Classrooms like from the programme POP 2010

DARKOV - The first school bell on 1 September also put a quite new OKD Central Educational Centre into operation. The Centre has been opened in the rooms above the rehabilitation facilities in the plant 2 of the Darkov Mine. The Centre is in the pilot run for the time being, i.e. only for the Darkov Mine employees. From 1 October it will be available for all mines of the Karviná region and from the new year - even for selected professional training courses of the Paskov Mine staff. Employees of the supplying companies and other plants in professional contact with OKD will deepen their education here as well. The desks of the Centre will accommodate ca 300 “pupils” of different professions: miners, technicians, administrative staff or managers. Knowledge will be imparted by the OKD lecturers, specialists of the  mining authority or other specialists for the specific issue.

Environment of the OKD Educational Centre, operated by the Centre of Shared HR Services (OKD Recruitment and Development Dept.), is friendly and  made to measure somehow like the POP 2010 programme. Everything is absolutely modern here and at the peak technical level, like on the POP workplaces. All 11 classrooms and the staff room are equipped by the sophisticated multimedia interactive “blackboard”, 70 computers will be available in three  computer classrooms. New comfortable furniture, modern sanitary and hygienic installations or beverage dispensers in the corridors go without saying. The possibility of catering in the plant canteen and dining hall in the same building has been agreed. The parking lot close to the mine entry has been extended for purpose of the new Centre by ca 150 parking places.

“By the scope of offered services, equipment and size we certainly belong among the most progressive and greatest centres in the Czech Republic”, summarizes Eduard Folwarczny, the OKD Central Educational Centre manager. “We have our branch also in the Paskov Mine.  Regular training courses focused on safety and occupational health protection rules are organized there principally.”

In the future the OKD Central Educational Centre would like to offer its capacities even to other companies. For the time being it is concentrated on preparation of the teaching programmes for OKD staff and for cooperating companies. Their range is really wide: they start by the introductory training and adaptation for the new staff, continue by professional, specialized, qualification and retraining courses and end by language and computer programmes as well as by managerial education. Next year the studies will also be realized in the form of the e-learning, i.e. without personal lecturer’s presence.

“Thanks to the Centre OKD will become independent and self-sufficient in the sector of professional education,” clarifies Eduard Folwarczny the advantages following from opening of its own educational centre. “Quality of the team of lecturers will be higher and thanks to the interactive blackboards and special teaching aids quality of teaching and clearness will be much better. Simultaneous high cost savings are very important for the company.”

(Bohuslav Krzyžanek)