International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 2

Number 4

December 2008

441

Foundation for the Promotion of Technical

Education

S. Zurkiewicz

Gdynia Maritime University, Gdynia, Poland

ABSTRACT: The author presents his project to establish an institution under the name “Foundation for

promotion of technical education” on the base of his experience reached in the field of crewing and maritime

education and training.

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Expansion of the European Union to include Baltic

States as well as Central and Eastern European

countries has had a profound impact on the labour

market and resulted in economic migration of over 2

million workers towards more developed EU

member-states.

In parallel, systematic inflow of Foreign Direct

Investment towards the new EU members has been

observed resulting in a shift of manufacturing

activities from the original 15 EU countries towards

the newcomers and frequently relocating the

complete production facilities.

The above phenomenon coincided with notable

increase in demand for labour, primarily in metals

and construction industries in the United Kingdom,

Republic of Ireland, Norway and Iceland. None of

these countries, by themselves, have been able to

meet the demand for skilled labour, technicians and

engineers.

The new EU members as experiencing gradual

outflow of highly-skilled personnel to the more

developed countries and despite still alarmingly high

official unemployment figures of up to 15% are

themselves experiencing increasing labour market

shortages.

The new EU member-states still have significant

untapped potential in terms of qualified labour,

however due to the changes in educational system,

namely dramatic reduction in the number of

vocational and technical educational institution; the

skilled human resources are not being replaced in

sufficient quantities.

It can also be observed that the skills of the new

graduates are not aligned with the demands of the

marketplace. Misalignment of qualifications or lack

of required qualifications applies not only to the new

graduates but even more so to the unemployed

section of the population, including individuals with

high-school educational attainment.

Despite availability of financing from the budgets

of the individual member-states, European Union as

well as a wide network of national and local

governmental institutions designed to address the

issue of unemployment, I believe that it is a need for

establishing an institution which without excessive

bureaucracy and without obligations from the

participating individuals, would provide support to

persons interested in obtaining new skills or

improving the existing ones in order to align their

own qualifications with the demands of the

dynamically changing labour market.

Such institution should integrate all the elements

of the labour market and by doing so achieve more

effective utilization of the financial and human

resources.

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Considering current regulatory environment as

well as an obvious niche among the existing

institutions dedicated to the development of the

labour market, in my opinion the most appropriate

legal structure for this form of activity would be a

non-for-profit foundation.

2 PROJECT OUTLINE

2.1 The Name of the Foundation

The Founding Members decided to establish an

institution under the name „Foundation for

the Promotion of Technical Education”. However,

the name could change in case of change in the final

makeup and the founding group.

2.2 Founding Members

Founding Members can be individuals with

professional relationship to education as well as

companies which, through their financial

involvement, intend to alleviate the growing

shortages of qualified personnel.

2.3 Objectives of the Foundation

The objective of the Foundation is to optimize the

utilization of human resources as well as available

sources of finance with a view to making a

contribution to the social, economic and scientific

development of Poland and other members of the

European Union.

2.4 Scope of Activities of the Foundation

− Promoting technical education among the youth.

− Providing support to educational institutions in

aligning their teaching resources and curricula to

the demands of the laour market.

− Sponsoring and crediting individuals who wish to

upgrade, modify or obtain new qualifications

required on the labour market.

− Conducting research into the labour market.

− Obtaining financing necessary for the execution

of the statutory objectives.

− Management of the projects undertaken by the

Foundation.

− Management of dedicated projects in accordance

with the requirements of the donors.

2.5 Funds

Funds dedicated to realize the statutory objectives

and activities within the scope of the Foundation will

come from the following sources:

− Founding capital.

− Donations.

− Subsidies from the national budget and the budget

of the EU.

− Dedicated funds provided to execute projects in

accordance with the requirements of the donors.

− Interest accrued from bank deposits.

− Loans and bank credits.

2.6 Donors and Dedicated Funds

Donors of dedicated funds can be:

− Governmental institutions on national and local

level.

− Educational institutions.

− Commercial entities both domestic and

international.

− Other foundations.

Dedicated funds can only be utilized in

accordance with the objectives and the scope of

activities of the Foundation.

Dedicated funds can be augmented with

Foundation’s own financial resources, finances

obtained by the Foundation from other sources

which have been dedicated for the purposes

consistent with the intentions of the donors.

The utilization of the dedicated funds will be

regulated by agreements between the Foundation and

the donors.

2.7 Operational Mode

The Foundation will, by itself, promote technical

education and conduct research into demands of both

the internal and the external labour market. Selected

activities within these areas can be outsourced to

specialized external organizations.

The Foundation will cooperate with educational

institutions and will support these institutions in

promoting their educational offering, development

of faculty and adjustment of the curricula to current

demands of the labour market.

The Foundation will cooperate with employers

and institutions of the labour market

The Foundation will undertake activities based on

the analysis of the labour market and realize its own

projects in accordance with the objectives and scope

of activities of the Foundation

Moreover, the Foundation will undertake

activities and execute projects in accordance with re

requirements of the donors.

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2.8 Projects and Execution Methods

Execution to the project will be coordinated by an

appointed Project Manager.

Execution of every project will be supervised by

the Foundation Board.

Every project will be formally defined and

described with the source of funding clearly spelled

out.

Every project accepted for execution will be

assessed by an external expert.

The rules of formal project description, project

assessment, sources of finance and decision making

criteria with regard to project acceptance for

execution will be defined by Foundation Board in a

Code of Project Execution.

2.9 Invitation to Co-Operate

Initiators of the Foundation would like to extend

their invitation to participate in the project to

all potential Founding Members as well as

individuals and institutions interested in both

support from the Foundation and well as providing

financing for dedicated projects executed by

the Foundation.