The Vocational Education Centre (ZDZ) in Katowice is the oldest vocational education company in Silesia with 80 years of experience, since it started its activity in 1926.

At present, it operates through the network of 34 vocational education centres and over 60 non-public schools having the rights of public schools in the area of the Śląskie Voivodship and selected counties of the Małopolskie, Opolskie and Łódzkie Voivodships. Our offer is addressed to companies, institutions and individual recipients, including employed persons and persons looking for a job, improving their knowledge and professional skills, changing a profession, both the adult and the youth.

At our training courses, we teach around 34,000 persons at over 300 faculties and specialities per annum. Since the beginning of our activity, over 2 million persons have acquired professional qualifications at our training courses, including over 100 000 unemployed. Based on the data base of 400 programmes, our own Programme Commission, and about 2000 highly qualified lecturers and instructors, ZDZ fulfils duties resulting from the continuously changing educational needs of the economy of the region and the state. We offer, for example, training at Administration, Finance, IT (including ECDL Advanced and the Local CISCO Academy), Economics, Power Industry, Gastronomy, Trade, Pedagogy and Teaching Methodology, as well as Construction Industry, Welding, Transport, Tourism, Services and Crafts, etc. ZDZ is also authorised by The Institute of Mechanised Construction and Rock Mining to conduct the „Backhoe Loader Class III” training.

At present, at our schools we teach almost 30 professions and offer various levels of education, including a gymnasium for the adult: general education preparing to a specific profession, secondary vocational schools: hairdresser, salesman, chef at small restaurants, medical carer, car painter, bricklayer, secondary comprehensive and technical schools: general education, including an extended programme of foreign languages and civil defence, "uniform" classes, information management, junior economist, building technician, hotel technician, underground mining technician, junior salesman, catering technician, mechanical technician, IT technician, aviation technician, landscape technician, hairdresser technician, chef, colleges: cosmetic technician, hairdresser technician, human and property guard technician, IT specialist, specialist at industrial safety, tourism operator, advertising organisation technician, make-up and style artist, road technician, underground mining technician, pharmacy technician, airport and terminal operation technician, administration technician, medical rescue officer, massage therapist, dietician, medical carer.

The Centre incorporates the following Examination Commissions:

• National Examination Commission established by the Silesian Chief Education Officer for candidates applying for a professional title and a professional title of master hairdresser, salesman, chef, bricklayer,
• Local Welding Commission,
• Qualifying Commission established by the Power Industry Regulation Office verifying qualifications at the maintenance or supervision of electrical and power networks, equipment and systems.

We also manage the Teacher Skill Improvement Centre offering a broad range of courses and forms of education and improvement for teachers, including, for example, qualification and improvement courses.

To respond to needs to educate IT staff, we joined the Cisco Networking Academy programme, and the Local Academy of CISCO started its activity at the Vocational Education Centre. It provides courses for specialists at IT network designing and maintenance. We also started training under the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). Two our computer workshops have the status of Advanced ECDL Laboratories granted by the Polish Information Technology Society.

The Centre provides top quality educational services and continuously improves its development strategies and concepts. Our major goal is to meet our customers' requirements and expectations. To fulfil the needs of course participants and students of our schools, we develop and publish our own publications in the form of manuals, scripts and other training materials. ZDZ, as the first educational institution in Poland, obtained ISO 9001 quality certificate in 2000. The certificate confirms that the Quality Assurance System applied at ZDZ meets the requirements of the ISO 9001 standard related to "school education and professional improvement through training course, including service designing".

The high quality of our educational services is confirmed by constant education accreditation granted by chief education officers in Katowice and Kraków to ZDZ vocational education centres.

ZDZ submits to its training activity quality monitoring voluntarily. Based on an agreement signed in March 2007, TÜV SÜD Polska Sp. z o.o. monitors training courses as a result of which graduates may obtain additional certificates confirming top training quality in English, German or another language.

At present, to modernise our didactical process, we offer e-learning.

ZDZ in Katowice is the most important and biggest partner of labour offices in the region with regard to the redeployment of the unemployed. We train almost 4 500 persons referred to us by Local Labour Offices. The Centre was recorded in the register of training institutions kept by the Voivodship Labour Office in Katowice under the number 2.24/00014/2004 in December 2004.

We also offer assistance in job choosing or changing, improving qualifications, by providing complex services related to professional, business, psychological consultancy and job agency at our own Labour Agency "Profesja", which is in charge of searching for jobs for the unemployed and graduates of our schools and courses.

