Education & Skills

People in Need is helping to enhance the quality of Mongolian university education in the area of livestock breeding and its relationship to farming freely roaming animals, which has so far been a fairly marginalized topic in the Mongolian expert community. Two prominent Mongolian institutions, the Mongolian Academy of Science (MAS) and Mongolian University of Agriculture (MULS) in cooperation with Czech Agricultural University (ČZU) are engaged in the project. One of the main events is a summer school in Mongolia which is attended every year between 40 to 50 students and educators. The main focus of these summer schools and related activities is primarily to understand the interaction between enclosed pasture and the management of freely grazing wildlife. The participants aspire to close interconnection of the two approaches which so far have been studied only separately.

The project contributes to strengthening the quality of Mongolian Higher Education in the construction sector through cooperation and transfer of know-how between Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT) and Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) through the facilitation of PIN.
The project goal will be achieved through the implementation of outputs which focus on quality improvement of vocational subjects teaching through direct teaching by Czech teachers, improvement of material equipment of School of Civil Engineering and Architecture (SCEA), enhancement of the quality of teaching, and support of joint research projects between the two universities. The project will also improve the model of quality of teaching of selected technical subjects through direct participation of university teachers from Czech Technical University (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Faculty of Architecture) on education activities in Mongolia, consultation and supervision of seminar, bachelor' and master's thesis and provision of the necessary material equipment to SCEA.

The agricultural and processing industry vocational education programme was started as a reaction to the high unemployment rate in northern Mongolia which was the result of insufficient coordination of vocational programmes offered with the demand on the local labour market. For instance, schools do not offer enough courses that are directly applicable in the region (for example woodworking and forestry) and they also have only dated equipment which reduces the degree to which acquired skills are applicable in professional practice (for example, the agricultural mechanization course uses machinery dozens of years old is taught). New vocational departments spring up that try to react to the local conditions but they lack the necessary quality. 
        
To improve the situation, People in Need supported vocational and secondary schools and provided financial and expert support directed at modernization and creation of new study departments.  These cover mainly education of forestry and woodworking, crop and animal production, agriculture mechanic and the cooking/baking trade. The objective was to change the system of education in a way it would reflect the demand of the labour market and the development as yet unused potential of the region. 
                                                                                                              
In 2012 PIN helped to establish a new forestry department in Sukhbaataru and a department of agricultural mechanization at the vocational school Zuunkharaa in Selenge Aimag . Studies at new school departments were launched for the school year 2013 to 2014, with the first students taking their places behind their desks on 1st September 2013.