Czech Republic

Description of the VET System in Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, VET is under the supervision of the National Institution of Technical and Vocational Education (NUOV), a body run directly by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Its mission is to provide comprehensive support of the development of technical education, with lifelong learning and the EU membership of the Czech Republic as the leading basis. These tasks are fulfilled through the preparation of strategies for further development of technical education, in cooperation with the above stated Ministry. The NUOV is a coordination, educational-consulting, expertise, research, educational, informational, and library organization dealing with secondary and tertiary technical education .

Further organizations with a significant role in VET administration include:

The State Stenography Institute, a department of the National Institution of Technical and Vocational Education, coordinating the teaching of secondary school subjects such as administrative techniques, business correspondence, and stenography and providing the service of the state examination board for these subjects;
The Institute for Information on Education (Ústav pro informace ve vzdělávání - ÚIV), a contributory organization directly managed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, based in Prague ;
The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MPSV), which is involved in VET, cooperating with the NUOV through its competences, in the development of a concept for integrated career guidance and counseling system ;
The Mock Companies Centre (CEFIF) is a centre providing support and advice to students and teachers, in order for them to learn how to set up a mock company, manage it and do business with other mock companies.

The involvement of social partners in VET is voluntary and depends on the initiative of the entities concerned. There are no legal regulations in the Czech Republic fostering this involvement and the roles of social partners in this respect .

There are three territorial levels of responsibilities of social partners: at National level, the responsibilities include the formulation of and comments on legal regulations and government documents. At regional level, the responsibilities are the formulations of, recommendations to and comments on strategic documents, and at enterprise level, the responsibilities include the planning, the implementations of training in companies and the cooperation between schools and companies., While the roles are advisory only at national level, the roles at regional and enterprise level are advisory and decision-making .

“At national level a platform for social dialogue is provided by the Council for Economic and Social Agreement. Apart from other issues, it also covers education – it is the responsibility of a “working team for education and human resources”. At this level, social partners as members of this Council contribute to the formulation of legal regulations and government papers and provide their comments. The Government Council for Human Resources Development established in 2003 plays an important part in promoting a comprehensive approach to human resources development (HRD). It is composed on a tripartite principle and its task is to take part in the development of strategic national documents and decisions inter-linking the areas of employment, VET, qualifications and entrepreneurship. Establishment of similar bodies for strategic HRD management has been initiated at regional level as well.

In general, as regards the regional level, social partners are represented in Regional Councils for Social and Economic Agreement and Councils for HRD. However, the situation varies region by region. In practice social partners are involved in changes to the structure of VET provision.

At sectoral level there are some examples of good cooperation between social partners and VET schools. This cooperation is usually initiated by professional organisations (economic chambers) – i.e. not by employers nor trade unions. The level of cooperation depends on the importance of the relevant industry for the regional economy.

At enterprise level cooperation occurs mainly between schools and companies which employ graduates. Education in VET schools is not designed so as to prepare an individual for a specific position. On-the-job introductory training is entirely up to companies. One reason for this is the fact that the business sector often uses state-of-the-art technologies, whereas schools do not have human, teaching and technical resources to cover the latest developments. Social partnership also involves the process of collective bargaining both at ministerial level and at corporate and institutional levels. This process is provided for in the Czech legal system .” Training of employees is mostly financed by companies, and all expenditures accounted as company costs. No legal regulations stipulate levels of expenditure for this type of training, with the exception of staff training for specific occupations within a company. However, no national financial incentives are currently defined to encourage employees to spend more on staff development .

IVET

Initial Vocational Education and Training in the Czech Republic is coordinated by the law on the several school levels (pre-school, basic, secondary, tertiary professional and other education School Act. Since 2005, a new School Act replaced older legal regulations. It stipulates how education should take place in schools and other education facilities, defines the rights of individual and legal entities in education, as well as the definition of the responsibilities of bodies linked to education .

As far as the Czech education system is concerned, there are different types of education available: The educational system starts with nursery and basic school, followed by either conservatories or three optional types of secondary school: General secondary schools (gymnázium), Secondary Technical schools (střední odborná škola) and Secondary vocational schools (střední odborné učiliště). In order to follow a Higher Education degree, the two last described secondary school types require follow-up courses. Finally, there are higher education institutes (e.g. universities) and higher professional schools.

Most basic school leavers (up to 95%) continue studying after completing compulsory education, acquiring a vocational qualification recognized by the labour market already at the upper secondary level.

Secondary vocational schools provide programmes for students with disabilities (various degrees of severity), vocational training programmes for students completing compulsory education but lacking all nine compulsory years of basic schools, as well as programmes preparing special school leavers for manual occupation or simple auxiliary tasks (e.g. manufacturing). All these programs take one to two years. A final examination and a vocational certificate is provided with successful completion of these, or a certificate for the completion of basic education is provided for those prepared to perform simple auxiliary tasks.

