SoBaTo is a competition and a German concept that shall turn through a two year pilot project into a Southern Baltic concept. The programme started in January 2013 and runs until the end of December 2014. It is an event to arouse teenager’s interest in technics and innovation. It has a cross border aspect where participants from German, Poland and Denmark come together.
German technical companies had a problem. They got a lot of applications from young people who would like to work in the companies but the applications were very alike.
It was difficult to figure out who were the right ones and who had those qualifications and skills that were needed. Together with Technology and Science Center Schwerin under leadership of ATI Westmecklenburg, they invented a so called „TechnOlympiade®“.
The number of students in technical study courses decreases for many years. This has the consequence that the rising trend in shortage of skilled workers both now and especially in the future will become a big problem for the economic situation of Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania and also for Denmark and Poland.
The overall idea of the project is to counteract the negative situation of the lack of interest from the youth in areas such as Technic / IT / Logistic and Maritime studies by developing and internationalizing the existing TechnoOlympics concept that has been running for a number of years in Germany. This pilot concept is based on a number of events that are organized in cooperation with private companies where young people can compete in technical subjects and learn about specific areas. The events look to attract young people in the subject and therefore increase the number of people taking up technical studies that would reduce the current shortage of specialists in those areas.
With the above mentioned project teenagers between 14 and 17 years will be made aware specifically on the technical studies and the resulting professional development opportunities.
The TechnOlympiade® is a game consisting on a knowledge test and several stations with practical tasks. The participants have to solve tasks from technical and research area showing their flair for creative and logical thinking, handiness and ability to work together with others to find a solution for a task. It is fun − the participants enjoy competing in things and skills they normally did not competed in. Some are actually surprised how mush flair they have in practical tasks.
It started as a need of more knowledge about young people skills but it also turned into an event to increase pupils interest for technics, innovation and technical studios and jobs.
It demonstrated the perspectives for future careers in technical and innovative branches.
The TechnOlympiade® have been held in Germany for six years with many good and successful experiences − It is now time to make it „southern Baltic“.
The South Baltic Cross-border Co-operation Programme is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
More information www.sobato.eu and www.facebook.com/sobato.eu
