High Entry Grades Don't Guarantee Jobs: Spain's Physiotherapy and IR Degrees

High Entry Grades Don't Guarantee Jobs: Spain's Physiotherapy and IR Degrees

The link between university entry grades and career success is one of the great myths of the Spanish education system. Degrees with access requirements rivaling Medicine, such as Physiotherapy or International Relations, show unemployment rates and salaries far below expectations. Meanwhile, Vocational Training (FP), while ensuring employment, faces a salary ceiling that rarely exceeds €2,000 per month.

The paradox of entry grades

According to available data, Physiotherapy requires an entry score around 12, similar to Medicine in many autonomous communities. However, the labor reality differs significantly: many physiotherapists work as false self-employed individuals earning only €9 per session, with unstable patient bases. Unemployment among International Relations graduates approaches 50%, exceeding traditionally stigmatized fields like History. Entry grades measure demand for university places, not labor market demand. It is the biggest educational scam in decades: students who struggled through health-focused high school end up working for insurance companies for €9 a session, while an electrician with two years of experience earns more without needing an €8,000 master's degree.

The glass ceiling of Vocational Training

Those choosing FP with assured demand, such as electrical or industrial maintenance, find work relatively easily. But salaries rarely exceed net €1,800-€2,200 per month, unless they start their own business or specialize in a niche. Even in sectors like chemistry or metalworking, collective agreement wages are low, leading many to precarious jobs. FP is experiencing a "2.0 boom" fueled by European funds, but some warn it is becoming saturated: when funding stops, the bubble could burst. The university example already peine: there were too many graduates; now there will be too many technicians.

The Spanish economy as a burden

The underlying problem is not just credentialism. A physiotherapist in Germany earns €3,500 net working 38 hours; in Spain, barely €1,200 as a false self-employed worker with 50-hour weeks. The same training, the same knowledge, but a productive model based on tourism and construction that undervalues qualified services. The difference lies not in the degree, but in economic structure. Meanwhile, the shadow economy distorts statistics: many self-employed in physiotherapy or podiatry declare minimums but earn much more. Some dedicated physiotherapists differentiate themselves and charge up to €50 per session, but they are exceptions.

An educational bubble?

Some analyses suggest the Spanish education system has inflated the supply of university graduates, rendering degrees irrelevant. FP faces the same risk: European funds are fueling a technician bubble that could burst when subsidies end. According to certain analytical trends, the key is studying something that allows for undeclared income or emigrating to a country that better values qualified services. As long as the Spanish labor market rewards a few and punishes the majority, the equation remains broken.

With this data, deciding what to study becomes an exercise in skepticism. Entry grades are not a reliable guide, and FP is not a panacea. Until the productive model changes, the equation will remain broken.