WHO'LL GIVE ME WINGS?

The number of young people who want to gain qualifications in craft professions is smaller and smaller every year. The root causes lie in education system, but also in insufficient promotion of the craft and no benefits arising from having journeyman and artisan certificates. Years of neglect revealed the weakness of the reform of education carried out by then-Minister of Education (M. Handke) in the government of Jerzy Buzek and undoubtedly damaged the balance on the labour market.

The system of education which was being promoted for years made contemporary parents think that vocational schools are really bad, because being a journeyman is not as prestigious as holding a Master of Arts degree. What is the result? In Poland the concentration of higher schools is one of the highest in the world. The graduates have no prospects for further professional development whilst at the same time there are far too few people with specified qualifications. Our Internet survey revealed facts which might be very telling. Its results made us think that the mostly desired employee is … an unemployed person who badly needs work.