Six new vocational education competence centres opened
On 16 August 2011, the government granted status of vocational education competence centre to six vocational education establishments starting from the 1st September 2011. The named schools are:
- Rīga State Technical School (Rīgas Valsts tehnikums),
- Liepaja State Technical School (Liepājas Valsts tehnikums),
- Ventspils Vocational Secondary School (Ventspils Profesionālā vidusskola),
- State Kandava Agricultural Technical School (Valsts Kandavas Lauksaimniecības tehnikums),
- Riga Technical College (Rīgas Tehniskā koledža), and
- Jelgava Crafts Secondary School (Jelgavas Amatniecības vidusskola).
For a vocational education establishment to become a competence centre, it must meet several criteria:
- Number of education programmes implemented – not less than ten different accredited vocational education programmes in at least five different groups of vocational secondary education programmes;
- Number of students – in Riga at least 700 students, in other administrative areas – at least 500 students;
- Students’ school results – during the last two school years average results of centralized professional qualification examinations should not be lower than optimal level of mastery (i.e. not less than 6 points of 10);
- Performed methodological functions – functions of regional or sectoral methodological centre, teacher further education centre and validation of professional competence acquired outside the formal education system in the relevant fields (in collaboration with sectoral organizations and companies), coordinates the organization of the centralized professional qualification exams on regional or national scale;
- Cooperation with employers – performs cooperation with the relevant employers’ organizations or their associations at national, sectoral or regional level.
In the vocational education programmes implemented by these schools, it is planned to apply a 10% additional payment according to the number of students. For this and future years funding is allocated in the terms of the approved state budget.
Source: LETA
9.09.2011
