1  Enhancing Cooperation between Industry and Academia Conference on the Competitiveness of the European Chemical Industry February 10, 2011 Brussels, BE Pavel Drašar

It is my wish that this country was the most educated in the world, therefore I hereby direct that all my subjects were awarded a doctorate. Visionary cartoon from newspaper around

3 There should be given two principal questions: a/ Is there a way how to improve the quality of university graduates and hence help the competitiveness of the chemical industry and their employability? b/ Are both the industry and the educational scheme ready to understand each other (needs) and collaborate?

4 ECTN is a network with over 150 members from >30 countries; apart from universities these include 11 national chemical societies. „If it comes to the education in chemistry, ECTN touches it“. ECTN also formed a legal body, the Association under Belgian law, named ECTN-A. For the educational quality labelling „accreditation“ (in chemistry), ECTN-A has the “Label Committee”. The work is being done in a close collaboration with the EC2E2N working group on employability.

5 ECTN/ECTN-A in collaboration with IFOK Berlin published professional report on the bachelor employability, which highlights the good examples of educational programmes marked with „quality labels“. Also the study clearly underlines the idea of collaborative buildup of study programmes in synergy of HEI and industrial (business) partner.

Recent (chemistry sector) study on analysis of the job market needs involved almost 250 stakeholders from research institutes and industrial companies across the Europe. Concerning the question: what dominate in your recruitment requirements academic or professional competences, the answer was almost unanimously both. 6

Company representatives appeared not well informed about what to expect from an applicant holding a traditional and interface degree. 7

Lack of collaboration with HEI was observed 8

Desire for collaboration with HEI was observed 9

10 Everything started with mapping of the European chemistry education.

11 EuroBachelor ® In the world where the values of study of technical subjects are degenerated by mixing the original course content with those items, where the university anticipates more interest of the students [customers], EuroBachelor® is a way “back to the roots”, back to the profession, back to the quality. EuroLabels are important factor in HE QA

On Jan. 31, 2011 : 57 Eurobachelor ® and 26 Euromaster ® Chemistry Quality Labels have been awarded to 45 institutions and 4 consortia from 17 countries; including 2 Labels Renewals, and the first awards outside Europe (Morroco, Kazakhstan). 12

13 One way how to enhance the abilities of chemistry graduates is the improvement of their preparation in the secondary schools. ECTN is, thus, a partner in CITIES project, created for that purpose.

In „quality labels“ marked both the study programmes for graduates and individual professional profiles the industry has reasonable tool for distinguishing the quality on a first sight. Academic quality is not enough for the industrial employer, more influence from the employer is needed on the educational probrammes demanding concrete learning objectives (skills, competences, etc.). 14

Comments and suggestions wellcome at 16

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