The business in Plovdiv and 4 universities with common actions on training students in resource efficiency

As part of the celebration of 40 years of the Technical Faculty at the University of Food Technology (UHT) in Plovdiv, a round table was held on the topic “The need for training in resource efficiency of industrial systems” as part of the implementation of the project “Education for Resource Efficiency in Manufacturing Industries” ” (EREMI), No. 2020-1-BG01-KA203-079076 of the Erasmus+ program.

The project is being developed by four universities offering engineering education. The University of Food Technology is in a team with University Politehnica of Bucharest, University “St. Kliment Ohridski” – Bitola, University of Applied Sciences – Offenburg and BEIA Consult International (Romania) – partner of SIEMENS, performing research and development activity and one of the leading providers of ICT solutions and services in Romania for cloud communications and IoT telemetry.

The discussion was attended by representatives from all partner organizations, former and current teachers from the Technical Faculty, as well as companies from the Thrace Economic Zone – Ataro Klima EOOD, Tomika Metal AD, Schneider Electric, INCH-Frigo EOOD and the association “Cluster Thrace Economic Zone” / KTIZ/.

The partner countries analyzed the project activities related to the developed courses on this interdisciplinary topic. In the course of the discussion, the representatives of the companies were actively involved with real industrial problems and concrete proposals for solving them. They expressed opinions on the importance of training personnel in the field of resource efficiency in manufacturing industries and overall system optimization.

Eng. Plamen Panchev, creator and director of the Thrace Economic Zone /TIZ/ and chairman of the cluster of the same name, reflected the need to involve higher technical schools in solving the problems with harmful emissions from industrial enterprises. At the beginning of May, TIZ announced the Carbon Neutrality Charter and already 22 companies have supported it.

The zone is the first industrial association of enterprises in Europe with a focus on reducing carbon emissions, while supporting the creation of new jobs, the spread of knowledge and innovation, increasing economic competitiveness and improving the development prospects of the region. KTIZ also created the partner network “TIZ: Business – Education”, in which, in addition to companies in the zone, all educational institutions and municipalities are included with the aim of improving professional education and changing the attitudes of society towards it.

According to the coordinator of the project – Assoc. Dr. Tanya Titova-Kosturkova, Dean of the Technical Faculty at UHT, the discussion played an important role in building a sustainable partnership between universities and business representatives. The created training programs are fully in line with the requirements of the rapidly developing industry in TIC. UHT as a member of “Cluster Thrace Economic Zone” actively participates in the connection between business and education for the creation of the necessary qualified personnel.