Zatraktivnit stavební obory mohou kvalitní odborníci a praxe translates to: Quality professionals and practical experience can make construction fields more attractive.

Prague - The attractiveness of the construction sectors, where companies complain about a lack of qualified workers, can be increased according to representatives of the National Pedagogical Institute (NPI) mainly by educators, innovations, and the quality of provided practice. The introduction of so-called dual education, which is a combination of education at school and at a company, could improve the level of future craftsmen, but it probably wouldn't increase demand for construction fields. It could help provided that students learn for the company they would join after their apprenticeship. Zorka Husová from the vocational education department of the National Pedagogical Institute said this to ČTK.

According to representatives of construction companies recently approached by ČTK, there is a shortage of university-educated professionals as well as construction workers, electrical installers, craftsmen, or heavy machinery operators in the Czech Republic. For example, according to the executive director of a development company, Michaela Tomášková, more people should be attracted to construction by the dual education system, which functions, for instance, in Germany or Austria. "Supporting dual education and its legislative establishment could significantly enhance not only construction but also other technical fields," she said. She pointed out the government's program declaration according to which the cabinet of Petr Fiala wants to develop models of cooperation between schools and the corporate sector.

However, according to Husová, the issue of increasing the attractiveness of construction fields is a societal problem. "It is about convincing the public, parents, and children that craftsmanship is beautiful and that the salaries of qualified craftsmen in construction are comparable to salaries in areas such as electrical engineering and IT," she stated. According to her, it is crucial to support children's interest in technology and their manual skills from an early age in elementary schools. For example, elementary schools can organize trips to vocational schools where children can become familiar with work in workshops, she said.

She reminded that the social status of apprenticeship education in the Czech Republic is among the lowest in Europe. "To increase attractiveness, it is necessary for students during their studies to have the opportunity to meet qualified professionals from both the school and corporate environments who appropriately reflect progress in the field and transfer innovations to teaching," she noted. According to her, some crafts can also be made more attractive through digitalization.

According to the NPI, the dual education system can be beneficial provided that students are trained for specific companies. Currently, experts say that the involvement of companies in training often means that apprentices are not allowed to undertake specialized work and become cheap labor in those companies. The creation of a quality standard for corporate and school workplaces, which is the aim of the document "Strategy for Educational Policy 2030+", should improve this, Husová stated.

Implementing dual education based on the model of Germany is, according to education experts, unrealistic in the Czech Republic because most companies are not wealthy enough to finance the system. In Germany, apprentices are students of the company collaborating with the school. In the Czech Republic, it is the other way around. Support for the cooperation of schools and companies is the responsibility of the regions.