Synergy of communities and education.
On October 3, Ivano-Frankivsk hosted a thematic fair of professions «Synergy of Communities and Education». Its purpose was to help the United Territorial Communities (UTCs) address staffing issues. The initiator and organizer of this event was the Ivano-Frankivsk regional branch of the Association of Ukrainian Cities. Precarpathian National University, which is a partner of the organizers, took an active part in the professions fair. The rector, Ihor Tsependa, gave a presentation on the university’s activities, in particular, on cooperation with the UTC. He also signed several cooperation agreements between the university and the UTC of the region.
«Precarpathian National University is working towards the implementation of the concept inherent in European universities – to be engaged not only in education and teaching but also to help develop the regions we live in. Therefore, we have worked together with local communities to provide the latter with highly professional human resources from among our graduates. The next step is to create grant groups between UTC and the university in order to show people, with the help of successful projects, how the European Union funds can be used profitably for the development of our human settlements» said the rector.
«In a decentralized environment, when new jobs are created in communities, it is very important to attract young, creative people with a new vision of territorial development in order to work effectively to change the country» – said Yuriy Stefanchuk, the executive director of the Ivano-Frankivsk regional branch of the Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC), at the opening of the event. Acording to him, UTC is ready to cooperate with educational institutions that train relevant specialists.
In order to get information on staffing needs, develop practical recommendations aimed at harmonizing the professional needs of the communities of Prykarpattia and educational offers of regional educational institutions, the AUC regional branch together with two centers of Precarpathian National University – the Center for Sociological Research of the Prykarpattia region and the project-educational Center «Agents of Changes» in cooperation with the NGO «Sociocenter» conducted a survey. It comprised the leaders and employees of 14 UTCs of the region. Thus, more than half of the respondents (51.9%) said that they faced the need to solve problems for which there was a lack of human resources.
«It is important for us to understand which specialties and areas of training regional educational institutions should focus on first» – said Olga Maksymovych, the director of the Center for Sociological Research of the Precarpathian region of the Precarpathian National University. Mostly, it is a question of land-legal character, project management, analysts in the field of financial income, industry management.
The problem of working professions is relevant for all types of communities. Among the fields of knowledge, the communities are most interested in engineering students (0.9 points in the scale from 0 to 1); communities are also interested in cooperation in practical training with physicians (0.6), lawyers (0.5), specialists in the field of international relations (0.5) and a number of other specialties.
Agreements on cooperation between universities and UTC of the region were concluded during the event. The rector of Precarpathian National University, Igor Tsependa, signed documents with the leaders of Vytvytska village UTC of Dolyna district, Pechenizhyn village UTC of Kolomyia district, Delyatyn village UTC of Nadvirna district, Yamnytsia village UTC of Tysmenytsia district, Tlumach town UTC of Tlumach district.
«The signed bilateral agreements provide the assistance for the UTCs by the University in the development of projects and strategies for community development, legal advice, professional translation, IT services, creation of communication systems, development of methodological support for the New Ukrainian School» – said Svitlana Kropelnytska, the Director of the Project-Educational Center «Agents of Changes» of Precarpathian National University. She also announced about a project competition in various fields for students and graduate students «Today’s creative idea – tomorrow’s reality». Based on its results, the winners will be selected and appropriate offers will be prepared to local governments regarding the implementation of projects.