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Dijana Purišić
Episode · #571

POSLOVNI ĐIR Dijana Purišić

Guest Dijana PurišićHosted by Ojdana KoharevićMay 3, 2026
About this episode
What you'll hear in this conversation

“We will have many directors, but no workers.” The starkness of that statement, from someone who lives and breathes a disappearing craft, cuts through the usual discussions about the future of work. Dijana Purišić owns Lara, a tailor shop in Split, a business that once anchored communities and now struggles to find successors. She sees firsthand the demand for skilled hands, but also the societal forces pushing younger generations away from trades and into white-collar professions. Purišić's experience reveals a larger shift: a generation of skilled artisans is retiring, and few are stepping up to replace them. She points to a system that prioritizes academic paths over vocational training, creating a looming crisis where essential services lack the people to perform them. As a member of the Supervisory Board of the Split Craftsmen's Association, she's actively working to reverse this trend. This conversation asks what happens when a society undervalues tangible skills, and what it might take to re-ignite interest in the crafts that keep our world running. Readers will consider the silent costs of a world without skilled tradespeople, and what it truly means for a nation to build from within.

Insights from the conversation
What to take from this episode
01
Dijana Purišić's stark prediction — "we will have many directors, but no workers" — encapsulates the core problem facing skilled trades. When an entire education system points towards management careers, the hands-on roles that keep a society functioning are left empty.
02
The market being flooded with inexpensive, mass-produced clothing over the last decade and a half directly pushed out local craft trades. The price of convenience often means the extinction of the very skills that built those goods.
03
The societal message that "crafts are hard, you have to work, and children should go to university to suffer less" actively discourages vocational pursuits. The narrative of an easier life in an office directly undermines the value of skilled manual labor.
04
In Dijana's student days, three full classes of tailors enrolled in vocational school; today, such numbers are unheard of. The decline in these foundational cohorts signals a systemic shift, not just individual career preferences.
05
Re-engaging students with trades must begin in elementary school, in the seventh and eighth grades, by directly informing children and their parents that "it's not all about high school and universities." The fight for vocational relevance is won before high school ever begins.
06
"Wherever you turn," Dijana points out, "you need some craft skill in life, whether you are a doctor or a director." This universal, unspoken reliance on trades underscores that their practical value is not diminishing, even if their perceived status is.
07
The closure of large textile factories like Kamensko and Vugoplastika didn't just shed jobs; it severed the intergenerational transfer of skills. A generation of artisans retired, and no new cohort emerged to inherit that collective knowledge.
08
"Many parents are not really for their child doing something physical," Dijana observes, preferring "an office and a more relaxed job." This parental aspiration for perceived ease is a silent, yet powerful, force driving the decline of essential manual trades.
09
As a member of the Supervisory Board, Dijana believes the solution lies in actively reaching "among people, first among children," and ensuring "craft trades are more exposed in the media." The fight for public perception happens outside the association hall, in the daily awareness of young people.
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