The Centre established the first non-public university in the former Katowice Voivodship: Śląska Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania im. Gen. Jerzego Ziętka (Silesian School of Management). The School owns a permit to organise master study and an accreditation of the National Accreditation Commission. In 2009, it was granted the Golden Laurels of Skills and Competence.
The Silesian School of Management offers bachelor study at: Management, Pedagogics, European Science, Protection of Cultural Achievements, engineering study at Transport Management and Logistics, Information Technology, Environmental Protection, as well as complementary master study at Management. The off-site Health Science Faculty in Tychy offers bachelor and bridge study at Nursing. The School also offers post-graduate studies addressed for example to managers, administration staff, health care service, entrepreneurs, teachers, and educationalists. Till the end of 2008, over 8 500 alumni graduated from the Silesian School of Management. At present, the School educates 3 800 students.
ZDZ in Katowice actively participates in the execution of projects co-financed from EU funds. Our experience gained under the STRUDER Development Programme allowed for active participation, in 2001-2006, in the utilisation of resources coming from PHARE preaccession funds. Under the PHARE programme, ZDZ carried out or participated in the execution of 9 projects related to human resource development addressed to various territories and target groups. The Centre effectively applied ESF resources already during the period of the first programming and fund implementation in Poland (2004 - 2006) and carried out, on its own or together with partners, 14 projects co-financed from ESF under the Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resource Development and the Integrated Operational Programme for Regional Development.

Having an opportunity to apply for financial resources in the new programming period, Operational Programme for Human Capital, the Centre won competitions for the execution of further 25 projects addressed to various target groups. 10 out of them have already been completed and one of them was honoured in "Good EFS Practices 2009 Contest" organized by the Ministry of Regional Development. As regards school education, the Centre carries out projects allowing students to attend international meetings, take foreign training at EU companies and expand knowledge about EU. During foreign traineeships (UK, Greece, Germany, Italy), students improve their professional and language skills, get familiar with working organisation, technology and resources applicable in the European labour market, gain new experience to be used in their further education or professional career. Getting involved in those projects, their participants are able to break cultural, social, religious barriers, which improves their self-appraisal. Projects carried out under Socrates (Arion, Grundtvig, Comenius), Leonardo da Vinci, Młodzież w działaniu, Cedefop, Polsko-Niemiecka Współpraca Młodzieży, Interreg programmes, Transition Resources 2005, as well as Phare and ESF were attended by students and teachers of our Centre.

European projects organised by the Centre till 2008 have involved almost 38 000 beneficiaries in total.

ZDZ in Katowice broadly cooperates with foreign partners. The first meetings were held at the beginning of the 90s, when numerous contacts with training companies from Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Sweden and Belgium were established. Till the end of 2008, the group of partner countries was joined by Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Lithuania, Austria, Ireland, Finland, UK and the Czech Republic. The purpose of our cooperation is to continuously improve our staff, acquire new didactical patterns and techniques used in education, exchange experience with other entities organising education, balance the level of knowledge of our students, get familiar with new cultures, as well as break barriers and stereotypes.

The Vocational Education Centre in Katowice obtained many awards, certificates and rewards, including, without limitation:

• Golden (2001) and Platinum (2007) Laurels of Skills and Competence in the category of institutions supporting market economy development or educating future staff for business purposes, granted to the Centre and the President of the Management Board, Jacek Kwiatkowski, by the Chapter of Laurels of the Regional Chamber of Commerce;
• ECDL Compliance Certificate granted to the training: European Computer Driving Licence - April 2002; award granted to our Company in the category of scientific and research, as well as educational and training organisations by the Chapter of Silesian Quality Award - May 2001; the title of "Gazelle of Business" granted by Puls Biznesu - December 2004;
• MICROSOFT LICENSE MANAGEMENT Certificate - May 2006;
• Educational Unit Competence Certificate allowing for the organisation of training at industrial safety, issued by the Central Labour Protection Institute - National Research Institute - October 2006;
• Certificate of the Central Labour Protection Institute for training at industrial safety;
• "Quality Company" - a special award for ZDZ in Katowice granted by the Chamber of Crafts and SMEs in Katowice;
• MARKET LEADER 2008 Certificate - the best Polish company in professional education and counteracting unemployment, including education and qualification improvement, and EURO LEADER award; nomination to the title of the Reliable Employer of Silesia 2008, an award granted by the Partner Media Group;

as well as:

• Jan Kiliński Golden Order of Merit in crafts;
• Golden Honorary Badge for Achievements for the Śląskie Voivodship;
• National Education Commission's Medal.