BKSTONE

          

Higher Education –Enterprise platform for fostering, modernisation and sustainable growth in natural stone industry in Western Balkans (BKSTONE)

Ref. No: 610483-EPP-1-2019-AL-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP

BKSTONE project has the main objective of fostering the modernization and development of the stone sector in Western Balkans partner countries through strengthening the relationship between the higher education institutions and the industry, and internationalizing curriculum and methods.

To meet the requirements of current international demand of natural stone products according to EU standards, the partner countries industry has to perform important changes in quarrying methods, processing methods, quality controls following European and international standards (ex CE marking, ASTM, etc.), marketing strategies, international trade, e-commerce etc. These changes require the participation of all local agents, including the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) organizations, which should develop their training strategies to meet the challenges explained in the rationale of our project in terms of quality, delivery and especially relevance, in response to the industry needs.

List of Partners:

1. Polytechnic University of Tirana (Coordinator of the project),
2. University of Elbasan "Aleksander Xhuvani"
3. University of Gjirokastër "Eqrem Çabej”
4. University of Sarajevo
5. University of Mostar
6. University Mediterranean Podgorica
7. University of Pristine
8. Kolegji Nderkombtar per Biznes dhe Teknologji
9. University of Coruña
10. IES Ribeira do Louro
11. Asociación Empresarial de Investigación Centro Tecnológico del Mármol y La Piedra

Project website: https://bkstoneproject.com/

NJOFTIM - Në kuadër të përmbylljes së projektit BKSTONE, projekt i financuar nga Bashkimi Europian, Erasmus+, Universiteti Politeknik i Tiranës, në rolin e liderit të projektit, organizon aktivitetin "Big Dissemination Event" në datën 03 Nëntor, 2022.

WORK AND STUDY FAIR APRIL 2022

Polytechnic University of Tirana has participated "Work & Study" fair for several years now to be as close as possible to the labor and study market. The fair is organized by Tirana Chamber of Commerce and Industry in partnership with the Municipality of Tirana and the Ministry of Education and Sports. During March 2022 the fair moved in different cities of Albania from North to South and on 7-8 April 2022 in the premises of the National History Museum in Tirana

This event is an excellent and unique opportunity for Albanian youth whose goal is to consolidate relations with the new generation, to help them towards personal and professional achievements regarding the development of capacity. Therefore, PUT has also presented the ongoing project ERASMUS+, BKSTONE “Higher Education-Enterprise platform for fostering, modernisation and Sustainable growth in natural stone industry in Western Balkans”

            

TESTING COURSES 4-6 MAY 2022, PODGORICA

From 4th-6th of May, 2022., at the University of the Mediterranean in Podgorica the BKSTONE TESTING HIGHER LEVEL, Balkan stone course on Marketing and Heritage Reinforcement was held.
The course was organized for students of the project partners country from Albania (Elbasan), Bosnia & Hercegovina (Mostar, Sarajevo) and Montenegro (Podgorica), 26 participants. It was an opportunity to learn, to test the knowledge acquired so far on the project, as well as to meet and socialize young people who need to disseminate the idea of the project in a sustainable period of time.
The following topics were covered:
Marketing in the Stone Industry – Prof. Dr. Silvana Djurasevic
Visiting tour – Visiting the stone architecture of Podgorica
Building styles throught the history, the example of Podgorica – Msc. Vukota Vukotić, historian
Dry Stone Walling – Heritage and Tourism, Željko Starčević, archaeologist
Dry Stone Walling – Construction training, Željko Sarčević and particioants.
The mentor on the project was David Caparros Perez from Murcia, Spain.

    

9 MAY, EU FAIR TIRANA

On May 9, 2022 in the framework of Europe Week is organized the EU Fair where Higher Education institutions had the opportunity to present and disseminate the projects that are in process of Implementation.
Polytechnic University of Tirana presented the BKSTONE Project in the role of the coordinator to all the attendants.

