We cordially invite you to take a look at the newest edition of the report on the results of monitoring the educational and professional pathways of public and non-public secondary school graduates, which was published in May 2023.

The monitoring is conducted to provide information on the educational and professional pathways of school graduates for the purpose of developing educational policies on the national, regional and local level. It is based on administrative data from registers covering the areas of education, higher education and social security. The monitoring also automatically generates reports for schools, regional authorities and economic sectors at the regional level.

The newest edition of the report refers to two graduate cohorts: persons who graduated in 2020 and  those who graduated in 2021. The most important results of monitoring VET school graduates are presented below.

The following table shows the most popular occupations among the VET graduates in the analysed period.

Graduates	Occupations
Juvenile workers who graduated first stage sectoral schools	·         Hairdresser ·         Car mechanic
First stage sectoral school graduates who did not have juvenile worker status	·         Cook ·         Car mechanic
Vocational upper secondary school graduates	·         IT technician ·         Nutrition and catering services technician ·         Logistics technician
Post-secondary school graduates	·         Medical Assistant ·         Cosmetic service technician

 

Over 2/3 of vocational upper secondary school graduates from the analysed period received the secondary school matriculation certificate (matura), with the matriculation examinations being passed mostly by mechatronic technicians, IT technicians and economy technicians. Car technicians, nutrition and catering services technicians, and mechanics technicians had the least success with these examinations.

Almost 40% of all post-secondary school graduates completed their education without receiving a certificate of vocational qualifications. There was also a very high percentage of juvenile workers graduating from first stage sectoral schools who were not awarded a vocational qualifications certificate (30% of 2020 graduates and 52% of 2021 graduates). First stage sectoral school graduates who were not juvenile workers also had a high percentage of persons who were not awarded a vocational qualifications certificate, amounting to 40%.

First stage sectoral school graduates most often continued their education in general secondary schools for adults, but the share of persons who continued their education in such programmes was around 30%. Far fewer persons continued their education in second stage sectoral schools – the percentage of such persons was below 10% in both analysed cohorts. Vocational upper secondary school graduates continued their education more frequently in higher education institutions than in post-secondary schools, while post-secondary school graduates most frequently attended a different post-secondary school than a university. Continuing education in the form of vocational qualifications courses was rare among all the types of school graduates in both analysed years.

The monitoring also provides information on graduate employment, but because of legal considerations, the data refer only to graduates who did not continue their education. The highest percentages of employed persons were noted among the types of schools attended by the oldest graduates, that is, general secondary schools for adults and post-secondary schools. High levels of employment were also characteristic for juvenile workers who graduated first stage sectoral schools, and amounted to 40% at the end of the graduation year. The share of employed persons among the other graduates of first stage sectoral schools and vocational upper secondary schools was similar, around 30%.

The data presented in the report on the groups of graduates who are neither in education or employment (they are not recorded in social security registers) are alarming – as many as 93% of special work preparation school graduates were not in education nor employed in December of the year of graduation. Persons from this graduate group do not register with public employment services – the share of these persons registered as unemployed was very small in both analysed cohorts, not exceeding 2%. The ratio of juvenile workers who graduated first stage sectoral schools and were neither in education or employment was 30%, while this ratio for first stage sectoral school graduates who were not juvenile workers was 40%. Among vocational upper secondary school graduates, the share of persons not in education nor employed was over 20%. The rate was at a similar level for post-secondary school graduates.

The data analysed in the report also includes the income of graduates. In this area, it is worth noting the gender pay gap, especially in vocational education, which the authors of the report clearly point out:

“In all types of schools and in both cohorts, women’s income was lower than men’s income and the wage gap widened with the passage of time since graduation. The biggest differences were particularly evident among the graduates of vocational schools, where industry differences in salary levels between women and men play an additional role.”

The report is available at the Ministry of Education and Science website.