Archive of articles - October 2012, page 3

Dutch recipes: Old Amsterdam cheese salad

Ingredients and preparation.

Oldest mining academy celebrated

THE MINING Academy at Banská Štiavnica, the first university of mining and one of the oldest technical universities in the world, marked its 250th anniversary in mid October. The celebrations culminated on October 12 when representatives of universities and high schools from Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic, all considering themselves as successors of the Mining Academy’s tradition, gathered in Banská Štiavnica the SITA newswire reported.

Extremists getting more sophisticated

FAST and easy solutions, standing up for ‘all decent people’, fighting the ‘mismanaged and corrupt’ system: these are a few of the new slogans currently used by extremists to bring their views into the mainstream. Extremist groups and their opinions are not relegated to the margins of society, the police admit in a recent report, while human rights watchdogs warn of extremist views being adopted by mainstream politicians.

Firms actively join education process

COMPANIES in Slovakia realise that qualified and trained workers are significant assets for their businesses. And because the current interconnection of business and academia is not at the required level, they themselves are joining the process of education. Their activities rank from offering training and internships, sending their experts to lecture at schools, various competitions, to granting their products for educational purposes. The Slovak Spectator spoke to František Jakab, coordinator of the Cisco educational networking academy programme, Erika Burianová, HR director at oil refiner Slovnaft, Kamila Oborilová, the head of the department for education at carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroën Slovakia, Dušan Dvořák, of Kia Motors Slovakia and Zuzana Hošalová, public relations specialist at computer anti-virus firm ESET, about their activities in education.

Quote of the week

“The licence, worth €15 for the whole event, will certainly not bankrupt any school-leaving ball.”

Slovak heads OSCE mission

SLOVAK ambassador Ľubomír Kopaj has become the new head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in the republic of Montenegro, the SITA newswire reported on October 22.

Gabčíkovo water project turns 20

GABČÍKOVO hydro-electric power plant on the Danube River, a Slovak part of the Slovak-Hungarian Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros project, marks the 20th anniversary of its operation this October. To mark the occasion Bratislava hosted a two-day international conference about the project, the TASR newswire reported.

Goethe Uni attracts students

MORE than 60 students have shown an interest in studying at the private university Vysoká škola Goethe Uni Bratislava, whose launch the Slovak cabinet green-lighted in July this year. The school, whose primary language of instruction is German, and which seeks to combine education with practical application, opened its first academic year on October 15, the TASR newswire wrote.

Workers protest reported layoffs

DOZENS of employees gathered in front of Senica-based Delphi Slovensko to protest against reported plans to transfer its production to Romania. The producer of cable bundles has already announced it wants to dismiss about 540 people by next June, the SITA newswire reported.

'Principle of inclusion is needed'

IN SLOVAKIA too many children from marginalised communities are being wrongly classified and sent to special schools as a result. They later find they are unable to get out of this trap to return to the regular education system, and thus leave school very poorly prepared for life. These are the views of sociologist Oľga Gyárfášová, of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO), a think tank. She suggests that the “principle of inclusion and civic approach should infuse every statement of every state official and each public policy. But we are not handling this mental turn yet”.

EURES = EURopean Employment Services

EURES is a network foundedand coordinated by the European Commission, represented in countries of the EU/ EEA and Switzerland. The goal of its activities is to facilitate the mobility of labour force. Target groups are job seekers, employers, students and partners of the network. Services of the EURES network are free of charge.

STU boosts enrolment

FACULTIES of the Slovak University of Technology (STU) have managed to overcome a lack of interest by students in technical programmes. The number of students accepted for bachelor’s programmes increased by 6 percent on average, while the number of those who enrolled in bachelor’s programmes increased by 5 percent compared with the previous year, the Sme daily wrote in late September.

Professionals in education and language services

Countrywide Events

Western SLOVAKIA

Slovakia accused over licensing

THE SLOVAK media have reported an undercover investigation in Slovakia by Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper which reported that Slovakia’s poor monitoring mechanism allowed low-quality health aids to be imported via Slovakia into Europe.

Greeks study pharmacy in Slovakia

GREEKS make up the biggest foreign group of students at the Pharmaceutical Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava. Out of the total number of students enrolled in these programmes, 1,383, they make up about one quarter. The Greek students attend a five-year master’s degree pharmacy programme in English and pay for their studies, the TASR newswire reported.

Lonely Planet recommends Slovakia

TRAVEL-guide publishing firm Lonely Planet has included Slovakia among its top-ten list of countries worth visiting in 2013, according to an announcement on the company’s website published on Tuesday, October 23.

Managing the numbers

PROVIDING Slovakia with the number of university-educated people it needs is proving a challenging task. This is because of the high number of factors involved, including the amount of money that the state is willing or able to allocate to education, and the current and future needs of the labour market, and of society itself. Education Minister Dušan Čaplovič believes that some sort of regulation will help to produce the right number of graduates to satisfy the needs of the labour market and thus prevent large numbers emerging from universities with little or no prospect of finding jobs in their chosen fields of study. His opponents argue that instead of regulating student numbers, focusing on the quality of education being provided is more important.

A granary from old times

IN THIS picture by famous photographer Karel Plicka, we can see outbuildings from Púchovská dolina (the Púchov Valley). This postcard dates back to the 1920s, but the buildings depicted in it are much older; it is possible that they were constructed some time in the second half of the 19th century. For us, the taller building on the right is of interest: this is one of the so-called ‘houses with height’, which were houses with lowered attics that were probably used as granaries.