The Europe 2030 Project proposes for EU countries the continuation of a firm commitment to Education, as the cornerstone on which to ensure a sustainable society in the short, medium, and long-term future; thus following the line of other international proposals (Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda, 2021). One of the challenges facing young people is linked to their socio-occupational integration, in which the promotion of Vocational Education and Training (VET) is a major strategy for growth, employment, and the path to professional success for this sector of the population (European Union, 2010).

Taking into account the rates provided by the Ministry, 41.7% of Basic Vocational Education and Training (BVET) students and 30.7% of Intermediate Vocational Education and Training (IVET) students would have dropped out of the qualification and the education system 4 years after having enrolled in a VET course (Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, 2022). These data highlight the need to make progress in reducing this trend and in supporting VET to tackle educational failure and the difficulties of insertion of the young population (Michavila and Narejos, 2021; National Office of Foresight and Strategy of the Government of Spain, 2021).

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a model of analysis based on motivation and focused on defining student behavior as self-motivated and self-determined (Ryan and Deci, 2002). Self-determination theory (SDT) shows a direct relationship between the influence of teaching practices on the teaching-learning processes, the type of student motivation, intrinsic or extrinsic, and their academic performance, with their drop-out or continuation of studies. Thus, student motivation, student's perception of their level of competence, and the fact of feeling autonomous and empowered have positive consequences on students in terms of engagement, well-being, and learning (Froiland & Worrell, 2016; Gottfried et al., 2008; Taylor et al., 2014).

According to SDT, students' intrinsic motivation improves when teachers foster autonomy, work towards competencies and promote engagement. Thus, a teaching practice focused on supporting autonomy, and structured and promoting self-regulated learning can be decisive in students' learning processes (Hardre & Reeve, 2003; Vallerand et al., 1997).

Thus, the theoretical framework proposed by SDT is taken as a reference in the project: "Teaching practice and the prevention of early dropout from vocational training: empirical approach and intervention proposal" subsidized by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness within the framework of the R+D+I Program aimed at the challenges of society 2019 (reference PID2019-108342RB-100) in which the results of this research are framed.

This project includes a phase of application of results, based on the action-research methodology (Elliot, 1990; Molina et al., 2021) through which, together with two educational centers, we designed, implemented, and evaluated a pilot plan consisting of the improvement of the teaching practice for the prevention of dropout and the improvement of the academic performance of students of BVET and IVET.

This communication presents the results of the design phase of the pilot plan carried out with the schools, in which, from the perspective of action research, we collected the voice of the teaching staff to construct the improvement process from the perspective of its protagonists (Pérez-Van-Leeden, 2019).

The two pilot centers (Es Liceu and the Center Juníper Serra) were selected taking into account the quantitative results previously collected, the involvement and predisposition of each center, and their differentiating characteristics were assessed. Es Liceu is a teaching cooperative that covers all stages of compulsory education, offering 6 vocational training courses: 2 BVET, 2 IVET, and 2 Higher Vocational Education and Training (HVET). The center has 35 teachers of VET and 393 students of VET, the profile of which is very varied and its philosophy focuses on an Inclusive school, a Constructivist approach to education, and Making school, personal, and social success possible for all students. Juníper Serra is an integrated Vocational Training center, they are the first center dedicated to vocational training in the Balearic Islands. Within the four professional families offered by the center, a total of 35 courses are available. Now, they have 1078 students and 111 teachers. Among the values that guide the center stand out the active participation of the entire educational community, adaptability to change, and the promotion of continuous improvement. The design of the pilot plan was carried out using the action research methodology (Elliot, 1990; Molina et. al., 2021) based on the creation of a driving group in each center. The aim was to involve the teaching staff in their process of change, based on the analysis and planning of proposals for improvement. Five discussion groups were held with a total of 44 participating teachers. Concerning the teaching staff profile, the sample comprised 70.45% men and 29.54% women; with an average of 12.7 years of total teaching experience and an average of 9 years at the current school. Of the total sample, 17 (38.63%) are technical teachers and 28 (63.63%) are secondary school teachers. The focus groups were structured based on the SDT to identify the strengths, weaknesses, and proposals for improvement of each of the essential aspects of the TDS: motivation, teacher-student relationship, autonomy, and student competencies; from the content analysis carried out, motivation and teacher competences were incorporated as emerging categories.

BVET and IVET teachers describe VET students as unmotivated. The teachers point out as one of the causes of demotivation is the guidance received by the students in their previous educational stage. Proposals to improve student motivation revolve around improving guidance before entering VET. A lack of motivation on the part of the teaching staff is also mentioned, and the importance of a solid and cohesive teaching team is highlighted. Teachers highlight the need to have a close and trusting attitude, without losing the educational perspective and ensuring a balance in relationships. The proposals are articulated towards the individualization of the teaching-learning processes and the development of social and exchange activities that facilitate processes of bonding with the center, between teaching staff and pupils, and among peers. Student autonomy has been a controversial issue. On the one hand, the teaching staff highlights the great limitations in terms of autonomy with which pupils arrive at vocational training. On the other hand, teachers express enormous difficulties in working on student autonomy, even questioning their responsibility in this aspect. The proposals revolve around presenting the contents progressively and established according to the degree of difficulty, as well as preparing help guides for students to achieve the tasks, accompanied by additional and complementary resources that support developing the presented task. Finally, teachers underline a problem concerning the competence level of pupils, focusing on the previous stages of schooling. The need to incorporate more and more emotional and accompanying competencies into the teaching repertoire is underlined. Proposals are put forward for curriculum programming based on professional competencies and individualized attention to pupils in the classroom.

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