The Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) is an independent professional business organization of craftsmen, which was founded to promote, coordinate and represent the common interests of craftspeople. Its members are craftsmen who carry out their trade in the territory of the Republic of Croatia. Membership is mandatory. The Chamber performs the following roles: promoting trades, representing the interests of tradesmen before state institutions and in the creation of economic policies, giving opinions and proposals to state institutions when adopting legal provisions concerning trades, assisting tradesmen in establishing and running trades, and performing other tasks prescribed by law and legal acts of the Chamber. Within the tasks prescribed by the Law on Trades, the Chamber has public powers in the field of initial and lifelong vocational education and training.