Trakia Economic Zone brought business closer to education

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At the first-of-its-kind meeting in Plovdiv, managers, state and local authorities, and the Technical University outlined concrete steps for creating qualified specialists 

Some of the specific actions identified during the first-of-its-kind meeting 'Education, Innovation and Investment' in Plovdiv, involving managers of companies from the Trakia Economic Zone /TEZ/ with the team of the Technical University-Sofia, its Plovdiv branch, state and local authorities, and students, are as follows:

• Students who will prepare their thesis projects at enterprises on topics specified by the company;

• Joint development of curricula and programs with the business sector;

• Opening factories for hourly work of students in technical specialties;

• Involving prominent businessmen as lecturers;

• Establishing a Center for Specialization and Professional Qualification at the Trakia Economic Zone within the Center for Training Specialists at the Plovdiv branch of the Technical University-Sofia as a coordinator between universities, secondary schools, and the business sector. 

The types of specialists needed by companies in the TEZ will be studied by the 'Cluster Information and Communication Technologies Plovdiv', announced its chairman Dr. Ivalo Staribratov. 'In Bulgaria, there is a lot of talk about innovation, but we need good mechanical engineers and electrical engineers,' immediately specified Ahmed Hassan, manager of ABB Bulgaria, Rakovski branch.
Engineers are the people who will fix the country, even though these specialties are not attractive now, emphasized Prof. Dr. Eng. Georgi Mihov. According to the rector of TU-Sofia, the forum revealed weaknesses in the business-education link: poor coordination between secondary and higher education institutions and enterprises, and a lack of alignment between secondary and higher education. Moreover, many of the problems stem from secondary education. 

Eng. Plamen Panev co-manager of TIZ	Assoc. Dr. Eng. Nikola Dobre co-manager of TIZ	Engr. Ivan Totev Mayor of the city of Plovdiv
Menda Stoyanova Deputy Speaker of the Parliament from GERB's Parliamentary Group	Rozalin Petkov Regional Governor of Plovdiv Region	Prof. Dr. Eng. Georgi Mihov Rector of TU-Sofia​
Prof. Dr. Eng. Kostadin Kostadinov Deputy Minister of Education and Culture	The Aula of TU-Plovdiv