On Wednesday, 18 September, 2024, the traditional Tour de FD took place, an event organized by the eFDrive student club of Faculty of Transportation Sciences, through which senior classmates help orient incoming students in the environment of our faculty.
Faculty of Transportation Sciences is one of the younger faculties of the CTU in Prague and is spread between three key buildings in Prague, the so-called Transportation Triangle Konvikt - Horská - Florenc. Part of the mentioned Tour de FD event is just a wandering around these three buildings, introducing future students to what each building offers, what departments are there and what part of the teaching takes place there.
For this year, in cooperation with our faculty school - the Secondary School of Transport (SPŠD), we have managed to provide a unique form of transport between these workplaces in the form of a special tram line designed exclusively for this event. The special line was personally driven by the deputy director of this school, Mr. Ing. Vladimír Pušman, Ph.D. and was operated by a car with a unique SPŠD decal.
The event was attended by over 100 students, not only from the first year of our faculty, but also students from SPŠD.
This is another in a series of joint projects to attract young people to study technical fields. As FD Marketing Manager Petra Skolilová says: "We are looking for new ways to take the fear out of studying technical fields for young people. To show them that technology is a creative and promising field without which no society can develop. Especially in the transport sector, it is crucial for the quality of life for all of us."
Both educational institutions incorporate new trends and tools into their teaching and build everything on close links with practice. The partnership between the high school and the university provides both institutions with a unique opportunity to involve teachers and use the facilities for joint projects that will help to increase interest in technical fields.
Petra Skolilová continues, "We are currently offering lectures to high schools for 3rd and 4th year students focused on introducing them to technology. We also offer these lectures as electives, which we would provide at partner secondary schools. We are preparing a new campaign focusing on the employability of our graduates, who are in high demand. At our faculty, we see transport as a complex discipline encompassing a wide range of subtopics with the main goal: to create and develop a sustainable, efficient and high-quality transport system. And it is this idea that we try to convey to young people who are deciding on their future career direction. We value the cooperation with SPŠD very much and we firmly believe that we will be able to involve other vocational secondary schools and grammar schools."
The long-term decline in interest in technical fields at universities is based on many national surveys and statistics from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, but it is quite obvious that no advanced society can do without technical engineers. Therefore, support from the state will also be needed.