Educational aspects of the profession of ‘forest machinery operator’ in view of survey results

Abstract In the early 1990s, an employment reduction in the State Forests caused the lowest-income employees to be transferred to external service providers. At the same time, due to the lack of students applying in this field, numerous vocational schools were shut down. At present, professions in the forestry sector are characterized by work under harsh conditions combined with low pay and are thus rarely chosen by young people. As a result, this service sector’s average age is increasing very visibly. The aim of this paper was to gather information about the motivation of the students who did decide to begin training in this field and their professional aspirations. Our work is based on data obtained from forestry schools and a 9-question survey. Questions in the survey concerned the motivation to become an operator of forest machines, family traditions related to this profession, professional interests and plans for the future. The data analysis revealed that forestry education at the level of vocational schools is practically inexistent. For the past six years, the only unit that trained new forestry workers continuously was the Forestry School in Rogoziniec. The school’s graduates primarily pick up the profession of harvester operator and forwarder operator. Even more alarming is the fact that most of this school’s students are aware of the present employment conditions in Poland and are considering going abroad to find jobs. Therefore, in order to retain the newly trained workforce, it is necessary to improve the attractiveness of the forestry professions and to introduce systemic solutions for the development of qualifications and competences, which should be of interest to both forestry entrepreneurs and the State Forests.