Abstract:

Vocational training is usually expected to prepare students and apprentices for their career in many different intermediate level working positions and workplaces in the modern economy. Despite the wide range of possible employment opportunities for graduates, vocational secondary schools are generally perceived as a “worse” alternative for the academic ones. Common opinions and associations about vocational schools in the Czech Republic unfold from real factors like high dropout rates, low socio-economic status and relatively low income of manual workers and the associated lack of interest of vocational students. This negative image is enhanced by frequent criticism from companies that skills acquired at schools are with little practical use.

One of the most challenging roles of vocational schools is therefore to arouse students’ and apprentices’ interest in studying and practical training, besides improving and consolidating their general knowledge and literacies (reading, counting, financial literacy, social literacies). To take this role successfully, schools are investing in new modern technologies, creating illustrative study materials and developing contacts with future employers, all in an effort to encourage students’ motivation and support them both during teaching hours and their free time.

As a practical example of such effort, educational and developmental project Literacies innovatively and its impact on students and apprentices at the Secondary Automotive School Holice will be shortly introduced. Several methodologies and free-time activities focused on increasing students’ motivation, developed in the framework of the project will be described and evaluated.

Keywords:

Vocational training, motivation, visual methodologies, knowledge and literacies.