Wielkopolskie rzemiosło w procesie kształcenia kadr

At a time of high unemployment rate among youth and a continued lack of conformity between trends in education and demands voiced by employers, attention is drawn to the so-called dual education, viz. instruction conducted in parallel (alternately) at school and at the workplace – a system highly valued in the EU for enhancing the opportunities of youth on the job market. Vocational training of youth employees, which is the Polish model of dual education, is in nearly 80% conducted by crafts and trades enterprises. The object of the article is to present the role of the Greater Poland crafts and trades in the process of personnel training. In the last 25 years a decline in the vocational training in largescale industry has been observed in Poland. In this situation the local economic boards of crafts and trades chambers as a sector of small and medium-sized production and service enterprises assumed responsibility for training human resources for the national economy. Research done among graduates of vocational training in crafts and trades enterprises and among master craftsmen who performed the training as part of a project called “Socially responsible crafts and trades” implemented by the Greater Poland Chamber of Crafts and Trades, confirmed the observation that dual education is a gateway to permanent employment in professions which are in demand on the job market.