OREANDA-NEWS  On 06 March was announced, that Donetsk regional press centre Vostok-Media hosted the first meeting of the Discussion Club initiated by SCM. The meeting was titled "Ensuring a dialog between the labour market and education sector in Ukraine".

The delegates presented the best case studies of interaction between universities and employers of Donetsk, Kharkov and Lugansk oblasts, which help students get the knowledge and skills demanded by the real economy sector as soon as on the education stage. Also, the meeting discussed new initiatives of employers and universities in this area, the international practices and specific actions, which can and must be made by the education system and Ukrainian universities to provide their graduates with the education actually demanded by the economy.

"Being one of the biggest employers in the country, SCM has a direct interest in the training of highly-skilled employees. For this reason we have developed and realize the program "SCM to Higher Education Institutions". The first step in margins of the program was the launch of Compass national university ranking highly appreciated by employers, universities and education experts", said Natalya Krivulina, Discussion Club project coordinator and project manager at SCM. “The objective of the Discussion Club is to ensure an effective dialog between the labour market and the system of higher education in Ukraine and set up an effective platform for Ukrainian universities and employers to be able to hear each other and start working together".

The meeting of the Discussion Club of Ukraine's eastern region (Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov oblasts) was attended by 90 representatives of the education sector, local government, employers, experts and media.

In particular, the meeting was attended by officials of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine and local government. International experts have shared information about international cooperation practices and made recommendations on adopting the global expertise in Ukraine.

Universities (Donetsk National Technical University, Kharkov Polytechnic Institute and Priazovskiy State Technical University) and employers (DTEK, MTS and KNAUF) spoke about their examples of cooperation between higher education system and the real economy sector.

"In our view, cooperation of employers and universities is one of the most effective tools to improve the value of the students graduating from Ukrainian universities for their future employers. Every presented example is based on the mutual commitment of a university and employer to providing students with the knowledge, which would help them find a good job and realize their potential in full. Only six projects were presented at the meeting, while we had received over 20 of such case studies during preparation for the meeting. Each example will be published in the e-collection, which we will definitely publish on the e-page of the Project", said Natalya Krivulina.

Another three regional discussion clubs have been scheduled for 2009 – in the southern (Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozh’ye, Nikolayev, Odessa oblasts and the Crimea), central (Kiev, Vinnitsa, Zhitomir, Kirovograd, Poltava, Sumy, Cherkassy and Chernigov oblasts, as well as Kiev city) and western region (Volyn, Zakarpatye, Ivano-Frankovsk, Lvov, Rovno, Ternopol, Khmelnitskiy and Chernovtsy oblasts).

"The future of the Ukrainian economy and the future of our country depend, to large extent, on the quality of education and, firstly, higher education", said Natalya Yemchenko, Director of Public Relations and Communications at SCM. "Ukrainian youth have all the qualities required to achieve success: the talent, ability to work and commitment. We, as employers, and universities must do our utmost for the today's students to get a chance to realize their professional and creative potential here, in Ukraine".