The aim of the advisory board established at Széchenyi István University is to develop the field of production technology and to provide practical training tailored to the needs of companies. The initiative of the Audi Hungaria Faculty of Vehicle Engineering focuses on the renewal and continuous review of mechanical and automotive engineering courses.

Close cooperation with industrial partners is one of the cornerstones of the activities of Széchenyi István University. As part of its education development, the institution regularly seeks the views of key companies in the region in order to provide young people entering the labour market with the most valuable knowledge and useful skills.

The latest initiative of Audi Hungaria Faculty of Vehicle Engineering serves this purpose: it has set up a large advisory board with stakeholders in the manufacturing technology sector, focusing on curriculum development. The first meeting was attended by around 50 representatives of 26 companies from the automotive, machine tool, software, cutting tool and metrology sectors. International companies such as Haas, Mitsubishi, Zeiss and Grobe joined the programme.

The Audi Hungaria Faculty of Vehicle Engineering of Széchenyi István University established the board with the aim of practice-oriented education development based on the needs of companies.

"We have created new specialisations in manufacturing technology in the Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering Bachelor's programmes, and we have asked the advisory board to help us develop them. Our aim is to develop the curricula taking into account the opinions of our industrial partners, focusing specifically on the needs of the labour market," said Dr Gábor Dogossy, Dean of the Faculty. He stressed that such a broad cooperation is unprecedented in the country, as all types of employers, from large multinational companies to small enterprises, are represented on the committee. "What is also new is that the board is not degree subject specific, but field-specific, so it covers all manufacturing technology courses, work experience and labs at our University," he said.

The Dean stressed that the initiative focuses on solutions to meet the needs of the future, as current students will be entering the labour market in three to five years' time. "It is in the mutual interest of companies and the University that our recent graduates take up jobs with knowledge that meets the expectations of the profession in every respect," he concluded. He also stressed that the majority of the companies surveyed consider it important not only to develop professional knowledge, but also so-called "soft skills", which include social and communication skills.

"We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of reforming, together with our partners, the training of the technicians and engineers of the future. We are therefore counting on the suggestions of the market players, from whom we received very positive feedback after the first meeting," said Dr Szabolcs Szalai, Head of the Department of Vehicle Manufacturing and Technology, and Vice-Dean for Education of the Faculty. He explained that in the future, the panel meetings will be held every six months, which the invited companies are free to join.