Amalia’s path: Making jewellery as a dream career
Amalia is learning silversmithing and jewellery making, but before that, Amalia had studied a bachelor's degree in forestry and a master's degree in ecology and conservation. This background has proved useful in her current training because she already knows how to use wood when making jewellery and how to make her workshops more environmentally friendly.
Amalia chose vocational education because it offers not just a better salary, but also valuable experience through work-based learning. Amalia is excited about an upcoming two-week Erasmus+ exchange in Naples where she will learn how to design jewels with a computer.
Amalia encouraged other young people to join vocational education and training programmes by saying, “Try things and don’t be afraid”. She thinks many people go to university because they don’t know what to do. She said it's important to be curious and not just follow what everyone else does. Amalia believes doing what you love, even as a hobby, can lead to great things. For example, she started learning about jewellery from online videos and this turned into a new learning pathway for her. She said, “Your personal interest might change into a profession”.
Her training programme has already opened some doors, as she has already been offered a part-time job. In the future, she dreams of starting her own company and learning sewing and 3D printing.
Zoe's Path: From medical studies to tailoring
Zoe is learning garment making, fashion design, and tailoring at the 2nd Vocational Apprenticeship School of Thessaloniki. Currently, she's doing an apprenticeship in tailoring. Similar to Amalia, Zoe’s learning journey started with university where she chose the medical field. However, she didn't find the salary and job prospects appealing, and discovered vocational education through a friend.
Zoe encouraged people to be curious and brave when it comes to vocational education and training. Despite having a family background in sewing, she received no encouragement or guidance because her family preferred that she attended university. Paradoxically, Zoe had to learn sewing skills on her own!
She's thrilled about being offered to continue her apprenticeship after completing her training. Zoe looks forward to learning more technical skills like business management and working with numbers.
Amalia’s and Zoe’s experience
Both women found the bottlenecks in Greece’s university system as one of the reasons to choose vocational education. They realised that technical skills were lacking in their country and sought to learn new skills through vocational training.
Amalia and Zoe were very happy to attend the Meet the Champions event. They thought it was a fantastic chance to meet new people and hear their stories. They also liked seeing how vocational schools work in other countries. They talked about their visit to a vocational school in Hungary last year, which was a great experience. They hoped to have more experiences like that and learn about vocational schools in other EU countries too.
- Project locations
- Greece