General Assembly decided about acceptance of SWA between members of the TIP. It happened on Mar. 12, 2012 in headquarters of the TIP. The vast majority of General Assembly voted for the adoption of the company.
Representatives of Technological Initiative Pilsen, z.s.p.o. (the interest association of corporate entities, hereinafter TIP) met with Milan Chovanec, Governor of the Pilsen region, in the U Matasů restaurant in Pilsen, on 6 March 2013 at 18:00.
The TIP association was represented by representatives of EvoBus Bohemia, GRAMMER CZ, ZF Engineering, SWA, MBtech Bohemia and Blue Projects Agency. The meeting was also attended by representatives of AB Facility, AK Görges & Partners and the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (hereinafter ZČU).
The critical problem encountered by most TIP members, i.e. shortage of technically qualified workers in the industry, was presented on behalf of TIP by its Chairman, Mr. Johannes Heidecker.
Governor Milan Chovanec welcomed the TIP´s initiative and informed its members that he was aware of the mentioned problem in its full scope. Leaders of the Pilsen region had already made some steps that should help to improve the situation. They include, among other things, starting of an endowment fund to finance activities aimed at increasing the interest in technical studies among students in the Pilsen region and to promote this topic that is so crucial for the region.
Josef Basl, Vice Rector of ZČU, stated that the university was well aware of the situation and on this occasion he requested the industrial companies for direct and indirect support to schools in their efforts to increase the number of students of technical specializations. Governor Chovanec also proposed that representatives of TIP should be involved in Tripartite consultations of the Pilsen region and he invited members of the industrial enterprises to attend missions promoting regional industrial businesses abroad.
Participants of the meetings agreed to continue the mutual cooperation, to consult and to coordinate their further steps in this matter.
Representatives of Technological Initiative Pilsen (TIP) met with representatives of TEO – Association for Development of Technical Specialist Education and Human Resources in Tachov District (TEO) at the headquarters of GRAMMER CZ, s.r.o., in Tachov on 5 February 2013.
Members of TIP include EvoBus Bohemia s.r.o., GRAMMER CZ, s.r.o. ZF Engineering Plzeň s.r.o., JITONA a.s., MECAS ESI s.r.o., GOLDRATT CZ, s.r.o. and Blue Projects Agency s.r.o. Associated partners of TIP include SWA, s.r.o., MBtech Bohemia s.r.o., Driessen Aerospace CZ, s.r.o., IHK Regensburg and Česko-německá obchodní a průmyslová komora. Members of TEO include companies and institutions from and around the town of Tachov, such as BHS CORRUGATED Fertigungs, Montage, Service s. r. o, Formy Tachov s.r.o, ROTAREX PRAHA spol. s.r.o., GRAMMER CZ s.r.o., závod Tachov, INOTECH ČR spol. s.r.o., Kermi s.r.o., Technické pružiny SCHERDEL s.r.o., KETNET s.r.o., IDEAL AUTOMOTIVE Bor s.r.o., FRANZ EDER Tachov a.s. and Střední průmyslová škola, Tachov, Světce 1.
The representatives of both the associations discussed the long-term dismal situation in the CzechRepublic, which constantly suffers from a shortage of skilled workforce with technical education. There is a shortage of technically educated graduates of both secondary and tertiary schools. Another topic was the retention of pupils and students in companies that have motivated them to study technical specialisations (e.g., by providing grants and practical training, cooperation on diploma theses, etc.).
The members and partners of both the associations shared their practical experiences with the issues and agreed that the attempts to resolve the problem so far have had little effect from the long-term perspective. The meeting participants agreed on joint and coordinated action. The first joint step will be to set up a taskforce for coordinating the companies’ actions. The aim of the taskforce is to define a project that will actively promote the issue of shortage of technically trained and educated workers in the Czech industrial sector, establish contact with other partners with similar interests, establish a platform for support to educational institutions, and channel communication about the issue with government bodies.
The project motto should be increasing the attractiveness of technical study specialisations among children, young people and their parents. The first meeting of the taskforce is expected to take place by the end of February 2013. The managements of companies involved in the project are ready to inform the public about their experience with the shortage of technically educated workers. For the support to the information campaign, TIP has received the right to use the “Mechanical Memory Key” photograph from Rob Smith of the United Kingdom for non-commercial use.
The industrial companies in both the associations hereby send the following message to the public: We offer enough jobs, but only for technical specialisations! Study technical specialisations!
