place on 13 and 14 July 2026 at the Hotel Dorma Victoria Palace in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, as part of the Summer Courses Programme of the Complutense University of Madrid. It is open to interested participants and aimed especially at social services professionals, public administration staff, and people linked to private or third‑sector organisations. The programme and registration information are available on the course’s official webpage.
What does a person need in order to turn care into a profession with a future, rather than a job to escape from?