Through the development partnership of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, “PREVENT COMPONENTS” d.o.o. Goražde and the Hastor Foundation are implementing the project “IDEAL – Improvement and Development of the Education and Learning System for Plasticians in Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The development partnership is being implemented under the program develoPPP.de on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project is funded by the BMZ and a project partner from a private sector – “PREVENT COMPONENTS” d.o.o. Goražde. All project activities contribute to the establishment of a more vocational education system. This system is oriented towards the labor market and improving the image of secondary vocational education, as well as increasing the size of skilled labor force as a major contributor to the country’s economic developmen
Roundtable “Improving education through cooperation between economy and educational institutions with examples of good practice”, organized by the Agency for Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary Education (APOSO) and the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VTK BiH) in cooperation with the project “IDEAL – Improvement and development of education system for plasticists in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, was held on October 30, 2019 in Sarajevo.
Representatives of the Agency for Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary Education and the Foreign Trade Chambers of Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a Memorandum of Cooperation as a way of expressing a common commitment to the goal of promoting cooperation between businesses, business associations and educational institutions in order to improve education in accordance to the labor markets.
Participants of the roundtable discussed the possibilities of participation of the economic sector in the construction of the educational process, ways of overcoming the problem of lack of qualified “workforce, initiatives and activities implemented in order to harmonize the educational sector with the needs of the labor market, and the occupational standards and their importance for the economic sector.
“The occupational standards are the first step towards enhancing cooperation between the school and the industry, as they aim to define all the necessary knowledge, skills, and the associated independence and responsibility that a person must have in order to be able to work in a particular field. Occupational standards create standards of qualifications that bring success to young people in the market. The qualification standard serves to clearly define the learning outcomes a person should have. Clearly defined occupational and qualification standards are a prerequisite for obtaining quality curricula”, said Admir Kurtović, the principal of the Džemal Bijedić Secondary Vocational School in Goražde.
As a positive example, the director of the Hastor Foundation, Seid Fijuljanin, cited the Džemal Bijedić Secondary Vocational School in Goražde. In this school, an entire class from the first to the third grade attends practical classes at companies which deal with processing and production of plastic components.
“The activity itself is significant because children are working with modern technologies, but teachers are also informed about modern technologies and are therefore more equipped with the knowledge they can impart to children during their theoretical instruction, as part of the curricula. The Hastor Foundation, with its partners, primarily GIZ and other companies in the same or similar industries, will try to replicate this practice in other local communities, and hopefully in the next 2 to 5 years this will become a common practice. We have already announced the support of other international organizations that will support this initiative with GIZ”, said Seid Fijuljanin, Managing Director of Hastor Foundation.
The funds that the company devotes to dual education should not be seen as an expense, but as an investment that produces long-term results and creates a better future for both the company and high school students,” said Anes Bunjo, head of Prevent Components.
All participants were presented with examples of successful cooperation between the economy and educational sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina, created with the support of the IDEAL project, primarily with the example of Prevent Components. The intention is to bring together representatives of government, industry and educational institutions to conduct a constructive dialogue on the issues of improving education through the cooperation of economy and educational institutions.
