PAU students have become obsessed with Gardening FP. It actually makes complete sense.

Everyone manages their nerves as best they can (or knows how). A few weeks ago, while thousands of young people were preparing the PAUthe old ‘Selectivity’, a tiktoker called Ikero800 published a comic video in which he joked about the future that is presented to students with bad grades. The piece, which lasts just 15 seconds, shows a telephone with an incoming call that reads “FP de Jardinería” while the tiktoker hum those three words over and over again to music Joseph Haydn background. Funny or not, has gone viral.

But… Does it make sense?

Reducing tension. To understand it you have to go back a few weeks back, when thousands of young people from all over Spain were glued to their desks reviewing the last lessons before the PAU, the test in which many risked access to their dream career. To relieve tension and pulling sarcasm, Ikero800, a tiktoker with almost 11,000 followers, he published a video in which he jokes about the outlook that was presented to those who failed.

What panorama? The average cycle (FP) of Gardening and Floristry. Or at least that’s what Ikero800 slides into his video, in which he hums over and over again “Efepé gardening…” while a Haydn trumpet concerto plays in the background. In the image we see the young man dancing, the capture of an incoming call in which the same thing is read (“Gardening FP”) and a text that explains: “POV: you fail all the course exams and see how the gardening FP is approaching.”

As a video says more than a long explanation, here we leave the link:

15,900 videos (and counting). The truth is that the sketch it worked. So much, in fact, that Ikero800’s video is on its way to 87,000 likes and his joke has transcended far beyond his account. The original audio of his piece, in which the tiktoker humming out of tune ‘gardening ephepe’ while Haydn plays in the background has already been used around 16,000 times.

The staging changes, but the ‘soundtrack’ is always the same. Same as the message: most people use it to joke about their PAU or their grades. “POV: there is one day left until the PAU and it starts to ring,” one publishes while recording himself studying. “We when we see the language exam tomorrow,” shares another in a video in which a group of teenagers are seen in a garden with a pot and a shovel. The list goes on and on (and on and on).

Why is it important? Beyond its viralitythe joke is interesting because it reflects a reality that transcends TikTok, networks or the Internet: accessing the dream university career is increasingly difficultwhich translates into an extra burden of anxiety for students who are risking their future. It has always been like this (the Selectivity already left similar scenes), but the situation seems to have worsened due to the pressure endured by the most in-demand degrees.

Last year elEconomista.es did a study analyzing a selection of degrees and universities and concluded that in just one decade the cut-off marks had risen on average by 24%. From the 7.78 average in the 2015-2016 academic year, it had gone, according to the newspaper’s calculations, to 9.63 in 2025-2026. elDiario.es did a similar exercise and although their data do not coincide, the general trend does: their estimate shows that in just one decade it went from 6.85 to 8.05.

Racing inflation. If before there were only four careers that required a outstanding grade 13 (or higher), last year that was already the price to pay to access some 70 degrees. a few weeks ago The Mail did a similar exercise in Galicia and concluded that in almost 80 formations the cut-off score had suffered the effects of ‘inflation’, that is, it had increased in just a couple of years (2023-25). In another hundred the trend was the opposite.

The pressure it is not the same in all training courses and stands out above all in double degrees, Mathematics, Computer Science and certain training courses in the scientific field.

With this data, we can better understand the TikTok publications in which students show their reactions upon learning about their PAU grades or jokes like that of Ikero800, who, given the success of the video on the Gardening FP, published other similar videos (the music changes) about the Plumbing FP, Welding FP, Sports FP, Cooking FP or even “FP of Churrero”.

Are FP that bad? Not at all. What’s more, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of Madrid recalls that in certain cases FP has become “a much more attractive path than university” in the eyes of students who finish the Selectivity. At least if we talk about employability.

According to a study cited by the agency, last year between 73% and 79.5% of VET graduates were in active employment, a percentage that drops to 66% among university students. Of course, the membership rate depends a lot on the type of training we are talking about. For example, according to U-Ranking in the degree of Medicine or Computer Engineering it exceeds 90%.

What Social Security says. The disclosed data in 2025 by Education show that the average affiliation rate in the first year was 36.2% among those who graduated in 2020-21 in Intermediate Vocational Training and 51.1% among those with Higher Education. These percentages grow as the years go by. The third year is around 63.5% among higher graduates and 72.1% in dual modality.

If we talk about university degreesIn general, the average affiliation rate is 49.6% after the first year, 65.6% in the second and 72.9% in the third.

And gardening? Another bit of the same. Whatever the TikTok videos say, the FP that prepares gardeners is far from being a bad plan for students looking for work. INE data on Middle Degrees show that in 2019 71.6% of those qualified as gardening and floristry technicians were working and the activity rate around 85.7%.

However, the data may vary depending on the territory. The report on job insertion of FP students published in 2024 by the Xunta de Galicia reveals that insertion in the “Agrogardening and Floral Compositions” cycle is 68.9% and in the “Gardening and Floristry” cycle it reaches 100%, the same as in training in building maintenance or design in mechanical manufacturing.

With respect to remuneration, salary tables from the CCOO union show that the annual total went from 16,600 to almost 33,100 in 2025, depending on the professional group and rank. The highest salaries are for certified and licensed technicians, which range around 30,000 euros.

Images | Ministry of Education and Jonathan Kemper (Unsplash)

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