In the auditorium of the Mechanical School Complex in Bolesławiec, a ceremony was held on Thursday, April 19, to sign a patronage agreement between the Nowy Ląd Gypsum and Anhydrite Mine in Niwnice and “Mechanik.” The ceremony was attended, among others, by Jacek Koźlecki, president of Nowy Ląd Mine; his deputy Małgorzata Lenik; Daniel Marnicki, director for mining; Bolesławiec County head Karol Stasik; Maciej Pronkiewicz, deputy head of the Education, Culture and Sport Department at the Bolesławiec County Office; Jan Russ, a teacher at the Mechanical School Complex and chairman of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee of the Bolesławiec County Council, as well as Barbara Berduła, deputy head of “Mechanik,” and the school’s former head Adam Maksymczyk.
The first to speak was the director of the Mechanical School Complex in Bolesławiec, Piotr Księżyk:
When not everyone valued physical work and work in mines, the mines in our County operated and were appreciated. For several years, Bolesławiec County has once again been providing education in the mining sector; we have built a system and developed forms of cooperation that will allow you, young people, to find work in the future while learning in such a way that you become good employers.
He added:
Thanks to the favorable atmosphere, the Mining Technical School will come under the patronage of the Nowy Ląd Gypsum and Anhydrite Mine in Niwnice. Thanks to the document we will sign today, you will have even better opportunities and greater chances of finding good jobs.
Karol Stasik, Bolesławiec County head:
I am very pleased that the school and the County are signing another agreement with a large mine; it is the County’s concern to provide training—particularly in technical and vocational education—in such a way that your knowledge and skills find a place in local industry. I learned that approximately 60–70 percent of graduates of our vocational schools and technical schools seek their future outside the County. We would like to change these proportions.
And he noted:
I hope this further agreement will result in more miners finding work within our County and surrounding area.
Daniel Marnicki said that the patronage agreement signing ceremony marked the culmination of the period of cooperation between the Bolesławiec school and Nowy Ląd. It began 18 years ago, when several graduates of the Mechanical Technical School took jobs at the mine. “Seven of them work there now and form the core of the company’s management,” the director emphasized. He added that the mine’s representatives had not come to Bolesławiec empty-handed. The “Mechanik” community received from Nowy Ląd’s management a training escape apparatus used, among other places, in KGHM mines.
The patronage agreement was signed by Jacek Koźlecki, Małgorzata Lenik and Piotr Księżyk. “Without proper vocational education, Poland will not secure its rightful place on the economic map of Europe and the world,” summarized the meeting the president of the Nowy Ląd Gypsum and Anhydrite Mine in Niwnice.
As the director of “Mechanik” told us, thanks to the agreement, students at the Bolesławiec school are to be included in a scholarship program. They will also have better chances of finding good jobs.