Internship Certificate Award Ceremony
Prishtina. Within the framework of the “Cross-Sector Internship Program”, USAID and WUS Austria organized a Certification Award Ceremony on November 2nd 2010for students who successfully completed the internships.
Present at the Ceremony were: The Minister of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Kosova, Prof. Dr. Enver Hoxhaj, Ms. Azza El Abd, Deputy Director of USAID, Rector of the University of Prishtina, Prof. Dr. Mujë Rugova, Director of the Higher Education Department at the MESTK, Prof. Dr. Avdulla Alija, Deans of the benefiting faculties and representatives of the public and private institutions/companies that participated in the project.
Prof. Dr. Enver Hoxhaj, Minister of Education, Science and Technology, emphasized the important relation between knowledge and economy in Kosovar society, “Living in a so called knowledge-based society and economy, the demand for highly skilled workers increased tremendously. The responsibility of the universities to prepare the respective profiles of future workers increased in the same way. This stage of economic and social life makes new approaches and strategies by the universities necessary. As it is forseen in the Lisbon Strategy and Bologna Process the entrepreneurial spirit should be much more integrated into university life” said Hoxhaj.
“USAID considers the professional development of manpower as the main strategy in improving the competitive position of companies and sectors in Kosovo” said Ms. Azza El Abd, Deputy Director of USAID in Kosovo. According to her, the entire economy of Kosovo is moving towards the 21st century; therefore perfect competition in the market requires the development of skills of current and future employees.
Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Mujë Rugova, Rector of the UP, highlighted the importance of internships for the students: “The University of Prishtina, as a public institution which has the largest number of faculties and students in Kosova, remains consistently committed to offer to their students quality study programs according to western standards and to enable their students to put tinto practice heir knowledge gained through studies with competence and professionalism. This is an objective and challenge for the UP, and at the same time, a difficult task which lays ahead of us, our students and society in order to become competitive with western universities and to be in line with the Bologna Process and the latest developments in Higher Education”, he said.
Mr. But Dedaj, Regional Manager of the WUS Austria Prishtina Office, mentioned the importance of institutionalized internships and the benefits that students and the companies/institutions gain through them. “The internship projects can be used as a valuable source of information for the universities. It amkes it possible for us to find out to which extend the curricula fit the needs of the institutions and companies. Additionally to offering the opportunity to get some work experience for entering into labor market to students, gaining information was one of our main objectives to be achieved through the Cross Sector Internship Project, as well as offering to institutions/companies the possibility to hire their future employers and managers”.
Besё Morina, one of the students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, who completed the internship at Municipality of Prishtina, described her impressions about the internship project: “It was a great experience for us interns to experience real professional work, after having acquired basic knowledge at our faculties - Law, Economics, Civil Engineering and Architecture. Besides this, the training seminars held within this project by WUS Austria, were so stimulating and helped us to identify the necessary steps to follow in order to be more successful in our future career”.
Within the framework of the Internship Program, a seminar on institutionalization of internships at the faculties of the UP was held. In order to implement the concept, recommendations derived from this seminar will be distributed to all important stakeholders with the aim of institutionalizing internships at two faculties of the UP – the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economy.
The “Cross Sector Internship Program” represents the continuation of a very successful implemented project: “The Pilot Business and Economics Internship Program”. The Project is financed by the USAID – Kosovo Private Enterprise Program and implemented by WUS Austria.
News Archive
