Second partnership meeting of the project Promoting Excellence in Skills for the Labor Market through the Institutionalization of Professional Practice in Maritime Education - PANDORA was held in Rijeka last Friday, March 19th 2021. For epidemiological reasons, the meeting was held online through the MS Teams platform, and was attended by all partners.
The meeting was opened by the project leader Assoc. dr. sc. Ana Perić Hadžić who briefly commented on the work on the project so far. The task of the first part of the meeting was to present to the partners achieved goals and activities since the beginning of the project, to present the future course and plan of project activities and to acquaint them with the most common mistakes that occurred when collecting project documentation.
Leader of the Project Element 1. Improvement of existing models of professional practice implementation for existing undergraduate and graduate studies of the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka doc. dr. sc. Livia Maglić explaned more about the activities so far achieved, such as the Report on the current state of implementation of professional practice (Status quo), which has carefully analyzed the professional practice at the Faculty of Maritime Studies and provided ways to improve it and to develop guidelines for improving the implementation of SP based on workshops with students and analysis of a survey for employers aimed at collecting opinions of employers on the current implementation of professional practice, students coming to professional practice and competencies necessary to perform professional practice in order to improve the SP at the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka. In addition, she presented the methodology developed so far for the evaluation of various forms of SP and then emphasized that the engagement of partners is expected when it comes to research projects and writing graduate and final theses in cooperation with partners from the economy. The floor was then taken by doc. dr. sc. Dario Ogrizović briefly presented the activity Development of software for simulating the ship's engine room and its devices and explained that the 1st phase of development was launched: Creating a virtual ship walk (VR ship engine simulator) and showed the audience a short video of what it should look like.
Within the Project Element 2. Implementation of professional practice in the existing undergraduate and graduate studies, the leader Assoc. dr. sc. Irena Jurdana said that greater involvement of partners is expected, taking into account that some activities are more difficult to maintain due to epidemiological reasons and it will simply not be possible to carry them out without their help. She informed the audience about the establishment of the Center for Career Development of the Faculty of Maritime Studies in Rijeka. In addition, she invited the partners to get involved in the Career Week of the Faculty of Maritime Studies, which will be held online, as in previous years. She pointed out that 5 Alumni Days have been held so far and asked the partners to get involved in future Alumni Days. Furthermore, the project leader Assoc. dr. sc. Ana Perić Hadžić drew the attention of the audience to the difficulty of conducting practicums and field classes. She asked the partners to think and share their ideas so that these activities could be realized regardless of the current bad epidemiological situation. Prof. dr. sc. Irena Jurdana and her partners agreed on a date for a student mentoring workshop.
Valentina Šutalo, M.Sc. ing. logist. presented a project leaflet and poster to the partners. The last presentation was given by the project administrator Matej Plenča, mag. ing. logist. who shared more details about the finances of the project.
The holder of the PANDORA project is the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies, and the project partners are: Jadranska Vrata d.d., Viktor Lenac Shipyard d.d., Maersk Croatia d.o.o., Inelteh d.o.o., A-Z Marine d.o.o., Express d.o.o. and Liburnia Maritime Agency d.o.o. companies from the maritime economy which with their operational and professional capacities are crucial for the implementation of this project.
