Vocational education and the technical middle class in Spain (1924-1931)

Abstract

In this study, I examine the extent to which technical-professional education during Primo de Rivera´s dictatorship in Spain influenced the creation of a new middle class of technicians by means of the decrees of the Industrial Education Statute of 1924 and the Professional Staff Training Statute of 1928. These initiatives were aimed at the working class and the petty bourgeoisie that were to later become the supporters of the State´s social and corporative system as well as the promoters of the country´s modernization. However, the disconnection between the economic and social reality, on the one hand, and the State´s objectives, on the other hand, led to the failure of these projects that were decisively interrupted by the establishment of the Spanish Second Republic in 1931. In researching this study, I focus on the legislation enacted on this matter and other printed sources including specialized journals of this period, theoretical writings of contemporary authors and abundant archival material on the dynamics of the industrial schools that were created thanks to this new project.