The last Steering Committee and Partner Meeting of EDU-LAB served as an opportunity to look back on the past two years of cooperation, discuss the main achievements of the project and review the quality of implementation.

The event was opened by welcoming words by Dr. Caroline Hornstein Tomić (Foundation Knowledge at Work) and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuster (European Foundation for Education).

Dr. des. Ágnes Sebestyén, Project Director of EDU-LAB (European Foundation for Education) presented a review on the quality and effectiveness of implementation. She was pleased to announce that the partnership consortium achieved all three project specific objectives:

1. Enhance cooperation between business, higher education and public authorities
2. Encourage further development of Higher Education Acts
3. Foster the creation of more professionally oriented study programmes

Then, the results of the pilot activities (Work Package 6) in Slovakia, Serbia and Bulgaria were presented.

Barbara Plachá (German-Slovak Chamber of Industry and Commerce) informed the audience about the pilot activities carried out in Slovakia. The main achievements of the pilot are the following:

• Accreditation criteria for Professional bachelor´s approved in 2018
• 1st accredited professionally oriented bachelor study program in Slovakia from September 2018
• 1st Conference on professionally oriented higher education in Slovakia in October 2018
• Sustainable coordination platform established  (ZAP SR, DSIHK, VW, MFE STU, MŠVV SR and further members from HEI and companies to follow)

Ing. Romana Hricová, PhD presented the pilot activities carried out at the two participating faculties at the Technical University of Kosice:

• The Faculty of Manufacturing Technologies has long-term cooperation with partners from industry and the faculty has also organized a workshop entitled "Study for Practice", which introduced the most important partners in the industry, mainly in the automotive field.
• The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics has organized a series of workshops in cooperation with IT industry experts on various issues.

Regarding the pilot activities in Serbia, Ivana Kovacevic (Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia) provided a short overview on the main results which include:

• A pilot study programme with the cooperation of the Faculty of Economics, Finance and Administration at the University of Belgrade and Gorenje (accreditation is expected in 2019-2020)
• Serbia is currently preparing a new law on dual higher education, with EDU-LAB partners Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia and Institute Mihajlo Pupin having actively contributed to drafting this document

In Bulgaria, the outputs presented by Ralitsa Geshovska (Municipality of Vratsa) are:

• the signing of the Letter of Intent for the creation of a National Academy for Vocational Education in Bulgaria
• Setting up expert groups as well as creating a Coordination Point in Bulgaria

The meeting ended with closing remarks by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuster who emphasised the strong results the project achieved and called attention to the importance of and opportunities for sustainability.

More photos in the gallery.