site.bta Professionals Warn that Bulgaria May Be Left without Engineers

Professionals Warn that Bulgaria May Be Left without Engineers

Varna, on the Black Sea, March 4 (BTA) - For several years now,
Bulgarian technical universities have reported that young people
 are less and less interested in conventional engineering
sciences, such as mechanical and electrical engineering.
University teachers tell BTA that there is a risk of the country
 being left without specialists in these fields a few years from
 now and businesses being deprived of skilled manufacturing
workers.

The engineering profession and the problems facing it, the
interests of young people and the difficulties confronting the
corporate world were in the focus of interviews which BTA had
with Maria Marinova, Deputy Rector of the Technical University
in Varna, and Ventsislav Hristov, CEO of a private company.

Marinova said that it takes many years to make an engineer, and
the most important thing is that the young person should become
fond of the profession long before getting into a university.

The curriculum of secondary schools needs some serious
consideration, she said. Most of them teach foreign languages or
 mathematics and informatics. In order to survive, vocational
schools lay emphasis on computer sciences. Very few secondary
schools train operators of digitally controlled machines for the
 manufacturing businesses, and electrical engineering
specialties are also in short supply, Marinova said.

Proper secondary education is essential for a future engineer,
she noted. In order to become an engineer, one needs to study
hard, study mathematics and physics which are not among the
easiest of subjects.

According to Hristov, university-level engineering studies
should include laboratory practice or some other kind of
practical training. It is such laboratory work that, even if
supported by modest funding, can train future specialists to
seek solutions, pursue goals and perform concrete tasks, Hristov
 said. A young engineer who has just graduated needs at least
four or five years of practice before he can begin to perform
tasks on his own. Postgraduate training is compulsory, he said.

Marinova expects that demand for mechanical and electrical
engineers and power industry experts will increase, while the
number of people willing to study such subjects has become
critically low. The time will come when the Bulgarian economy
will stabilize and will begin to develop, but there will be no
experts to keep it going, she warned.