Liberec is the capital of a Czech region of the same name (Liberecký kraj), a small mountainous area bordering Germany and Poland which has a long tradition in the textile and machinery industries.
The Technical University of Liberec (TUL), renowned for its recent scientific achievements in the fields of nanotechnology (nanofibres) and automated voice-to-text technologies, has in recent years expressed alarm at the stagnating number of students interested in technical sciences.
To reverse this trend, the university decided to launch various initiatives such as open days, competitions and lectures at secondary schools aimed at raising interest among children.
Last year, the TUL went a step further. With the help of money from the EU's Operational Progamme 'Education for Competitiveness', it launched a project called 'Starttech – Let's start with technology', which widened the scope of previous university activities to include pupils at elementary schools and their teachers.
The programme is run in conjunction with the Liberec Research Library and the Secondary Technical School in Liberec.
Starting from childhood
In undertaking this project, the TUL decided to follow expert recommendations claiming that future career considerations are formed in early childhood, explained Miloš Hernych, coordinator of the project and a member of the university's Faculty of Mechatronics, Informatics and Interdisciplinary Studies.
"We are seeking appealing ways to attract the youngest children to choose technical sciences in the future," he said, explaining that the project gives children the opportunity to programme the industrial regulator, operate a computer-controlled railway model or play with robotic kits such as Lego Mindstorms or Bioloid.
The project aims to go one step further, encouraging teachers and people leading out-of-school study groups and playgroups to play an important role in influencing children's future choices.
As an illustration of a typical adult-oriented activity, Hernych pointed to a workshop called 'Entertaining Physics'. Held at the beginning of April 2010, it inspired participants through physical experiments that can later be used in classes or study groups.
Technical education also supported by the region
The project is not the only initiative that aims to support technical education in the area. Raising interest in technical fields is also the goal of various other projects managed by the Liberec Region. However, while Starttech is mainly focused on raising the number of technically-oriented future university applicants, a Liberec Region-led project called 'TECHyes' hopes to raise the profile of technical education in secondary schools.
TECHyes is a wider campaign that provides a web portal and offers scholarship programmes for secondary-school students, which are managed by the regional authority.
The region cooperates on the project with business and industry representatives, such as the Chamber of Commerce and the local Association of Building Entrepreneurs. With their expertise, it seeks to promote education in industries that currently lack qualified graduates.
According to Stanislav Eichler, president of the Liberec Region, the region wants to prevent a situation whereby the lack of graduates "hinders the region's long term competitiveness, or even becomes a crucial obstacle in the delivery of elementary public services".
Liberec University, by law a not-for-profit organisation that is administratively independent from the regional authority, thus has something to work on.
More activities by partnership
Although the university plays the most important role in the project, its spectrum of activities would have been much narrower without the cooperation of secondary technical schools. "We would not have been able to organise some of the activities on university premises," said Hernych, explaining why some of the events take place elsewhere. "We are using their forge, their joinery workshop and their CNC machine tools," he said.
During so-called 'Technology Weekends', children can produce their own items, such as wooden Christmas decorations, bird tables or simple electrical circuits.
Project managers also use the secondary school's capacity to design, create and repair tools that can help motivate children to pursue technical careers in the future.
In some cases, like an afternoon of physical and chemical experiments, mathematical quizzes and brain teasers that took place last December, the university cooperates with the Liberec Research Library, which offers its premises and helps to promote the whole project.
Children are interested
Asked how many children are attracted by the project, Hernych claimed that registration for many events is "absolutely packed as soon as it's announced".
"I am talking mostly about robotics and chemistry, but also about electronics, and - quite surprisingly - machinery," he said, adding that another big success was the 'Winter Technology Weekends', which children "from places more than 100 kilometres away from Liberec" attended.
Many children were also interested in welding courses, hand forging, or programming single-chip processors that were provided by the partner secondary school.
'Crushed' by too much paperwork
So far, so good. But on the minus side, like many similar EU-funded projects, Miloš Hernych repeats common complaints about red tape. "We are crushed by formal requirements, extreme loads of paperwork and cumbersome administrative procedures," he explained.
Furthermore, public tender rules seem too restrictive to him. He believes that due to the university's size, "the project has to follow stricter rules" than would otherwise be required.
Such overly strict rules deter suppliers who could otherwise offer their goods or services at a cheaper price but fail to fulfil all the formal requirements of the selection procedure, he said.
"We are hobbled by this when trying to solve our immediate needs. You cannot plan ahead for everything," he argued.
However, despite these difficulties, Hernych praised the cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, which is responsible for the OP VK. "Ministry officials are truly doing their best to help us," he said.
As Czechs become more familiar with the rules that govern the use of EU regional money (the Czech Republic has been eligible for regional funding since 2004), local managing authorities claim that the volume of errors in both project applications and project implementation is falling and the number and quality of projects is rising. The OP VK is no exception in this regard.
The "number of errors among applicants is decreasing," said Jan Vitula, managing director of the Ministry of Education's EU Operational Programmes section.
Besides this, the ministry claims it seeks to prevent and minimise project-related errors. "We organise seminars and offer personal or phone consultations with representatives of the managing authority," Vitula said, a fact confirmed by the Starttech project coordinator.
'Soft projects' and their (lack of) effectiveness
It is "beyond doubt" that the EU's regional funding is helping the Czech Republic to face the challenges in the field of education, ministry officials say.
"European money is a supplement to national funding that our country would absolutely not be able to set aside in the current situation. Seen from this perspective, the benefits of EU funding are unquestionable," one official told EurActiv.cz.
The role of regional funding is also going to be important in the future, Vitula believes, arguing that the European Commission "sees education as the key".
However, not all players share this positive view. Liberec Region President Stanislav Eichler is full of praise for EU investment in the development of transport infrastructure, urban and rural areas, the entrepreneurial environment and tourism.
The above are investments in infrastructure and in these cases, the effect of European money is literally tangible. But how does the president view projects that, like Starttech, are more geared towards investment in human resources?
In this regard, Eichler is rather sceptical. "Concerning so-called 'soft projects', I am not sure that all the money is spent effectively," he explained, arguing that the results of such projects are often difficult to assess. On the other hand, he did concede that "in the current economic crisis, boosting competitiveness and education, through for example retraining, is necessary".
Criticism of 'soft projects' supported by EU regional funds is quite common in the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, Jan Vitula believes that in the case of OP VK, his officials have been able to eliminate low-quality projects. "We seek to minimise ineffective support by a two-step evaluation process," the managing director said.
In this process, projects are assessed by education specialists and in the later stage by experts on economic viability.
To read the article in Czech, please click here.
