In Jablonec nad Nisou, the reconstruction of the vocational school has been completed, costing 2.5 times more

Jablonec nad Nisou – In Jablonec nad Nisou, the last of the eight educational centers, for which the Liberec Region received European grants, has been completed. The construction of the center at the Secondary School of Crafts and Services in Jablonec was originally supposed to cost around 80 million crowns, but in the end, the region paid nearly 212 million crowns, which is more than 2.5 times that amount. The building partially collapsed during the construction of the center, and thus a large part of the building underwent reconstruction. The deputy governor Zbyněk Miklík (Pirates) told this to journalists today.

As the only institution in the Czech Republic, the craft school in Jablonec offers glassmaking and jewelry-related vocational programs. The new center for vocational education will provide students with top-notch equipment, such as a kiln, tinning bath, and they will learn to work with lasers. The center was supposed to be completed in 2019, but in late November 2018, a portion of the wall on the first and second floors collapsed. The situation was worsened by heavy wet snow, which overloaded the roof. No one was injured, and students have been learning elsewhere since the beginning of the work. "The building will reopen on January 25," said the school's director Martin Kubáč to ČTK.

According to Kubáč, the Jablonec school has 250 students this academic year, as the cramped workshop space in Železný Brod, where they had to move teaching, did not allow for a larger number of students. With the modernization of the building, the school will now be able to enroll an additional hundred students. It will also offer a new program focused on police work, prison service, and public administration. The first 30 students are expected to start their studies in September next year. However, according to Kubáč, the new facilities will also offer retraining courses if there is interest.

The craft school in Jablonec is a partner in the education initiative of six European countries led by France, which aims to inscribe the manual production of glass on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. In addition to the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Finland, and Spain have joined. "We had to give our consent to continue with this craft and preserve it for future generations," added Kubáč. The Jablonec school offers several programs that are not taught elsewhere in the Czech Republic, such as technical glass blowing; it also trains manufacturers of glass and metal jewelry, goldsmiths, and future jewelers.

The vocational education center in Jablonec is the last of eight projects worth more than 712 million crowns that the region has created at its schools in the concluding programming period using European grants. Two-thirds of the funding was obtained from European and state funds. Preparations for other similar projects are currently underway. Thanks to these, modern equipment and facilities are expected to be acquired in the coming years by students of the Secondary School in Semily, the Secondary School of Gastronomy and Services in Liberec, the Secondary Technical School of Mechanical Engineering, Construction, and Transport in Liberec, or the Jablonec Technical Secondary School.