On 29 March 2024, representatives of Trakcja, the Vocational Education Centre in Siedlce (Centrum Kształcenia Zawodowego w Siedlcach, CKZ) and the City of Siedlce signed a letter of intent on cooperation in delivering a power engineering sector undertaking entitled: “Training Ground for Live-Line Work and Overhead Contact Line Construction”.
Talks on cooperation between Trakcja and CKZ in Siedlce began several months ago, and their culmination is the signed letter of intent, in which both parties declare that they will co-create the “Training Ground” at the Sectoral Skills Centre (Branżowe Centrum Umiejętności) for power engineers that is currently being established.
– We need workers who know how to build traction and power networks. Such workers are hard to find, so we decided to get involved in their education ourselves – says Bartłomiej Cygan, Member of the Management Board and Technical Director of Trakcja S.A.
– From the outset, we have been listening to the needs of business and trying to respond to them. I hope Trakcja S.A. will be our next partner, alongside Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology (Politechnika Bydgoska), the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers (Stowarzyszenie Elektryków Polskich, SEP) and the company Asaj. We invite further companies to cooperate – adds Małgorzata Szymaniuk-Kruk, Director of CKZ
The planned “Training Ground” is the first undertaking of this kind in Poland co-created by an educational institution and a company from the industry. An innovative feature of the training ground is that trainees will train in conditions almost identical to those they will encounter with their future employer. To acquire practical skills at height and under voltage, real poles will be erected and real power lines suspended.
Although the plans for the Sectoral Skills Centre under construction did not take such a training activity into account, because the idea only emerged during working meetings, the Vocational Education Centre in Siedlce, the Bydgoszcz university, SEP and the industry companies all unanimously declared financial, substantive and organisational support.
– Once this exceptional initiative is launched, all that will remain for us is to wait for new qualified workers in the power engineering and traction sector – adds Bartłomiej Cygan.
