NEWAG : closer cooperation with universities

NEWAG's closer cooperation with universities

Ano­ther coope­ra­tion agre­ement has been signed, this time with Poli­tech­nika Kra­kow­ska - Cracow's Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity. The agre­ement con­cerns col­la­bo­ra­tion in the area of tra­ining spe­cia­list engi­ne­ering corps, imple­men­ta­tion of R&D pro­jects and inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies. Due to its dyna­mic growth, NEWAG is expan­ding its R& D Divi­sion, cur­ren­tly recru­iting staff for its Design Office which will start its ope­ra­tions in Kra­ków in September.

The agre­ement for­ma­li­ses suc­cess­ful long-time col­la­bo­ra­tion between Poli­tech­nika Kra­kow­ska and NEWAG. The three-year agre­ement covers a wide range of acti­vi­ties. Under the agre­ement, NEWAG S.A. will orga­nise prac­ti­cal tra­ining and intern­ships for stu­dents as well as com­pany Tours and open-house days for future engi­ne­ers. The pro­gram of prac­ti­cal tra­ining and intern­ships will take into con­si­de­ra­tion the Company's needs. NEWAG will also ena­ble stu­dents to obtain topics for their bachelor's and master the­ses. The Com­pany will also recruit its engi­ne­ers from among gra­du­ates of the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity, most often those gra­du­ating from such tech­ni­cal majors as Mecha­nics and Machine Design, Trans­por­ta­tion, Auto­ma­tion Engi­ne­ering and Robo­tics, Elec­tri­cal Engi­ne­ering as well as Mana­ge­ment and Pro­duc­tion Engi­ne­ering. The Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity will edu­cate the company's employ­ees in its regu­lar study pro­grams as well as in the form of spe­cial cour­ses, tra­inings and open lec­tu­res using its edu­ca­tio­nal faci­li­ties and labo­ra­to­ries. The­re­fore, one of the main effects of the coope­ra­tion agre­ement will be edu­ca­ted spe­cia­li­sts who will have prac­ti­cal skills requ­ired in the field of rail vehic­les design.

"At pre­sent, we alre­ady employ seve­ral dozen alumni of Cracow's Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity but we are going to expand our human reso­ur­ces, in par­ti­cu­lar our R& D Depart­ment. We intend to close the gene­ra­tion gap in tra­ining engi­ne­ers because in the last 20 years no new rail vehic­les have been desi­gned in Poland. We have a team of young and talen­ted desi­gners and we are going to expand. In Sep­tem­ber, the Design Office of NEWAG's Rese­arch and Deve­lop­ment Depart­ment will ini­tiate its ope­ra­tions in Kra­ków - it is going to employ 30 engi­ne­ers and we are cur­ren­tly recru­iting staff for this Office. We have cho­sen to locate the Office in Kra­ków espe­cially because of an easy access to engi­ne­ers tra­ined at Kraków's uni­ver­si­ties," said Maciej Duczyń­ski, NEWAG's Vice Pre­si­dent of the Board and Mar­ke­ting and Deve­lop­ment Direc­tor, fol­lo­wing the signing of the agreement.

Scien­ti­sts from Poli­tech­nika Kra­kow­ska will also offer their exper­tise to the Com­pany by pro­vi­ding their expert opi­nions, ana­ly­ses and reports con­cer­ning tech­no­logy and orga­ni­sa­tion and mana­ge­ment. The part­ners also plan to obtain funds, inc­lu­ding EU funds, to imple­ment rese­arch and tra­ining projects.

"Col­la­bo­ra­tion with the busi­ness envi­ron­ment con­sti­tu­tes part of the mis­sion of Poli­tech­nika Kra­kow­ska. The agre­ement with NEWAG will be bene­fi­cial for both par­ties. Thanks to the agre­ement we will be able to imple­ment a lot of joint R&D and edu­ca­tio­nal pro­jects. This col­la­bo­ra­tion will offer our stu­dents an oppor­tu­nity to solve real tech­no­lo­gi­cal and tech­ni­cal pro­blems, which will deve­lop their prac­ti­cal skills and com­pe­ten­cies much sought by poten­tial employ­ers as well as it will give them a com­pe­ti­tive advan­tage in the job mar­ket," empha­si­zed prof. Jan Kazior, Deputy Rec­tor for Scien­ti­fic Affa­irs of Poli­tech­nika Kra­kow­ska. "I am convin­ced that NEWAG will also be satis­fied with the fru­its of the col­la­bo­ra­tion because in view of its impres­sive growth it will need well-trained engi­ne­ers. So far, the Rail Vehic­les Insti­tute at the Mecha­ni­cal Engi­ne­ering Faculty of Poli­tech­nika Kra­kow­ska has been clo­sely col­la­bo­ra­ting with NEWAG and now this col­la­bo­ra­tion will be exten­ded to other Facul­ties of the University."

NEWAG, which so far has been deve­lo­ping dyna­mi­cally in the dome­stic mar­ket, has star­ted its Euro­pean expan­sion. The com­pany is fina­li­sing work on a die­sel mul­ti­ple unit for its client in Sicily and it is awa­iting final deci­sions in new Euro­pean public tenders.