As of 2020, local governments will receive increased state subsidies to promote, through VET programmes, professions of significance to national cultural heritage. Learners will be supported through the whole education cycle.
On 11 September 2019, the Ministry of National Education announced a list of 21 vocational education professions of particular significance to national cultural heritage, including carpenter, leatherworker, yacht and boat fitter, operator of ceramics equipment, textile craftsperson, technician building and tuning upright and grand pianos, shoemaker technician, beekeeper technician, glass technology technician, watchmaker, goldsmith/ jeweller. The list was finalised in consultation with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage; it supports niche and rare professions and will have an impact on the financing of the relevant VET programmes.
This initiative incorporates measures that were part of the 2018 VET reform, introduced by the Ministry of National Education, partly focusing on strengthening cooperation between VET schools and employers. According to the reform, employers should participate at every stage of the vocational education process: determining the needs for new professions and skills; designing the education process for those professions and skills; implementing practical education; verifying the learning outcomes that will be assessed by vocational exams; and employing school graduates. Therefore, in addition to obtaining the opinion of a regional labour market council before starting education in a selected profession, the school director is required to establish cooperation with an employer or employers in the given profession or industry.