The level of studies and the skills acquired directly influence people’s economic and employment opportunities. In fact, people with higher education (Higher Vocational Training and university) are 21.4% more likely to find a job and their salaries are, on average, 71.9% higher than those of those who only have primary education, according to the monograph From studies to competencies: Determinants and results of human capital in Spain Prepared by the BBVA Foundation and the Ivie.
However, educational opportunities are very unequal in Spain. The analysis highlights that access to the successive levels of education is conditioned by the economic situation of the family, the educational level of the parents or the type of occupation in which they are employed. Furthermore, it reveals that The weight of Spanish public spending on education over GDP is one of the lowest in the European Union. It stands at 4.1%, only ahead of Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Greece and Romania. Very far, on the other hand, from that of countries such as Sweden (7.1%), Denmark (6.4%), Belgium (6.3%) or Finland (6.1%) and below the European average (4, 7%).
Even for those with higher education, the labor market in Spain is less favorable than in neighboring countries, since the weight of skilled occupations is below the European average (35.1%, compared to 41.6%) and only ahead of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. All this, warns the monograph, contributes to the fact that the early leaving rate in Spain is the second highest in the entire EU, reaching 13.3%, only behind Romania and very far from the average, located at 9 .7%
Influence on health
But the educational level not only favors the economic and employment situation of people, it also affects other aspects such as health and healthy lifestyle habits, according to the data collected. They conclude that only 12.8% of employed persons with higher education suffer from chronic health problems, four points less than the rest. Likewise, 93.1% of the former consider that their state of health is good or very good, compared to 84.7% of those who have a maximum of primary education.
The research associates it with the fact that having university studies positively affects weekly physical activity compared to a sedentary life, since people with these studies are 14.1% more likely to exercise several times a week than those They only have primary education. Similarly, it follows that influences the daily consumption of healthy products (fruit and vegetables), with 13 percentage points more probability in the case of people with university studies. And also in the lower consumption of tobacco, since individuals with a higher degree are 9.3% less likely to smoke than those with studies only up to primary school, according to the report.
On the other hand, the pandemic has revealed another advantage of employees with more training: teleworking. This option is more accessible for workers with university studies, given the positive relationship between education and digital skills and their greater ability to access occupations in which remote work is more viable. In fact, 23.9% of people with university studies teleworked more than half of the days in 2020, compared to 1.5% of those employed with primary education. As a result, people with a university degree have better resisted the effects of Covid 19 on health, since they showed a lower incidence of 11 of the 14 psychosomatic symptoms analyzed in the monograph during the health crisis.
Even so, there are factors that do not even have to do with family socioeconomic level that prevent many people from accessing these studies in Spain. The size of the municipality of residence and the number of younger siblings, for example, have a decisive influence, according to the analysis. This first effect is especially intense in municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, where the probability of completing higher education is 8.9 points higher than in smaller municipalities. Regarding the number of siblings, the report states that there is up to 2.5% less probabilities of completing higher education for each younger sibling.