As a bridge between employers and secondary vocational schools, the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia pays special attention to students who, by selecting vocational education and training, direct and model their career in line with the requirements of the businesses. SGGUS “Zdravko Cvetkovski” from Skopje produces precisely such labor, and students from the school – future builders in the country – visited the Economic Chamber of North Macedonia.

Mihajlo Donev, M.Sc., acting Operations Director for Innovation, Development, and Knowledge addressed the students during the visit, introducing them to the Chamber operations, the ongoing Chamber activities, as well as to digitalization, which the Chamber pays special attention to. Regarding the importance of digitalization and the need for its penetration into the construction sector, the students followed a presentation on the project Digital transformation is making its way to businesses – development of key performance indicators to increase sector productivity (DIG-IN-KPI), which aims at stimulating higher digitalization levels in construction by creating tolls for self-assessment and for identifying the digitalization degree of any company. The need for digital skills is becoming increasingly prominent and therefore, such meetings ensure exchange of opinions on the real situation in construction as to digitalization, which is important both to the vocational education process and to the work process of any construction company.

The third-year students had the chance to become acquainted with the work of the Association of Construction, Building Materials, and Non-metal Industries. Using an interactive presentation, Sashka Velkov, association coordinator, showed the importance of the sector for the development of the domestic economy to the students, as well as the current construction trends, application of modern technologies of 4.0Gen, and energy efficient materials, which are becoming increasingly popular in construction works, irrespective of the type, either civil engineering or building construction.

The curriculum of the secondary construction school “Zdravko Cvetkovski” from Skopje includes three-year vocational education for the educational courses ‘dry construction fitter’ and ‘floor and tile layer’, as well as four-year educational courses for ‘architectural technician’, ‘interior architecture technical designer,’ ‘construction technician,’ ‘geodetic technician.’ Zdravko Cvetkovski is the only construction school in the country that provides 6 educational courses from the construction and geodesy profession. Professors inform that the school has 7 classrooms equipped with computers, part of which with LCD projectors as well, however, in their opinion, the greatest challenge is publishing textbooks for the modularly designed curricula. They also said they wish to see greater engagement of companies in dual education and therefore the Chamber will provide support from its member companies in construction.

With its activities in the field of education, the Economic Chamber remains open to cooperation with the educational institutions and firmly committed to their networking with companies aiming at creating high-quality skilled labor. In addition, digitalization is quite important for building labor consistent with the latest trends and contemporary requirements at work.