Time for quality in vocational education

The aim of this text is to summarise the key changes in the situation of vocational education graduates on the labour market in the last 25 years in Poland. It presents the main changes in vocational education and the sources of the observed problems, while discussing possible systemic solutions. The authors note that problems concern predominantly basic vocational schools rather than technical secondary schools. The most important, although not the only problem is poor alignment of the structure and quality of education with the structure of demand for labour. The authors emphasise that it is not only necessary to improve the quality of strictly vocational education, but also of general education. Vocational school graduates need to have basic skills which will enable them to acquire new qualifications and adapt to changes in labour demand in the future. The text argues with the proposal to popularise vocational education in Poland in the German fashion.