Professional Częstochowa

In Częstochowa, the Better Job Now Program has been operating since 2017, which is a response to the needs of residents and entrepreneurs – it operates in a two-vector way: on the one hand, the local government tries to influence business owners to apply high standards of employment, increase remuneration for work and activities in the field of corporate social responsibility. On the other hand, it tries to adjust the education of staff to the needs reported by entrepreneurs (e.g. subsequent editions of projects) and to allow employees to retrain and improve their competences.

Among the many components of this program, the new approach of the local government to the issue of industry and technical schools deserves special attention. As part of the "Zawodowa Częstochowa" project, the Development Department and the Investor Assistance Center, which has also been the Center for Better Workplaces for two years, joined the efforts to promote them. It is here that they know best which specialists will be needed on the labour market in the near future.

The situation on the labour market in Częstochowa is good, the unemployment rate is 3.5% (as of April 2019) and has dropped below the average in the Śląskie Voivodeship. Entrepreneurs from the Northern Subregion of the Śląskie Voivodeship are aware of the necessity and importance of investments in the development of human resources. Activities in the field of Staff education cannot only take place inside the company, entrepreneurs already at the level of secondary schools look for their future employees and try to influence the profiling of their qualifications. The cooperation of entrepreneurs with schools, both at the secondary and tertiary level, is the only chance to educate qualified staff, following the real needs of the local labour market. The task of the local government is to create a platform for understanding between these interdependent areas – education and business.

The changes that started in 1999 were designed to improve our education system, adapting it to the needs of the labour market. With time, however, it turned out that they were not well prepared, and the dual education system in vocational education functions rather as a theory. Long-term marginalization of the importance of vocational schools and treating them as relics of the infamous past, has adversely affected the image of this branch of education and is one of the reasons for the workforce deficyt at present. For years, Częstochowa has been introducing changes in technical education and creating a new image of vocational education among young People and parents. Subsequent editions of the project "Młodzi Kreatywni" as part of the Program for Supporting Entrepreneurship and Creating New Jobs in Częstochowa for 2013-2018, in addition to shaping entrepreneurial attitudes among young people, showed young people the benefits of choosing the right profession. The right choice of a trade and technical school may turn out to be crucial for the development of a young person's professional career. The total value of Częstochowa EU projects dedicated to technical and vocational education in 2016-2020 is over PLN 25 million.

The demand for young, properly educated employees was shown in the first edition of the project: "Professional Cooperation", in which the idea of reaching entrepreneurs directly with the internship offer of schools turned out to be the key to success. Initially, the project assumed that over a thousand students would take part in paid internships with fifty entrepreneurs. However, the number of willing employers increased more than threefold and exceeded one hundred and fifty. Further editions of the projects are currently underway.

FIELDS OF EDUCATION SUPPORTED UNDER THE "ZAWODOWA WSPÓŁPRACA" PROJECT:

Bolesław Prus School Complex:

• Technical School No. 11 (mechatronics technician, photo technician, surveyor technician, electronics technician);
• Vocational School Complex No. 9 (bookbinder, printer, fitter electronics);

Władysław Stanisław Reymont School of the Fashion and Advertising Industry:

• Technical School No. 7 (fashion industry technician, advertising organization technician, digital graphic process technician, textile technician, hairdressing service technician);
• Vocational School Complex No. 5 (tailor, upholsterer, hairdresser);

Stefan Żeromski Team of Technical and General Schools:

• Technical School No. 6 (hotel technician, IT technician, nutrition technician and gastronomic services, hairdressing services technician);
• Vocational School Complex No. 4 (hairdresser);

Jan Kochanowski School Complex:

• Technical School No. 2 (logistic technician);

School of Economics:

• Technical School No. 3 (economist technician, salesman technician, tourist service technician, freight forwarder technician);

Maria Curie-Skłodowska Gastronomic Schools:

• Technical School No. 8 (nutrition technician and catering services, waiter); Vocational School No. 6 (chef);

School of Mechanical and Electrical:

• Technical School No. 9 (mechanic technician, electrician technician);

School of Automotive and Construction:

• Technical School No. 10 (automotive technician, mechanic technician, rail transport technician);
• Vocational School No. 8 (mechanic and electromechanic of motor vehicles);

Technical School Complex:

• Technical School No. 12 (landscape architecture technician, construction technician, equipment technician and renewable energy system, sanitary technician);
• Vocational Schools No. 10 (fitter of building and finishing works in construction, fitter of network, installation and sanitary equipment, roofer);

Władysław Sikorski Technical Scientific Institutes:

• Technical School No. 5 (IT technician, teleinformatic technician, electronics technician, mechanic technician, aviation technician);

Maria Grzegorzewska Special Vocational Schools:

• Special Vocational Schools and Vocational School Complex No. 11 (tailor, cook, upholsterer).

The value of the support provided to the directions mentioned above is approximately PLN 20 million. New fields of study have been pre- pared for students, which are part of a project implemented under the municipal program Now Better Work. They not only open the prospect of attractive employment for entrepreneurs in Częstochowa, but above all, they are the first important step on the path of professional development and enable the continuation of education at Częstochowa universities.

The main goal of all editions of the "Vocational Cooperation 2" project will be to support students in such a way that they can easily cope with the labour market after graduating from school. This will be achieved by participation in professional courses – including certified ones, and thus ensuring official confirmation of the obtained qualifications, as well as paid internships, internships and specialist classes. It will also be possible to take advantage of professional educational and vocational counselling. Only the second edition of the project involved a total of 286 people from grades 1-3 of industry vocational schools and grades 1-4 of technical schools. The innovation of the second edition is the fact that the project will finance the training of mechatronics technicians with watchmaking innovation. At that time, Częstochowa was the only city in this part of Europe with such an educational profile. Today, the nearest watchmaking school is in Vienna.

In Częstochowa, despite the pandemic in 2020, cooperation between businesses and schools was quite good. In addition to city projects dedicated to students and teachers, there is also a project implemented with the Katowice Special Economic Zone – "Śląskie. Professionals". Another innovation necessary on the job market is the glass technology technique. Due to the rapid development of two large companies in the industry in Częstochowa – Stölzle and GUARDIAN Glass – this direction gives young people a guarantee of stable employment and the possibility of development in global concerns. Demand for professionals with such qualifications is not falling, but the problem is their insufficient number – "Professional cooperation" is to be a response to this deficit. At the same time, graduates of the technical school can continue their education at the Częstochowa University of Technology, where they can find specialization created specially for them: glass and ceramics engineering.

People are the most important in Częstochowa. Virtually every city resident is someone else's employer or employee – they create an efficiently functioning economic fabric of the city.

Author: Anna Tymoshenko

Translation: Magdalena Wytrzymała