The system of secondary vocational education used to be closely connected to local and regional opportunities and resources. Later the mobility of the manpower increased and also professional qualifications became more independent from a community. On the other hand sharp boundaries among professions are melting, some vocations are getting more universal and others need reversely more specified training than was usual in the past. All these forces are forming new face of vocational schools in the Czech Republic.

In this study the author investigates new roles and new functions of vocational schools especially in the relations to local and regional community. This paper tries to answer too main questions: What are benefits of a vocational school for its neighbourhood? And how people in a community perceive the vocational school, what are their expectations form the institution?

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