On behalf of TIP, Pavel Duchek
Important links:
http://www.sps-tachov.cz/home/t.html
The purchase of gas for 2013 was jointly realised by GRAMMER CZ and SWA. The managements of both companies evaluate the project as very successful. “The project contributed to decreasing the costs of gas purchasing and it also shows another interesting direction in cooperation of companies under the Technological Initiative Pilsen consortium“, said the executive director of Grammer CZ, Mgr. Martin Kořínek, PhD.
On 6th December 2012, Pavel Duchek, the General Secretary of TIP, met Pia Areblad, the Strategic Alliances Manager of TILLT, and Monika Bechná, the Manager for Programme Projects from EHMK 2015, in the premises of the Blue Projects Agency in Pilsen.
The goal of the negotiations was to present both organisations and find shared issues for potential cooperation. TILLT deals with connecting state and private organisations with the community of artists with the aim to develop common Projects where TILLT plays the role of the process leader. The negotiations finally led to an agreement among the participants to provide information materials, presentations and good practices to Tip members and invitation of representatives of EHMK and TILLT to some of the future meetings of TIP members.
Important links:
Video clips about the project:
On 4th December 2012, the Ministry of Culture, the Municipal Authority of Pilsen and the Institute of Art and Design of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen held the Knowledge Creativity Industry & Their Common Future in the Czech Republic seminar. The venue for the seminar was the newly open building of the Institute of Art and Design in Pilsen.
The seminar focused on cooperation of industrial enterprises with creative and art-oriented individuals and institutions, drawing attention to the necessity of making use of design knowledge and skills as the most important comparative advantage of the contemporary Europeas well as the Czech Republicin the context of global competition. The issues related to the knowledge and creative economy have been recently coming to the fore also because Pilsen was awarded the title of the European Capital of Culture 2015.
Some companies (for example MBtech Bohemia and EvoBus Bohemia), which are members of the TIP consortium, plan to establish closer cooperation with selected representatives of the community of artists. The goal of this cooperation would be to develop common projects, that have not been prespecified yet, and to present their outcomes also under the Pilsen 2015 project. TIP’s representatives attending the seminar on behalf of the consortium were Pavel Novák from MBtech Bohemia, Pavel Duchek and Pavel Peták from Blue Projects Agency.
Important links from the conference:
A conversation between the Director of Pilsen 2015, Tomáš Froyda, and the General Secretary of TIP, Pavel Duchek, took place on Oct. 31, 2012. Mr. Duchek informed EHMK management about the association’s intention to participate in Pilsen 2015. Mr. Froyda welcomed this initiative and promised further cooperation.
General Assembly decided about acceptance of JITONA between members of the TIP. It happened on Oct. 25, 2012 in headquarters of the TIP. The vast majority of General Assembly voted for the adoption of the company.
The meeting took place on Oct. 24, 2012 at 11:30am in Pilsen and was organized by Mr. Robert Ingenbleek (CEO of ZF Engineering Plzeň).
After the initial introduction and a business lunch, Mr. Ingenbleek introduced his company. The meeting then continued with a factory tour, after which Mr. Martin Kovář (CEO of JITONA) introduced himself to the other participants. JITONA is seeking membership in TIP; the general assembly will make a decision regarding its acceptance. The program continued with a brief presentation of JITONA. The penultimate item on the agenda was to inform the participants about the status of individual projects of the association, as well as the project plan for the following year. The General Secretary, Mr. Pavel Duchek, was responsible for this agenda item.
The meeting ended with a discussion about the lack of skilled labor in the mechanical fields. Members and associated partners of TIP decided to launch a project promoting the attractiveness of the mechanical fields in the Pilsen region.
An informal meeting between the General Secretary of Technology Initiative Pilsen, Mr. Pavel Duchek, and the Director of Útvar koordinace evropských projektů města Plzně (hereinafter ÚKEP), Mr. Erich Beneš, took place on Oct. 23, 2012 in Pilsen. Mr. Duchek expressed the interest of some members in participating in the preparation of EHMK through cooperation with appropriate artists, designers and university workplaces which are focused on creative design and art. Some members of TIP offered their manufacturing and development capabilities for the joint creation of the project – a work of art that would present the connection between industrial companies, the artistic community of the university environment, and the city, in an appropriate form.
Mr. Beneš welcomed this initiative and suggested initiating negotiations with Tomáš Froyda, Director of Pilsen 2015, and then suggested involving representatives of TIP in the platform – Knowledge, creativity and industry, and their common future in the Czech Republic. The initial workshop of this platform will be held in early December in Pilsen under the auspices of the Mayor of the City of Pilsen and the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic. This event will be organized by ÚKEP. TIP will receive an invitation.
