Ogre Technical school (hereinafter—OT) is located in Ogre, Latvia, 40 km from the capital city, Riga. As of 1st September 2013, OT has obtained the status of a Vocational Education Competence Centre. OT offers nineteen secondary vocational education programmes in such areas as forestry, wood technology, electronics, tourism and leisure organization, food technology, textile production, art (creative industries), computer science, administrative work, catering services. Currently, OT has 1118 students (16—20 years old) and there are 104 teachers and 49 support staff.
OT is putting in a lot of effort in internationalisation of the school. To achieve this, a new Internationalisation Strategy has been developed. To expand the international experience, OT has involved itself very actively in the EU project implementation: overall, more than 40 projects have been carried out so far (Erasmus+, ESF, ERDF, and the climate change financial instrument, Leonardo da Vinci, Comenius, Grundtvig, and International Programmes for Youth). With Lifelong learning programmes, OT is working in two directions. First, it provides learners the chance to practice and second, it offers the teachers from OT and other Latvian vocational schools to gain experience outside Latvia, thus improving the content of curriculum, developing guidance material, creating an advanced learning environment and raising the prestige of vocational education. Since 2011, more than 400 international mobilities have been implemented.
OT supports innovations related to the improvement of the study process, promotes mutually beneficial rapport between students and teachers in their cooperation, and actively seeks opportunities to develop a great cooperation between students and entrepreneurs.
OT implements work-based learning in 8 educational programmes; up until now, 300 students and 110 companies have been involved in work-based learning.
In 2017 Career Education Centre has been established for the implementation of career events in OT, which organize various activities, provide career education to OT students and inform about the opportunities in OT to others, covering the whole Latvia. Also, in 2020, OT is accredited to implement the International Baccalaureate Carrere Related programme in line with its Internationalisation Strategy.
OT on December 28, 2015 certified according to ISO standard 9001: 2015 in scope - development and implementation of vocational secondary education and lifelong learning programmes, vocational education competence centre function assurance.