At upper secondary level, Vocational and technical programmes at upper secondary level are provided by secondary technical schools, secondary vocational schools and conservatoires. “VET was always focused on the development of the capacity to apply technical knowledge and skills in practice. The proportion of general education was gradually expanded, and the theoretical aspect of various subjects was studied more profoundly. Schools providing vocational and technical education used to have a very narrow specialization stemming from their historical development. Some schools have maintained this specialization and train students from extensive catchment areas, or even from the entire country.

The Standard of Secondary Vocational and Technical Education is the valid nationwide curricular document, divided into three parts, the general education (common subjects related to socio-cultural function of education), the key competences and the basic vocational and technical education. The requirements comprise the relevant qualification and various specific subject areas.

There are alternative educational approaches within the Czech IVET system, providing exclusively formal education. These approaches are applicable in specifically designed educational programmes. The new version of the School Act, effective since 2005, provides several alternatives and educational “routes”, combining formal and non-formal education.

CVET

CVET developed in the Czech Republic during the 1990s. This late development was due to market impulses and the lack of coordination and systemic approaches. At school level, adult education has a longer tradition and includes the training of employees in certain professional areas.

At national level, several policy documents and “white papers” outline the general orientations of CVET :

The Education White Paper (National Programme for the Development of Education in the Czech Republic), approved in 2001, includes policy recommendations on how to tackle the problems found in the Czech education system, and the development of a legal framework for CVET, with the setting up of a financial and non-financial incentives system as well as mechanisms for a systemic development of adult education;
The Strategy for Human Resources Development in the Czech Republic, developed in 2003 by the government, aims several strategic areas, including lifelong learning;
Other policy documents referring to continuing education, especially VET, include the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion, the National Programme for the Preparation for Population Ageing, and the State Information and Communication Policy e-Česko 2006.
The Act No. 179 of 30 March 2006 on Verification and Recognition of Further Education Results and on the Amendment to Some Other Acts - the Act on the Recognition of Further Education Results .
The Strategy of Lifelong Learning in the CR is strategic document, approved by the Government of the CR on 11th July 2007 (Resolution No. 761) .

There are several types of CVET in the Czech Republic:

Adult education in schools leading to the acquisition of a formal level of education;
Training of employees in enterprises and other organizations;
Specific training of employees in certain occupations and industries;
Retraining of job seekers;
Education as a leisure activity.

Although greatly encouraged by the government, most proposed measures regarding CVET have been put slowly into practice and need a greater focus.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance in VET in the Czech Republic is defined in the Long-Term Plan for the Development of Education and the Education System of 2002, and in its updated version for 2004 to 2008 . This plan sets out as one of the main priorities, the Quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation of education.

The Czech state guarantees the quality of educational provision, as far as accredited courses by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MSMT) and external evaluation – inspection by Czech School Inspectorate (ČŠI). The accreditation process is an unrepeated and not continuous quality evaluation. Quality assurance in courses that are not accredited by the MSMT, are within the competence of the provider. Market forces are expected to resolve this. External evaluation is based on self-evaluation of schools which compulsory by the new School Act.

The state guarantees the retraining quality, which makes therefore a valid accreditation by the MSMT a basic requirement for any educational institution. The accreditation and evaluation process is based on several available resources for a given course, such as human, material and technical resources, as well as the knowledge-testing methods and skills acquired .

Continuous evaluation is carried out through statistical monitoring of the situation of graduates of retraining courses in the labour market. There is a focus on the percentage of people who found work and to the time necessary to find a job after retraining. Labour offices are responsible for carrying out inspections during this particular process, which is not subject to any established national evaluation standard.

As far as CVET is concerned, the quality of retraining is the responsibility of the provider who seeks to retain revenues from this activity. It is therefore expected that providers pay a maximum level of attention to the quality of their services and monitor and evaluate their clients’ responses. Labour offices select retraining providers based on references and previous experience.

In addition, at the beginning of 2008, a very important step in education statistics was adopted when ISCED97 was implemented as a national classification (as of 1 January 2008), including the classification of vocations. The implementation of ISCED97 as a national classification will help to improve statistics sent abroad and to compare the Czech education system with the education systems of other countries .

The Czech Republic has reflected on the implications of EQARF. One of the main areas of reflection has been the involvement of the social partners.

EQARF Indicators

The following PDF attachment summarises evidence identified that relates any indicators used at national level to the ten indicators proposed in the EQARF recommendation: EQARF Indicators Czech Republic