In the premises of the Secondary School of Industrial Technologies in Košice-Šaca, with which U. S. Steel Košice cooperates in the preparation of graduates, the Košice self-governing region is preparing the construction of a technological campus in the upcoming phase of the CuRI project. This information was also presented at the conference Modernization of secondary education and its importance for the economy of Slovakia and its regions, which took place in recent days in Bratislava.
The conference was hosted by the World Bank together with partners of the CuRI Initiative. There were also representatives of the European Commission, ministries of education, agriculture, labour, social affairs and family, MIRRI SR, representatives of three self-governing regions, professional institutions, employers and also headteachers of selected secondary schools. Ľubomír Gromoš, Recruitment and Selection Manager from U. S. Steel Košice, spoke about the long-term close cooperation between the Košice steel plant and partner vocational schools in the preparation of highly qualified graduates. He also mentioned the recruitment of new pupils to the first years for the study of technical disciplines and the applicability of graduates of partner schools.
WHAT IS THE CuRI Initiative
Catching-up Regions (CuRI) is an initiative to help the so-called catching up regions, which is implemented in Slovakia thanks to the cooperation of several European and Slovak institutions. An important part of this is a vocational education and training component in light of the needs of the local labour market. Three regions are involved in it – Prešov, Banská Bystrica and Košice.
As stated by Husein Abdul-Hamid, education expert from the World Bank and head of the secondary school component of CuRI in Slovakia, the experts first focused on understanding the most important problems faced by individual regions in the field of secondary vocational education. Therefore, they began to analyze their status and the needs of employers. The results showed that the biggest problem was the mismatch between the supply of schools, the skills of their graduates and the needs of the labour market. There was a lack of communication between employers and schools, but also study programmes and teaching methods, which did little to develop the so-called skills and competences of the 21st century. In order to address these problems, 36 pilot schools in the fields of industry, business, services, innovation, as well as agriculture, food and forestry were selected for the initiative in three regions. Among them is the partner Secondary Vocational School of Industrial Technologies in Košice-Šaca.
At the conference, individual regions presented and evaluated their results in the development of secondary vocational education during the entire period of the initiative. Those present agreed that CuRI has brought complexity and important changes to secondary education leading to modernization, support of innovation and improvement of the quality of vocational education. Important partnerships have started to be built between schools, employers and self-governing regions, leading to the development of joint integrated investment packages responding to the needs of schools and employers. In addition to the modernization of school buildings and the improvement of their material and technical equipment, they also included the training of pedagogical and professional staff and innovation in the content and forms of education.
So far, almost €97 million has been invested in modernization and development in pilot schools in the Banská Bystrica and Prešov regions, 82 study programmes have been innovated, dozens of education of pedagogical and non-teaching staff have been carried out and more than 850 innovative outputs in the form of teaching materials have been developed. KSK, which was the last to join the initiative, is preparing the construction of the Technology Campus and the modernization of seven other pilot schools for the upcoming phase of the CuRI project at the Secondary School of Industrial Technologies in Košice-Šaca.
SECONDARY SCHOOL PRAISES COOPERATION WITH U. S. STEEL KOŠICE
"Our school owes U. S. Steel Košice for its assistance in educating pupils on vocational training in the factory and for gaining practical experience in the application of modern technologies," said Peter Vida, head of the Centre for Vocational Education and Training, who attended the conference together with the school director Peter Smolnický.
Part of the event was also an exhibition of selected secondary schools, which presented their results resulting from their participation in the CuRI initiative. "The Secondary Vocational School of Industrial Technologies in Košice-Šaca was one of them," adds Peter Vida. "We introduced our mini robotic assembly workplace to the conference participants."
