Vukcevic: Employers in Production Sectors Interested in Young Staff of the Faculty of Metallurgy and Technology
Dean of the Faculty of Metallurgy and Technology of the University of Montenegro, Mira Vukcevic, PhD said that a large number of employers in the sectors of production, research, education, and inspection activities show interest in the staff formed at this faculty, with a suggestion to perform practice in their production facilities.
‘Knowledge acquired at the Faculty of Metallurgy and Technology qualifies engineers for successful work in the areas of designing and applying engineering materials, designing technologies, optimization of production processes, environmental protection. Depending on the choice of narrow area, we educate experts in process and processing metallurgy, basic chemistry, synthesis of organic and inorganic products, ecology ... ‘, Dean Vukcevic said.
We talked with her about where the FoMT students work today, how they opt and perform practical training, whether it is the way to employment, and how faculty activities, such as teaching reforms, scientific and research work and international cooperation, influence the development path of the Faculty .
UoM: Where students of the Faculty of Metallurgical and Technological of the University of Montenegro work today?
VUKCEVIC, PhD: Companies in which FoMT students work today are, among others: KAP, Hemomont, Environmental Protection Agency, Plantaze, Toscelik (Niksic), Institute of Black Metallurgy AD Niksic, Pivara Trebjesa-Niksic, Daido Metal Kotor, Centar for Ecotoxicological Research (CETI), National Parks of Montenegro, Tara (Mojkovac), POLIEX (Mojkovac), Institute for Public Health, Forensic Center, Water and Sewerage, Landfill Facilities, Fab Live, Inpek, all secondary vocational schools, Hydro-meteorological Institute, public institutions from the inspection sector in areas related to these professions.
In the previous period, a significant number of FoMT graduated students had an engagement in businesses in the region (BH, Serbia).
UoM: You say that in most of these companies today students perform practice based on signed contracts?
VUKCEVIC, PhD: In the final semester of undergraduate studies, students have compulsory practical classes once a week. In the process of defining the implementation model of practical lecture, we have been helped by partners from industry and businesses who have entered our list of teaching bases. The companies that our teaching base are very responsible in performing their part of job in practical training of students.
Thanks to the specificity of the title and the fact that our engineers have not been able to acquire adequate knowledge without terrain facility exercises that are upgraded to laboratory and practical exercises at the Faculty, our students have already gained serious competences in practical work. Now, this aspect of the educational offer is completely regulated. Contracts on practical training are signed between the Faculty and the company, and at the beginning of the practical training process students also individually signed them. Each student, in addition to the teaching mentor for performing practical lectures, also receives a mentor, i.e. a ‘manager’ of practice in a company, who, in close cooperation with the teaching mentor, designs a plan of practical training.
UoM: How do students choose where to practice and is that a way to employment?
VUKCEVIC, PhD: Students, according to the principle of personal preferences, selected companies at the very beginning of academic year, and on the basis of their application and research, i.e. professional areas in which they are interested, are given teaching mentors. Companies show an exceptional will for this cooperation, since they consider it a perfect way to introduce with young people and participate in the formation of competencies of these young people. This is an ideal way to employment if the students successfully finish the practical lessons.
The UNIPROM KAP every year contacts the Faculty with an open job offer for a number of young engineers, of all three areas. It is similar to all other companies that are our base. In this sense, we have constant communication with company representatives and we act as some kind of ‘bridge’ in communication between young engineers and management in companies. In this way, the companies that are our lecturing base, have the opportunity not only to get a staff from the territory of Montenegro, but to indirectly influence the formation of the Faculty's teaching offer, via the requests they send us in this regard.
UoM: The FoMT has been working for more than 46 years and what characterizes it is harmonizing with technological trends and labor market needs...
VUKCEVIC, PhD:
The data we have come up through analyzing the needs of the labor market, as well as the modern educational trends in this field, pointed to the necessity to modernize metallurgical education in the direction of new industries based on rising metallic materials.
In addition to it, the growth of various classes so-called ‘functional materials’ have imposed the need to incorporate some knowledge in the field of new materials into the curriculum, based on the combination with metal materials, whereby we took care on real and usable competences of scuh educated engineers.
In the field of chemical technology, driven by the growing needs of the labor market in the field of organic technologies, we have made a clear orientation towards organic chemical technology, especially in the field of bioactive products for which we have the expertise.
UoM: How did the negative trend in the transition environment reflect on the profile of industrial complexes, and therefore the profiling of future engineers?
VUKCEVIC, PhD: We are aware of the fact that the profile of industrial complexes in all transitional countries has changed dramatically. Large, frequently over-sized industrial complexes have given way to smaller, technologically more adaptable development cores that can survive in a race with rapid technological development. The profile of former engineers, experts related to, exclusively, large facilities and mass production, has changed significantly today. Modern technologies require highly competent trained personnel able to deal with a smaller, but highly specialized production, both in professional and economic terms. All these years, we have been trying to recognize complex technological and economic trends, so we can say that today we increasingly direct our students to an independent business based on high competence and innovation.
UoM: You always emphasize scientific and research work of your colleagues?
VUKCEVIC, PhD: I consider it IS very important to emphasize that employed lecturers and associates at our Faculty are very active in scientific research, thus with the number of published papers in indexed publications, they are at the top of the UoM. If we take into account the number of employees of lecturers and associates, whereby our Faculty falls into smaller University units, then scientific and research work at the Faculty may be considered very successful
UoM: In the last 10 years, research projects, EUREKA, COSTA, INVO HERICA projects have been implemented at the FoMT. Would you specifically point out some project?
VUKCEVIC,PhD:
We particularly emphasize the latest project Horizonta 2020 (EIT RAW Materials), whose implementation in a wide consortium of the European renowned partners, indicates networking of the Faculty with scientific research structures at a wide level. Extensive bilateral cooperation is a successful base for future scientific research contacts and more complex applications. Within these projects, our researchers cooperate with all major universities in the Western Balkans region, universities in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia. In a modern competitive economy, no resource is as important as people with their knowledge and skills. Education and professional development decisively determine the quality of human resources. We hope that the transitional years of the Montenegrin industry are behind us, which will enable us with even greater research and educational development.
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