Schools that manage not to increase the number of unemployed in the labor market. “I also gave up textiles and leather. It didn't appeal to children”

At a time when employers complain that they find it increasingly difficult to find qualified staff, and in no case among graduates, there are schools that attract and really specialize young people. To get here they went through trials and adapted.

High school students with public catering profile, in competition PHOTO: Alina Mitran

Schools without emotions in the formation of classes gave up, one by one, either theoretical profiles or outdated jobs. There were also schools of arts and crafts, and school groups, now they are technological high schools and train skilled workers in trades that do not produce unemployed people on the labor market. This is the case of two high schools, one from the countryside, the other from a small town. It provides professionals in the fields of hospitality, food industry, economics and even industry, and many of the students earn their first money right from the school benches.

I met the students and teachers at a gastronomic competition organized, for the fourth year in a row, by the Olt County Museum, at the “Gunka and Spiru Vergulescu” House. “Extemporaneous to gastronomy. Savors in the kitchen – The art of serving” pitted the students of five high schools (Technological High School “Tănase Constantin” Izvoarele, Technological High School No. 1 Balș, Economic High School “PS Aurelian” Slatina, Technological High School “Matei Basarab” Caracal, Theoretical High School “Ștefan Diaconescu” Potcoava) that have a catering profile, being the edition with the most participating teams.

“Completely changed from there”

“Constantin Tănase” Technological High School is a school located in the countryside, almost 30 km from the city, in Izvoarele, in Olt county. It trains professionals in the field of bakery and pastry, but also waiters. Students from the area who want to attend a theoretical high school leave the village, those who want to learn a trade choose the high school in Izvoarele. And few of those left at home regret it. The high school has partnerships with an entity that collaborates with top hotels in the mountain area, and students get to practice their trade, even from the first year of study, at work. They learn everything, even more than the profile they opted for.

But it wasn't always like that. The school also had an agriculture profile, but also textiles – leather. One by one, it was dropped when it turned out that they were not attractive and it was increasingly difficult to attract students after secondary school.

“Students from other localities also come to us. We have the Alimănești Secondary School, which is our structure, we have Izvoarele, but they also come from Vâlcele, Mărunței and Bălăneşti. We have a fairly large student pool, somehow, for a rural school”says the director of the Technological High School “Tănase Constantin” from Izvoarele, Eugenia Ionela Mateșică. Here the problem is not that the classes could not be formed, on the contrary. Each year, she completes three professional, chef-pastry classes. The school has the necessary equipment, through the PNRR everything the teachers and practice instructors wanted in the bakery-pastry workshop was bought in order to be able to carry out their activity to the standards, but the students are from the first year thinking about practice at economic agencies.

“Children are eager, they would like to practice every week. Theory as theory, but they want to put into practice the knowledge acquired during theory classes. We have a workshop in the school. We also have contracts with economic agents, but they can't receive all of us, they receive only a part, the number being large”explains Alina Firescu, foreman instructor. Contact with the staff of the societies that host them for practice is a life experience, not just an opportunity to train professionally.

“With us they are used to classes, with economic agents they are a little more apprehensive. There are different rules in food establishments. They also realize the conditions they have to meet when they enter the labor market. While they are more familiar with us, so to speak. Economic agents are eager to have such children on the labor market, because, you realize, they are prepared children”, adds Firescu. The dream of every student is to get to practice in hotel units in the mountain area. Many choose to stay even after graduation, make long-term plans, think about how to buy houses in the area, reveals Mateșică.

High school students with public catering profile, in competition PHOTO: Alina Mitran

“They also go during the combined practice in hotels in the mountains and there they cross a bit of this boundary of the baker-pastry specialization. I also go to the kitchen, the waiter side. They combine them and are more and more excited. They come away totally changed, as people first, because they relate a lot. Right from the first year they go, with the consent of the parents, obviously, with all the documentation in order. And they come totally changed and we are happy about this”says the high school principal.

During the combined practice, they receive a stipend of 1,600 lei, an important amount for a teenager, especially since he understands that it is the fruit of his work. Other amounts may be added, depending on how impressed the hoteliers are with the youth's work.