                

TESTING COURSES 11-13 MAY 2022, SARAJEVO
The University of Sarajevo continues to implement the Erasmus + project, with the aim of strengthening the capacity of higher education.
One of the main activities is the education and training of students, which was conducted from 11 to 13 May. The students arrived in Sarajevo on May 11. where they were greeted by the host university. Education and training in which students of the Mediterranean University of Podgorica, the University of Sarajevo and the University of Mostar had the opportunity to acquire knowledge of the principles of “lean” production, and their application in various fields began on 12.05. at 10:00 with introductory remarks by Professor Mugdim Pašić, Head of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, who spoke to students about the importance of innovation strategies, practice-based education and the importance of networking among students of different universities to share knowledge and combine skills of different institutions.
The training was led by Professor Hadis Bajrić, with the assistance of other members of the project team. Under his guidance, students mastered a number of new tools through a series of practical exercises.After the training, students mastered the basic concepts of quality control, became able to set standards for the work performed, to be able to detect unnecessary operations and speed up processes. These powerful tools, although originally created in the automotive industry, have full applicability in other branches such as tourism, construction, mining, and thus working with natural stone. This interdisciplinary dissemination of knowledge and experience will ensure that the natural stone sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also in the wider Western Balkans region, becomes more competitive and soon fulfills its enormous potential.

                                                            

TESTING COURSES 16-18 MAY 2022, GJIROKASTER
Host: “Eqrem Cabej” University of Gjirokastra (ECUG)
Supervisor: Santiago López, UnCoruna
Attendants: 7 students per partner country (Tirana, Prishtina, UBT, Gjirokastra)
Date: 16th -18th May
AGENDA
 Monday, 16th May 2022
Arrival to Gjirokastra
 Tuesday, 17th May 2022
09.30 – Reception at “Eqrem Cabej” University of Gjirokastra (ECUG); Opening remarks and welcome greetings, by host partner and project coordinator
10.00 – 10:45 Lecture: Introduction on stone as a building material and application in different phases in construction, Prof. assoc. Albina Sinani
10.50 – 11:20 Coffee break
11.20 – 12:00 Lecture: Ancient monumental construction in the Drino Valley Prof. Joana Taci
12:00 – 12:45 Reuse of historical elements in historical buildings Prof. Santiago Lopez
12:45 – 14:00 Tour: Visiting the stone architecture of Gjirokastra
14.00 – 15:30 Lunch break
15:30–16.15 – Lecture: VET in the area of natural stone in Europe Prof. Amador Ordonez
16:20 – 17:00 Lecture: Management Dr. Alban Shahu
 Wednesday, 18th May 2022
Departure from Gjirokastra

The activity is also broadcasted in the news edition of the local media: https://youtu.be/GOYaNQR2vzU

TESTING COURSES 18-20 MAY 2022, PRISHTINA
The meeting was support from the Rector of University of Prishtina , prof.dr.Naser Sahiti, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering , prof.Florim Grajcevci, staff from the faculty of Civil Engineering, students and manage by coordinator of the project, prof Naser Kabashi.
At the beginig of the meeting the Rector, Dean, Supervisor from Spain, prof from Mostar and coordiantor with short speaches present the ready to support the projects also in future in scope of Internatinalizations the UP.
Presents in this activity : UPT-Tirana, Albania with 7 students; University of Mostar , represented by prof. Tatjana Dzebo and 5 students; Universituy of Prishtina , represented by coordinator prof.Naser Kabashi and 5 students.
The lectures are organize according the agenda, and followed with questions and clarifacitions from the presenters.
In scope of activities the Faculty Organize the visit to the Company for Manufacturing the Stone : TERRASTONE, which was very intersting activities in conections with lecture presented by speakers.
At the end of the activities all the presents are satisfied with the activities and organizing the workshop.

