disadvantages in their levels of human capital relative to what is seen in other leading economies. for example, according to eurostat figures, the level of educational attainment of the self - employed is lower than the euro area average. specifically, in spain 40. 5 % of the self - employed and 35. 1 % of employers have a low educational level, compared with 24. 8 % and 20. 1 %, respectively, for their european counterparts. moreover, managing a company requires certain skills – interaction, strategic, operational and control abilities – that also appear to be comparatively lower in spain than in countries such as germany, the united kingdom, france and italy. in any event, the indicators available on business management should be viewed with caution. it is not clear they distinguish appropriately between entrepreneurial capabilities per se, as opposed to structural problems arising from an institutional framework that constrains the capacity to organise firms ’ productive resources. for instance, excessive spanish labour market segmentation does not facilitate on - the - job training of either temporary or permanent workers. thus, on top of improving entrepreneurial and employee capabilities, doing away with the excessive duality of employment contracts is fundamental for raising productivity. to conclude my thoughts on the importance of human capital, allow me to refer also to the need to improve the relationship between general government and the firm in two spheres : that of vocational training and that of innovation. on vocational training, it is essential that firms should be involved in the guidance of youths seeking their first job. but it is likewise necessary that the administration should evaluate and adjust the vocational training system as business needs evolve. recently there has been much discussion of the virtues of dual vocational training, based on the positive results in other countries. but it is difficult to define how best to transfer a system such as germany ’ s, with a high prevalence of large industrial corporations, to spain ’ s very different business sector. see zamarro, g., c. hitt and i. mendez ( 2016 ) “ when students don't care : reexamining international differences in achievement and non - cognitive skills ” edre working paper no. 2016 - 18. 14 / 18 the first papers to have evaluated this experience in spain do not offer conclusive findings. and that underscores the challenge of adapting another country ’ s successful model to our circumstances. 6 it is therefore important to conduct pilot programmes enabling us to determine which design is most suitable for us. also, in addition to improving

decades are largely responsible for the results achieved by the spanish economy, and improving education and training today is, once again, pivotal to our future growth. when assessing the functioning of the economy, we often refer to differentials with other peer economies in terms of inflation, productivity and many other variables. and it is right to do so since, against a backdrop of international openness and integration, relative behaviour and, in short, competitiveness are essential for the continuous improvement of well - being. however, the most serious gap between spain and the other major industrialised countries is in the field of education. true, we have improved in this area in recent years. the proportion of the population aged 25 - 64 with a secondary education has risen from 24 % in 1992 to 48 % in 2005. but we have yet to reach 50 % when the figure is 83 % in germany, 72 % in the united kingdom, 66 % in france and over 80 % in the nordic countries. conceivably, these differences might be heavily influenced by the relatively recent nature of our educational development ; but looking at the percentages for young people in the 25 - 34 age group, it can be seen that, despite the progress recorded, a gap exists which, though moderate ( 64 % in spain compared with figures of over 80 % in most of the major countries ), remains illustrative of our continuing laggardness. in the current decentralised state, the central government retains few responsibilities in respect of education, which means that educational progress in spain is fundamentally in the hands of the regional governments. these may thus be said to have a major responsibility in determining our longterm growth prospects and the future functioning of the spanish economy. and this conclusion is further reinforced when considering the changes that have come about in budgetary policies. hence, insofar as the decentralised structure of the state has played a very positive role in growth in the recent past, as i said at the start of my address, when speaking of the future it emerges once again as a determinant of the first order. as is known, public spending by territorial governments is more than two and a half times that of central government. it is clear from this that what regional and local governments do is, for the purposes of maintaining the public spending / gdp ratio, much more important than what central government does. the budgetary stability laws have taken this essential change in the structure of the state into account when establishing the budget