Link Education And Practice

Guest-post by Vlad Posea

Five years ago, when we initiated Stagii pe Bune, we had no idea what non-formal education was. If we hadn’t met our colleagues from LEAP, maybe this concept would have been unclear to us even today.

At that time, we just felt the need to see what was going on in real life, beside all the things we were studying in college. In our field (IT&C) the so-called internship (as one of the non-formal education practices) was included in the curricula for quite some time and its importance was acknowledged by us all. The problem was that work-based education was starting to become a substitute of the formal education in school. Because of the misbalance between offer and request in the IT&C industry in Romania, a lot of students would have rather chosen a job – thinking they will learn enough while working.

We support the idea that the two systems of education have to harmoniously combine. A good student is a student who has taken full advantage of the non-formal education opportunities and who successfully completed a college degree. And by successful completion I mean accumulating the competences offered in school – not only obtaining a diploma. An internship offers the possibility to gain practical experience, to develop team-work skills, to accommodate with life on the labor market and, at the same time, it offers you the possibility to continue your full-time studies. Moreover, next summer you have the opportunity to go-see another company and become familiar with other new and interesting technologies, while also getting in touch with other useful contacts – expanding your network. College offers an overview of the field you are later going to work in, it offers an introduction to its basic branches and it develops your capacity to adapt to technological changes and to eventual shifts in your career path.

In the meantime, in IT&C, things have started to fall into place. The ratio between offer and request has become more balanced and the competition for obtaining a better job (well paid, with development and improvement perspectives) is harsher and harsher. Those winning the race, those with the best perspectives for a successful career – will be the ones with a complete set of knowledge – accumulated both through formal and non-formal education.

Guest posted by Irina Pascu
Irina found LEAP on the internet. She is currently studying in Ireland, but she keeps her eyes on Romania. She sent us a message and she convinced us. This is our message; this is her story:

No matter how good you are with what you study, no matter how many awards you will get or you already have…one thing is clear, or it is clear to me, now after a couple of years spent studying, thing that I love most (but well, one has its passions: P): the school does not succeed in teaching us everything…we still need something, that something that places us one step front. We all need the so called “soft skills”, as Simona mentioned in the interview for hotnews.ro

Until I arrived to Ireland, I thought  I have the complete information regarding the non-formal education…but I was surprised to find out, that even if I understood what the word “internship” means, in Romania I hadn’t got the change to practice it…and this was a minus for me. The internship and experience changes, so to call them, are a must for the Irish educational system. The students are being encouraged to go abroad for one academic year, or to work as an intern in a company. Trainings are being provided and numerous companies come to universities to present themselves; in this way we, as  future graduates are “attracted” by the so called “outside world”. Yes….”attracted”, because the university/school helps you step by step, in a practical way.

Even if I did my summer-practice in hospitals…to me it does not seem enough. We are still missing one system that will guess student’s needs; we are missing a much organised system, which will interact with the real world requirements. We lack the wish and the vision, and as by “we” I mean those who teach and those being thought. I know also that efforts are being made in this direction, and one of them is LEAP, an organisation that attracted me with their openness and relaxed way of talking about serious things: one of which is our country need to educate its students in the a practical way, helping them to step into the real world with knowledge and information.

We are capable of offering in a different way what we already know. For this purpose we need to change with just a few degrees our way of thinking about the educational system, and by doing so we will manage to offer not just information, but also education.

Our project is presented on the HotNews Student website as part of an interview with Simona – LEAP coordinator.

The article touches on many relevant aspects of student life, employability and the future of Romania’s youth. We were happy to see how many visits and comments the article attracted.

You can read it here. (in Romanian). A very rough English version can be found here.