Vocational Education and Training and the Labour Market in Latvia

Early school leavers

As was already mentioned, almost all young people are provided the opportunity to follow a training programme of their choice.  However, every year approximately 14% of the total number of students leave vocational education establishments before completing their training programme.  Some of these young people continue their education at other education establishments, however, this makes up only 13% of the total number of early leavers.

Statistical data show that during the 1999/2000 academic year, a total of 6.7 thousand students, or 14% of the total attending vocational education establishments, left school before completing the full training programme.  A comparison of data on school leavers among various groups of training programmes shows that one in four students (26%) left training programmes in medicine, health and social care, one in six students (18%) left agriculture programmes, one in seven students (15%) left manufacturing technologies training programmes.

Figure 17.

It is significant that the lowest proportion of school leavers (9%) train in computer science programmes.  These programmes also have the highest competitive coefficient (2.2).  So, the more strongly students believe that their chosen profession is in demand on the labour market and well-paid, the more they are motivated to study.

The problem of early school leavers can’t be solved strictly within the confines of the vocational training system, because these students don’t just disappear, they go on to increase the numbers of the employed, or in the worst case, become criminals.  In any case the labour market has no particular need for such people without any professional skills, as this age group – 15 to 24 years old – has the highest proportion of jobseekers (22.2% in May 2000).  This means that among those young people who aren’t attending any type of school, one in four is also unemployed.

The large number of early school leavers points out two problems, firstly, it is possible to finish primary and secondary school with very low marks, but the upper secondary vocational education standard proscribes that the final mark in all subjects cannot be lower than “four” – which is “almost average”.  For example, of the students enrolled in vocational education establishments under the authority of the Ministry of Education and Science in the 2000/2001 academic year, 33% had a mark of “three” – “weak”, or lower in at least one subject area in the leaving certificate of the previous education establishment that they had finished.  Neither general nor vocational education establishments offer students the opportunity to supplement their knowledge in subject areas where their prior knowledge is insufficient, which is why they leave school, as they cannot follow their studies.  Secondly, the capacity of the vocational guidance system is insufficient – very often young people have no idea whether they are suited to the qualification they have chosen, and what it is that people in this field actually do.  In many cases the choice of training programme is determined by several factors (for example, the school is close to or far enough away from home, there is no competition to enrol in the given programme, a friend is studying the same thing, the young person is undecided and relies on the advice of family, etc.) other than the wish to link one’s future to the chosen profession.

Modular training programmes, which are slowly emerging also in Latvia, could be one of the solutions for returning young people to the education system even after a break, or, by making it easier to switch programmes, they would feel less restricted by the chosen course of study.  The characteristic behaviour of the teenager, which often includes impulsive and categorical decisions, also must be taken into account.  This means that the vocational training system has to increase internal mobility, that is, the possibility to more easily transfer from one programme to another in case a young person has understood that the chosen programme is no longer of interest.

Regional migration of students

Statistical data show that every other student enrolled at a vocational education establishment has chosen a school that is located in the same city or district in which he has studied previously (54% in a.y. 1996/1997; 52% in a.y. 1999/2000).

In Riga, Latvia’s largest city, the number of enrolled students is, of course, the largest.  Both in the 1996/1997 and 1999/2000 academic years 43% of the total number of students enrolled in vocational education establishments were admitted to Riga schools.  Of the total number of students enrolled in Riga vocational schools in the 1999/2000 academic year, 73% had previously attended schools in Riga or the surrounding areas.  As can be seen in table 3, the migration of students out of Riga and its agglomerations is very minimal; 94.3% of students remain to study in the same region where they have studied previously.  Conversely, students from all cities and districts in Latvia have gone to study in Riga.  As Kurzeme and Vidzeme are fairly close to the capital city, almost every third student originating from Kurzeme and Vidzeme has been enrolled in schools in Riga and the surrounding areas, while only every eighth student originating from Latgale has enrolled in a school located in or around Riga.  The migration of students also attests to the migration of labour.  There are no data available on the number of vocational school leavers who return to their place of origin, however, it is clear that certainly all of them do not.  Therefor it can be concluded that there is a concentration of both local labour and part of the Vidzeme and Kurzeme labour force around Riga.

The short distance from the capital city allows students from Vidzeme to easily travel to Riga to study, and only 61.2% of those persons who have previously attended schools in Vidzeme intend to pursue vocational education in Vidzeme.  Those persons who do not go to Riga to study tend to stay close to their place of residence.  There is no place in Vidzeme that can be called the centre of vocational training, because the number of students enrolled is more or less the same at all vocational schools in the region.

Table 3. Distribution of students enrolled in vocational education establishments in the 1999/2000 a.y. according to location of previous education establishment.

