Nyíregyházi SZC Sipkay Barna Kereskedelmi, Vendéglátóipari, Idegenforgalmi Szakgimnázium Szakközépiskolája és Kollégiuma

​

Our school is situated in a disadvantaged area of the country, in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county in Nyíregyháza. The city is the administrative centre of the region. The students come from every part of Szabolcs, Szatmár and Bereg districts, mainly from the towns and small villages close to the Romanian and Ukrainien borders, also the towns and villages near Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Hajdú-Bihar counties. The school provides education as a secondary school and as a vocational school.

 

There is a wide range of programmes in both areas. In the secondary school there are marketing classes, hospitality classes and bilingual tourism classes in German language, where students learn English as their second foreign language. For students who choose vocational education we offer the professions of cooks, waiters/waitresses, pastry cooks, shop assistants in clothes shops, in supermarkets and in electronic shops like Media Markt.

 

In recent years, there is a tendency showing a gradual increase in the number of vocational students. The majority of them choose catering as their future profession in the hope to find employment abroad working in hotels or restaurants. 50% of the students commute from small villages where both parents are unemployed and/or uneducated. Many of the students come from single parent families having more than 2 siblings of school age. Every year the number of students who work is growing rapidly. It is easier for them to find jobs than for their parents.

 

Companies like LEGO, TESCO, METRO, JÁSZ-PLASZTIK employ young people for student jobs either at weekends or from 2 p.m. during the week. These students are usually lag behind with their studies and also spend more time out of school missing from some lessons because of their work committments. At the same time, there are students who are ambitious and hardworking, who feel responsible for their studies and are enthusiastic about doing extra work.

 

The mission of our school is to help our students become well-qualified employees with the necessary skills and competencies to become successful and efficient workers. We assist students to become creative thinkers, to be good at solving problems, to be capable of working in teams and to be able to use one foreign language. However, we experience the challenges of our modern world: the digital revolution, the necessity of developing our students’ basic competencies, the need for balance between knowledge, skills and character traits. It is our task to improve students’ oral and written communication, critical thinking, work ethic and multicultural literacy.