Abstract
Arguably, the Czech Republic experienced the least change in the macro structure of its training system, compared to all other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Traditionally, as well as now, a very large share of Czech secondary students (more than 75 per cent) has entered and graduated from professional/technical or vocational tracks.
At the local level, however, the network of providers and programs available has changed significantly. Tertiary education in the Czech Republic expanded significantly, but qualitative changes in the structure and content of education can be perceived as controversial as the growth was mainly concentrated in the social sciences and humanities.
Life-long learning neither represents a priority of educational policy nor has it developed into a unified and interconnected system. A unique but significant exception has been the legal regulation of the recognition of prior learning through the National Qualifications Framework (Národní soustava kvalifikací, NSK) as a system of partial professional qualifications.
In this chapter, we describe the processes that led to the current situation in all areas of skill formation and their perceived logic at the national level and also at local scale in one specific area of Czechia.