(Kurzeme region includes the following districts and their capitals = Liepaja, Saldus, Kuldiga, Ventspils, Dobele, Talsi, Tukums;

Riga and agglomerations = Jelgava, Bauska, Riga, Jurmala, Ogre districts and capitals;

Vidzeme region = Limbazi, Cesis, Valmiera, Valka, Aizkraukle, Madona, Jekabpils, Gulbene, Aluksne districts and capitals;

Latgale region = Balvi, Preili, Rezekne, Daugavpils, Kraslava, Ludza districts and capitals.)

The centre of vocational training in the Kurzeme region is Liepaja.  In the 1999/2000 academic year 7.3% of all students enrolled in Latvian vocational education establishments were enrolled there.  Of the students enrolled in Liepaja schools, 85% were from districts in Kurzeme (including 75% from the city of Liepaja and the surrounding district).  Very few students from other regions go to study in Kurzeme, this means that labour force migration in this direction is also very limited.  However, in the last few years, the migration of students to Liepaja has slightly increased, as, for example in the 1996/97 a.y., 96% of the students who enrolled at Liepaja had previously studied in Kurzeme, including 82% from the city and district of Liepaja.

In Latgale, vocational training is concentrated in Daugavpils.  In the 1999/2000 a.y. 7.7% of all students enrolled in vocational training establishments in Latvia were enrolled there.  95% of students enrolled in Daugavpils had previously studied in the Latgale region, including 78% from the city and district of Daugavpils.  Also in the 1996/97 a.y. 95% of the students enrolled in Daugavpils were from districts in Latgale, including 86% from the city and district of Daugavpils.  This shows that Daugavpils is increasingly becoming a regional centre which attracts students from all over Latgale, but students from other regions do not go to study there.

The distribution of students enrolled at vocational education establishments according to the location of their previous school shows that in developing training programmes, the needs of each region should be taken into account, particularly in Liepaja and Daugavpils, because if Riga trains workers for more or less the whole country, then graduates from these cities will most likely stay and work in Kurzeme and Latgale, respectively.

Employment of leavers of vocational education establishments

During the CBS May 2000 Labour Force Survey, participants who had graduated from vocational education establishments in the period between 1990 to 1999 were asked additional questions regarding their education.  Of all vocational school leavers of the given period, 28% are unemployed, 42% are working in a different field, 30% are working in the field for which they were trained.  Data from a similar survey done in 1997 show that at that time, among persons who had left vocational education establishments in 1993-1997, 36% were unemployed, 34% were working in a different field and 30% were working in the field for which they were trained.  So, as a whole, the employment level of vocational education establishment leavers has increased, even though the reason is their increased capacity to find work in another field, as the percentage of those working in the field they trained for remains the same.  The fact that only one third of school leavers work in the field for which they were trained can be explained in two ways – either they had an overly idealistic view of their chosen profession and they are not willing to do the work (for example, it is nice to be able to bake a beautiful cake, but a pastry cook’s work is often monotonous, physically taxing, involves night shifts and hot kitchens), or there is no demand for this qualification on the labour market.  There is a lot of work to be done by career guidance counsellors, as well as staff of vocational education establishments, in order to ensure the training of a truly competitive labour force with qualifications demanded by the market.  However, one must take into account that at the age of fifteen to eighteen, when young people choose what qualifications they will be trained for, they are not always capable of objectively evaluating their future, which is why there will always be a fairly large number of school leavers who do not work in the field they trained in.  This indicates that vocational education establishments must devote considerable attention to the general education of young people and to preparing them for the world of work as such.

The greatest proportion of persons employed in their field are among leavers of social science, legal and business training programmes (58.3%), as well as among teacher training programme leavers (57.1%).  It seems that the general depression in agriculture is the cause for only 15.1% of leavers of agriculture training programmes to be working in their chosen field (during the 1997 survey, 25% of agriculture programme leavers were working in their field).  Vocational education establishments in rural areas generally are local cultural centres and often provide the only opportunity for rural youth to obtain an education not far from their place of residence.  As there is no rural development plan, and the population is migrating away from outlying districts, rural schools are finding it much more difficult to adapt to labour market requirements.

On 1 October 2000,  524 persons who had graduated from state and local vocational education establishments in the year 2000, or 4.2% of the total number of vocational school leavers, had registered with the State Employment Service as unemployed.  Compared to other countries, this number is not high.  Statistical data on the distribution of unemployed graduates shows that those districts having the highest level of employment also contain the highest number of unemployed school leavers.

The data compiled on the distribution of unemployed vocational school graduates among groups of training programmes show that 130 registered unemployed school leavers, or 25% of the total number of unemployed school leavers have a qualification in the business and administration field (accountants, secretaries), 100 unemployed school leavers, or 21% of the total, have a qualification in the home economics and catering filed (cooks, pastry chefs, rural home economists).

However, since students of vocational education establishments are not socially ensured against unemployment, they cannot receive unemployment benefits, which is why a good number of school leavers who cannot find employment do not bother to register with the SES.

Next chapter

Table of contents
Home