“We have students who appeared in promotional videos of some hotels in Poiana Brașov”says the professor of catering Florin Dogeanu. We are talking about three, four and even five star hotels. “They have contact there with all kinds of people, they learn the rules of HORECA. This also forms them as a personality”says teacher Viki Roșoga.

The children's parents are also satisfied and see it as a great achievement that the young people will have no problems finding their place on the job market after graduation. Even more, they earn above the minimum wage right from the start. Most continue their studies after the third year of vocational school, at the evening high school.

“In the education system there is a permanent re-profiling of teaching staff”

The high school with a technological profile in Izvoarele went, like many other high schools, through the period when unattractive qualifications were maintained for long periods of time, on the grounds that there is demand on the labor market (official version), but in fact also because there were teachers with certain qualifications.

Preparations made entirely by 14-15 year old students PHOTO: Alina Mitran

“We always ask for extra classes. This year was good. When we started with the school of arts and crafts, the profile was textiles and leather. It was hard enough to get them interested. Before that it had been agriculture, again a specialization that did not attract. And later we also gave up the textile-leather industry, because it did not appeal to our children (n. ed. – high school graduates from the locality), first of all. I went parallel for a while and finally gave up on textiles”says Prof. Mateșică. The headmistress admits that even in the school she leads there was the problem of holders of certain chairs. Gradually they retired and the transition was achieved. Today, says Mateșică, it has become extremely difficult to ignore attractive jobs, so teachers are adapting.

Preparations made entirely by 14-15 year old students PHOTO: Alina Mitran

“Now, what is happening in the education system is a permanent re-profiling of teaching staff. It is true that there is a shortage of foremen for vocational schools. We have always had positions that are difficult for us to fill. But this crisis is manifested in the entire education system, you have seen that there are positions put out for competition and no candidates are presented”. Ionela Mateșică also specified.

Practice in Greece and Portugal

Technological High School no. has a similar experience. 1 Balș, a high school that competes with theoretical high schools. It also had mate-info and philology on offer not many years ago. Today, instead, it trains technicians in the economic field and in the field of public catering – at high school, and at the vocational school it has the most requested dual education classes in the county, thanks to the partnership with a powerful Romanian company producing PVC window and door systems.

Students have dozens of hours of practice in the school's workshops. PHOTO: Alian Mitran

Speaking of experiences, Ionela Drăghici, teacher of catering and tourism, says that the school seeks to involve students in as many activities as possible to familiarize them with what they will actually have to do after graduation.

“This year I received an invitation to Bucharest, a culinary competition, on November 20. We're going to make two teams and we're going to go there too, I said let's see how they work at another level. There will also be professional high schools, but also great chefs from the country who will give demonstrations”, Draghici mentioned.

Children are long past the point of looking with fear at such experiences. They do internships in the school workshop, but also at specialized units, and some of them earn their pocket money by working.

High school students with public catering profile, in competition PHOTO: Alina Mitran

“Many of them work. The young lady next to me worked over the weekend, she's going to another event again on Saturday”says the teacher. The student is in the 11th grade, studying gastronomy, but she works a few hours a week as a waiter. She sometimes earns 800 lei a week, and there are other colleagues like her.

The qualifications that the school now has make the educational establishment particularly attractive. “The children are coming. We have full classes, a maximum of 26 students. The classes are held every year. We have not reduced the schooling plan. We also have a technician in economic activities, a technician in trade. We also have dual classes. The school has adapted. We had math-info, there was also philology many, many years ago, and we gave the theory to the market requirements, we are adapting. Those who are technicians in economic activities I could say that 90% go to college, and those who are technicians in gastronomy enter the labor market directly, in our city, in other areas or leave the country as chefs. And likewise those who are on trade”added teacher Ionela Drăghici.

As much as the students are excited about the internship at economic agents, they all want experience outside the country. In the last four years, some have had such opportunities, through programs with European funding. They did internships in Portugal, in the case of one of the projects, respectively in Greece, in another.

“They were very excited, they gained experience and now waiting for other projects”Drăghici concluded.