After the introduction of independent vocational training, the Mezőhegyes Vocational Training School always took great care to help students with their studies. This was done through tutorials, specialised groups, study competitions and field trips. From the 1960s onwards, house, county and national competitions and the STC (Apprenticeship of Excellence) competitions were a regular feature. The school’s pupils achieved good results in these competitions. The school had between five and ten specialised workshops a year (e.g. modelling, go-karting, handicrafts, photography and radio). Music education was outstanding, although vocal music was not part of the vocational curriculum. In the 1961-62 academic year, the Szeged Cultural Festival awarded the first prize to the mandolin orchestra. The boys’ choir, formed in 1971, performed successfully at several festivals, mainly with movement songs, and was awarded a silver-coloured rosette. At the initiative of the KISZ (Communist Youth League) organisation, a Youth Club was set up in the basement of the Small Institute, which soon became one of the school’s cultural centres. In the 1970s, the school also had a well-functioning literary stage, and the school library, which was constantly expanding, helped to deepen pupils’ knowledge.

From 1957 and onwards, the KISZ helped the pupils to learn through its various movements and organised their leisure activities. The Vocational School of Mezőhegyes made it a priority to educate its pupils in the field of defence, which helped prepare them for military service. Unforgettable experiences for the pupils were the events of the Defence Days and the shooting competitions. The material, technical, intellectual and ideological basis of defence education was the MHSZ (Hungarian Defence Association), founded in 1953, and the Youth Guard section. On 11 May 1964, the school shooting range was inaugurated, which, in addition to defence education, also served law and order training (the successor to the MHSZ continued to operate as the Rifle Association from 2005). With the phasing out of the Law Enforcement and Civil Service sector training, the shooting range was demolished in 2020 and a swimming pool may be built in its place in the near future.

Due to the nature of the school, pupils had to do a lot of physical work and therefore needed to develop their stamina – sport became an integral part of their daily lives. Over the years, several departments have been successful and pupils have achieved success in prestigious sporting events. From the 1960s onwards, field trips, factory visits, excursions, camps abroad and at home were regularly organised.

After 1945, pupils received a wide range of benefits: scholarships, working clothes, personal protective equipment, toiletries, and free textbooks for a small fee. Meal costs were very low, reduced meals were often organised, and students could sign a study contract which provided them with a job. This was complemented by free medical examinations and health insurance, and of course free access to clubs, sports and school events. Needy and deserving pupils were also eligible for grants.

After the change of regime, as funding became scarcer, most of these benefits were withdrawn and the structure of leisure activities changed. Student life is organised by the DÖK (Student Self-Government), and at county and national level the competitions are dominated by students studying equestrian trades, field engineers and police officers.

Our traditional events are the Vocational Day (open day, career orientation event), the Advent Day, the “Varnyúavató” (freshman ball), the prom, the “Old Times Mayale” (student’s day) and the graduation ceremony. The “Birtok camp” is included in the school’s professional programme under the heading “the institution’s tradition system”.