Researchers draw attention with Oxsilan experiments
In the last few days USSK was visited by some members of EMPAC, the European Metal Packaging Manufacturers' Association. The eight-strong group was led by the Association's chairman Marco Checchi. "This visit did not come about by chance," remarked the Director of the Product Technology Section at USSE Research, Jozef Billy. "The Kosice steelmakers are considered significant European producers of tin-plated sheets, so it was no surprise when the proposal was put forward at the latest EMPAC meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece, last year, that we should prepare to hold the next working discussion meeting right here in Kosice." The guests, as well as representatives from the sectors of sales, marketing, production, CTS and research, were welcomed by USSK Vice-president Commercial John B. Peters. USSK Commercial Director Tinplate Sales Igor Danko and USSE General Manager Research Michael L. Simko informed the audience about USSK's production program. Further discussions were focused mainly on the current potential for replacing the existing form of passivation that is used world-wide with six-valent chromium.
They will gain experience even before entering the job market
The 13th edition in the series of annual nationwide student enterprise competitions in the Applied Economics took place recently in Kosice. The principal sponsor of this event was U. S. Steel Kosice. For the 20-plus five-member teams of young people from various types of secondary school, this was a unique opportunity to present the results of several months of work, their entrepreneurial activity to date, their products, services provided, approaches to company management, selected marketing strategies and financial management. "Taking part in this fair requires them to do systematic and responsible preparation which will assist them in developing their personalities and acquiring incomparable practical experience even before they enter the employment market," says Junior Achievement Slovakia - Youth for the Future Program Director Adam Sepetka, explaining the importance of this event for the participants.
Joint project work to be completed in Kosice
Agreement on support for foreign language learning and reciprocal exchange of groups of students within the Comenius Project has led to a school partnership being established between the Secondary Vocational School for Metallurgy in Kosice-Saca and the Werther Brucke Vocational College in Wuppertal, Germany. The main aim for ten future steelmakers on their March stay in Germany was to improve their foreign language skills. Language teaching and communication practice went on both during their language course and in an untraditional way, which was based on shared activities during practical lessons. The students' task was work together with their exchange school partners in producing particular parts of a manually-operated manipulating device from a construction kit. At the end of the course they presented the results of their work to the teachers. The future steelmakers are already looking forward to seeing their new friends from Germany again, who should be coming to visit the Vocational School in June. Together they should then complete their work on the manual manipulating device, and on their own Slovak-German dictionary.
