Despite sprouting higher schools, one can hear more and more voices prophesying an imminent lack of well-educated engineers in the years to come. We are talking about this issue and the cooperation between the science and industry to Jan Kurp, Chairman of PKE SA Management Board, and winner of the Golden Engineer Title.

The last dozen or so years have witnessed the young people turning their backs on the technical studies. Do you think this trend, both on the state and company level there will come a day when we will lack highly-qualified engineering and technical personnel?

It is difficult to say, but it is clear that the number of engineers, especially power engineers, who are looking for jobs, is significantly smaller than marketing or management graduates. It has been so for the last decade and even longer. Presently, a young engineer will find a job much sooner than a young person upon graduation from a different type of studies.

Nonetheless, it should be emphasized that we still have vocational schools. The schools in Jaworzno and Łaziska are perfect yet not the only examples of such. They are our schools supported by and under the auspices of PKE SA. They are the birthplace of our future personnel at various stepping stones of the professional career. Recently it has become popular among the companies to take up the ini9tiative and set up classes in schools or support the classes so as to educate future professionals. We have never ceased this kind of approach and assistance. Therefore, we are in touch with students from the vocational schools located on sites of our largest power plants and once they have graduated from such schools or from higher schools many of them apply to work for our company.

Thanks to such a policy I do not see threats facing PKE SA as far as future engineering and technical personnel is concerned. One can say out staff is getting older. It is true but we continue employing more and more young professionals.

You frequently visit Polish technical universities giving lectures and presentations. Are you of the opinion that the cooperation between universities and industry could be even stronger? Do you see possibilities of extending such cooperation which would be beneficial for both parties?

Recently, the cooperation between companies like PKE and the scientists has been deepening and improving. Scientists and lecturers more frequently express their need for participation at the lectures given by executive managers from various industry branches. I personally attend such meetings more and more often. Last time I visited AGH and I must say it was one of my most fruitful lectures. With the presence of the high-rank academic lecturers of this excellent school I had a chance to meet the students. We had extraordinarily interesting discussions not only from the scientific perspective but also from the point of view of the company operations in practice as well as the entire power industry.

Mister Chairman, you were awarded the title of the Golden Engineer, the award of the oldest Polish technical magazine – Przegląd Techniczny. This distinction is given to people of great attainment and significant engineering achievements. What advice would you give to the young people at the onset of their professional carrier as well as those facing the future professional education and career choice?

Young engineers who graduated from their universities I would advise to commence the work from the basis. This is exactly the rule we implemented in PKE SA and have successfully followed this rule for many years. In our company each young engineer starts from the beginning that is from the production. He or she should know how to apply in practice what was taught to him/her in theory. For the period of minimum 2 years such a person gets to know the plant thoroughly. This is my own philosophy I wish to leave behind for all young engineers – start with the production. Once you know the basics, managing particular parts of the company, even the company of PKE SA size and complexity, becomes much easier.

Competent linking of theory and practice is of utter importance.

I would also advise to use the ladder approach both in professional and private life – step by step in order to achieve goals. Such a method give firm and strong foundations one can always fall back on. Nowadays more and more people try to get as high as possible as quickly as possible. But this way, one has nothing firm to stand on.

Those wishing to study and are still trying to choose the best major I would advise to listen to themselves and not to follow current trends. Today’s youth at the age of making such life decisions is very different from my generation. Young people have access to the Internet and many other information sources. This awareness is beneficial as it gives them a choice between numerous fields and majors. One should choose the field which at a given moment guarantees financial stability as money is not everything. One cannot buy job satisfaction. As one of my friends used to say: the product of job satisfaction and remuneration is always constant. It is optimum when our work becomes our passion.

Thank you for the interview.
Patrycja Hamera