Abstract:

It is believed that the experience in vice principalship is one of the most important learning opportunities before principalship. The deputy principalship remains one of the least understood roles in the schools of contemporary systems. In these systems, deputy principals typically have a wide range of responsibilities that are decided by the principal. They are seen as the link between the school staff and the school principal. During the last decades, vice-headmasters have been ‘promoted’ to being much more than merely those people who take some of the burden off the principal. Their competence is of prime concern not only because they are part of the school leadership team but also because they are appointed to the position of the school principal in many school systems, no matter if these positions have to do with primary, secondary or post-secondary education.
In Greece, the legislation concerning post-secondary education dates from 1992, resulting in the establishment of the Vocational Training Institutes (IEKs). Vice-headmasters of these institutes have to perform special duties keeping, however, at the same time an eye on the labour market. Their proper preparation safeguards in a way that they could be capable of accomplishing the best possible performance aiming at providing students with the most specialised form of training in order to make these students as straightforwardly qualified and socially useful as possible to offer highly specialised services in the labour market. The determination or identification of vice-headmasters’ training needs is a very important step or even the cornerstone so that their professional development towards higher levels of effectiveness can take place successfully.
However, to date, there is relatively little data concerning the training needs of the post-secondary level vice-headmasters in Greece. For example, there is little knowledge about the exact qualifications that these people feel they should have. In the present study we have examined the training needs of the 11 vice-headmasters who worked in the 11 state IEKs in the prefecture of Thessaloniki. The findings highlight the fact that the overwhelming majority of the participants could be regarded as poorly qualified or even quite incompetent for their administrative role. They stated that they had important deficiencies as far as basic administrative fields are concerned. The conclusions of the research are examined in connection to their implications for professional development in Greece.

Keywords:

Vocational Training Institutes (IEKs), vice-headmasters, training needs, professional development.