Why do young people think more and more often about technical and trade schools, and not about high schools?

When you finish primary or middle school, you have 3 options to choose from. Years ago, high schools were crowded with young people. Today’s youth more and more often choose technical or trade school. They are schools that give a profession but do not disappoint young people.

Real life: the bakery owner employs 6 people. – We have so many orders that if I had additional people, we would develop. I am looking for bakers and drivers. The first one offers 3,000 zlotys per month. The second is almost the same. The downside is that you work mostly at night. Plus that around 10 man is already out of work. As you can see, the candidates take disadvantages, because since the beginning of the year I have been looking for applicants, and no one has come forward.

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The head of a construction company has to say no to potential clients. – Because I also don’t have people to work – he admits. – I don’t need skilled workers. They may even be after elementary school or not even finish elementary school. As long as they showed willingness to work. You can earn over PLN 3,000 net from me. Somehow the rates are not convincing.

There was an employer’s market and there is an employee’s market

Years ago we had an employer market. It was he who dictated the terms of employment. It happened that several dozen candidates applied for one job. Times have changed. Today, more and more often the candidate sets conditions. He chooses the company with which he wants to stay longer. He is confident because he usually has a good job. Information that a graduate of a vocational school (in the old way: basic vocational school, and in the new one: an industry school) gets a higher salary than someone who graduated from university is not uncommon. Sometimes you hear that a professional locksmith or welder earn more than a teacher or a doctor in an outpatient clinic. And this is no longer an exception, but almost the norm. No wonder: for this reason, more and more young people leaving the walls of primary and middle schools decide to continue their education in vocational schools, i.e. in a technical college or in a trade school.

Youth preferences

In the past, even two out of three teenagers decided to go to high school, but because of the lack of places, they went to vocational school. It happened that a dozen or so applicants competed for one place in the most popular high schools. The trend has turned. In the case of selected elementary schools or junior high schools, more than half of young people plan to go to technical secondary school, every third to high school, and the rest to vocational school. The most sought-after techniques sometimes have a dozen or so young people applying for one place. Often, the choice of a given year from a particular elementary school or lower secondary school is as follows: over 45 percent of graduates choose to study in a technical college, almost 40 percent – in a secondary school, while the rest intend to learn the profession at a trade school.

A school that gives a job, but not a job

The choice is a school that offers a profession (but therefore not disappointing), most often in the case of girls and boys who are 15 or 16 years old and do not know yet whether they will go to university in a few years. When they receive their school leaving certificate, employers often wait for them with open arms. Some technical and vocational schools, which provide basic education, cooperate with enterprises and young people from the penultimate and last grades of these schools take apprenticeships or internships. If the students are successful, the company where they had them will hire them as soon as they graduate. Thousands of employers in Poland, both multi-person companies and powerful concerns, offer vacancies for graduates of technicians and ZSZ.

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If the same young people would decide to go to general secondary school and still not continue their education at a university, they will have secondary education, but without an occupation. As a consequence, they will face apprenticeships or vocational courses anyway. Otherwise, without qualifications, they have little chance of being more successful in the employment market. They can take up employment, but rather in rank-and-file positions. There are not as many job offers and offers with higher salaries for them as there are for technical and basic vocational graduates. When the same people go to a technical or trade school, they have a certain profession. Most often, also their first job – in the age of problems with recruiting staff – is not the one for the lowest national job. Employers and entrepreneurs are trying to attract candidates with higher and higher rates. After graduating from technical or trade school, they may also become willing to – respectively – study or school, after which they will have secondary education. They can confidently combine work and study.

When high school is a good option

Ogólniak is primarily a proposition for young people who plan to go to university, but also for the group who, at the stage of completing their education in primary school and junior high school, have no idea in which profession they see themselves in a few years’ time. High school is a good solution for them, because the next years of high school education is a time for them to think about the matter and make a decision.