Set off with the Champion - KGHM supports industry-specific education in the region

Nearly 120 KGHM employees and representatives of nine schools sponsored by the company took part in a special “Set off with the Champion” training course in Karpacz. The participants exchanged their experiences on practical vocational training, attended lectures by recognized specialists, and improved their competencies. This was the third edition of the workshop.

The event was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science, and Vice-Minister Marzena Machałek was a special guest. The program is also supported by the Polish Copper Employers’ Association (PCEA). Visitors in Karpacz included Piotr Karwan, the Vice-Chairman of the Board of the PCEA.

For nearly five years, KGHM has been conducting the “Competent in the Industry” program in the Copper Belt. The program is intended primarily for students learning to work in professions that are important from the company’s point of view. The objective of the project is to raise the quality of education, so in addition to subsidizing schools, equipping classrooms, and conducting workshops, it allows students to compete in a scholarship program and take part in various events and trips.

An important element of the program is visits to KGHM’s divisions and classes with practical vocational training instructors. It was mainly for them that the “Set off with the Champion” training course was organized for the third time.

Besides the instructors, the discussions and workshops were also attended by division apprenticeship coordinators, directors of the schools sponsored by the company, and teachers of practical vocational training, who familiarize students in their schools on a daily basis with the practical aspects of the trade, often using equipment and teaching aids just purchased by KGHM.

“Events such as those that KGHM organizes for its instructors and representatives of the Sponsored Schools are extremely important because they support the development of industry-specific education. That is why I am happy to be here again, and to return to familiar places and faces, because I was here during previous editions,” said Marzena Machałek, the Vice-Minister of Education and Science, during the meeting in Karpacz. She added that “vocational training is currently attracting a lot of interest. Industry Skill Centers will also be established in the near future, including one in Lubin, which will provide even stronger support for projects such as ‘Competent in the Industry.’ Therefore, I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed for the program’s next champions and graduates, who will become KGHM’s asset in the future.”

The outcomes of the two previous workshops included the development of joint apprenticeship programs by KGHM divisions and the concept of an online apprenticeship log intended to digitize the workflow in group apprenticeships, making it easier for instructors to work and for students to learn.

“We are aware of the fact that instructors are a very important group in our organization. We currently have more than a hundred such people with the appropriate educational credentials,” says Marek Makuch, the Managing Director for HR at KGHM. “They are the ones who meet the students first, and it is their enthusiasm and attitude that largely determines how the students will remember KGHM and whether they will want to come back. This is why we need to take proper care of them and listen to their needs,” adds Marek Makuch.

The “Competent in the Industry” program is currently conducted for 9 schools from the Copper Belt, providing education in sponsored classes to more than 2,000 students in the 2023/2024 school year. They are the ones who can count being the first to be selected for apprenticeships at KGHM divisions, where they have the opportunity to test the knowledge they have learned at school in a real work environment.