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.
