Skip to main content
European Vocational Skills Week
News announcement19 December 2019Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Skills are the most important driving force of society

davorka_demo.png

This year, Biograd na Moru High School once again marked European Vocational Skills Week with a series of activities, running from 14 to 18 October 2019.

The idea was for activities to be held throughout the week, with the expected outcomes for those who took part being:
• Understanding of essential financial concepts.
• Ability to identify the different parts of professional content across departments of a business organisation.
• Understanding the importance of ten-finger writing.
• Understanding of the required skills in each occupation.

On 14 October, a ten-finger writing competition was held for economists taking the Business Communication course, taught by Prof. Davorka Demo. People often neglect this skill, so this competition was aimed at popularising it among students as a skill worth perfecting. The winner was a 2.b. student, who achieved 231 beats per minute. This student is now set on beating a school record (306 beats per minute) by the end of the year, which is exactly the kind of motivation we wanted to awaken.

The students also participated in the Small School of Personal Finance, in preparation for a big lecture on finance by Erste Bank lecturers. This approach is of the utmost importance, as most high school students are financially illiterate and already, at the age of 16, entering the job market through student services.

On 15 October, our students visited two business organisations – Tvornica mreža i ambalaže d.o.o. and Duo Peka Biograd d.o.o. – where they were expertly guided through the systems used. By listening to the lectures of company representatives, they were able to link their theoretical knowledge with practical skills. Fieldwork is generally well received by students and is an integral part of the school curriculum.

On 18 October, a profession fair was held. We wanted to bring different professions together in one place, and one presentation stood out the most – ‘Days of Bread’ (products for which were prepared mostly by our culinary students). Students got to see how important each of the professions is to the economy of a country. The fair emphasised that skills are the most important driving force of society and are not at the heart of the curriculum without reason.

We are more than pleased with the implementation and organisation of the events themselves and hope to implement some new ideas next year with equal success.

Davorka Demo, Economics Teacher, Croatia

Details

Involvements
Teacher/trainer