The Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy (FTM) at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (UKIM) has opened a newly equipped Laboratory for Chemical Analyses, featuring a modern XRF instrument donated by Makstil AD Skopje, which will enable students to gain practical experience in analysing the composition of metals. The event also saw the presentation of an initiative to introduce advanced technologies and eco-innovations into education.
The event was organised as part of the partnership with the Swiss-funded “Education for Employment” (E4E) project, implemented by Helvetas. It brought together representatives of academia, institutions and the private sector to discuss how education can better respond to the needs of industry.
With this modern equipment, students will have the opportunity to gain practical experience with an analytical technique used in real industrial settings, while engineers and professionals from the metallurgical industry will be able to use the laboratory for chemical analyses and the characterisation of metallurgical materials. In this way, the laboratory becomes a place where education, research and industry needs come together.
But the event is part of a broader story of a partnership that has already produced results extending beyond the partners themselves and into the wider education system in North Macedonia. With the support of E4E, FTM and Makstil worked together to identify the knowledge and skills needed in modern industry and integrate them into higher education. One result of this cooperation was the development of two-year short professional studies, designed in line with the needs of industry. Through the Metallurgy programme, students will obtain the professional qualification of Metallurgical Engineer, along with modern, practical and applicable knowledge and skills that will enable them to respond to the challenges and needs of the modern metallurgical industry.
“This model of cooperation has already demonstrated that it can have an impact beyond the partners directly involved,” said Mihal Harari, Deputy Ambassador of Switzerland. “The new National Education Strategy now also recognises short professional studies developed in partnership with the private sector. This is a good example of how an initiative that starts as a partnership can develop into a model with the potential to be applied more widely. We hope that its inclusion in the Strategy will help create the conditions for similar partnerships to emerge beyond the cooperation we see today.”
The partnership shows that companies can be more than users of the education system. They can actively contribute to identifying the competencies needed and to developing programmes that better reflect the realities of industry.
According to Prof. Dr Biljana Angelova, Rector of UKIM, responsibility for developing relevant knowledge and competencies is shared: “At the heart of education is the need to respond to the needs of the times and the needs of industry, but at the same time, industry should actively participate in the acquisition of knowledge and competencies, especially considering the changes and development of technologies.”
The partnership between FTM and Makstil thus demonstrates how cooperation between academia and industry can generate concrete results, contribute to changes in education policy, and create space for the wider application of this approach in higher education.