    

2 JUNE 2022, JOB FAIR AT POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF TIRANA
At the Polytechnic University of Tirana, on Thursday, June 2, 2022, the Job Fair took place. More than 40 institutions and companies, with which UPT has cooperation, attended the activity
The purpose of the Job Fair is to strengthen cooperation with institutions, businesses and private companies.
During the Job Fair, the companies presented their activity, as well as the opportunities they offer and Polytechnic University of Tirana had the opportunity to inform them about the curricula development and Capacity building projects that are in process of implementation. The stone sector industry representatives showed great interest in BKSTONE Project.

6 JUNE 2022, NATIONAL WORKSHOP BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

One of the main activities of the dissemination plan of the project “Higher Education-Enterprise platform for fostering, modernization and sustainable growth in the natural stone industry in the Western Balkans” – BKSTONE, is the holding of national workshops. On June 6, 2022, partners from Bosnia and Herzegovina organized one such event.
In the premises of the University of Sarajevo, in the presence of partners from the University of Mostar, a presentation of significant project results was held.
Knowledge was transferred about the state of the natural stone sector within Bosnia and Herzegovina, its future potentials, as well as the state of education in this field. Special focus is placed on the products developed during the project as well as on the impact they will have on the development of the stone industry. Significant stakeholders such as employers, university management, and ministries were contacted directly during the event.
After the presentation, a panel discussion was held in which, in addition to the members of the BKSTONE project team, the Ministers of Economy and Education, the Rector and Vice-Rector of the University, as well as the President of the Employers’ Association participated. This panel enabled the most important actors to get directly involved in the issues of the project, as well as to contribute with their comments and ideas.

10 MAY 2022, ALBANIAN NATIONAL WORKSHOP

In the context of the Dissemination and Exploitation of “Higher Education-Enterprise platform for fostering, modernisation and Sustainable growth in natural stone industry in Western Balkans”– BKSTONE Project, Albanian partner have organized on 10 May 2022 the national workshop with the participation of Polytechnic University of Tirana, University of Elbasan “Aleksandër Xhuvani”, University of Gjirokastër “Eqrem Çabej” and different stakeholders including stone industry enterprises, HEIs and Public institutions such as Municipality, Administrative Division representatives, Prefecture.

The workshop is hosted in the premises of University of Gjirokastër with 42 participants. The aim was to disseminate and transfer the knowledge to the main target groups of the project.

Special emphasis is made to the products developed until now and to the impact that these developments will have on stone industry.

During the workshop the participants were introduced to the state of art of the project presented by Polytechnic University of Tirana; to the results, outcomes and methodologies used to achieve them presented by University of Gjirokastra; and to the current situation of Marketing strategies used by Albanian Companies in Stone Sector presented by University of Elbasan.

The developments and results of the BKSTONE Project are also broadcasted in the local media of the region: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZV5XIbe0PE

FIFTH GENERAL MEETING 24-25.02.2022

Project coordinator and host partner welcomed all partners. After that, the state of art of the project was presented to all partners, making a summary of the tasks that have been carried out and those that still need to be completed.The dissemination matrix (also presented to EACEA after the evaluation report of the midterm period) of the activities foreseen till the end of the project was presented to all partners.  A deep discussion on the learning materials was made in order to close this step of the project and start producing the ebook. The discussions were made one by one according to the material of each of the project partners.

FOURTH GENERAL MEETING 2-3.12.2021

 The current situation of the project was presented to all partners, making a summary of the tasks that have been carried out  and those that still need to be completed. Currently, the project is in the Development work-package. This WP is mainly aimed at producing content related to the topic of the project for providing it to the target groups. The leading organization for this WP is CTM, co-leading IES Ribeira do Louro and National Technical University of Athens.

Teacher Training programs will be based on the training courses contents produced under the project and will be implemented to teachers from the associated countries’ partner organizations participating in the project. The courses produced under the BKstone project will be tested among students in the partner countries. This implementation will determine the aspects that must be improved in order to produce a quality material.

It was decided that the consortium’s next meeting will take place in the city of Podgorica (Montenegro) on the 24^th and 25^th February 2022.

 

ONLINE MEETING 27.10.2021 ON THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE PROJECT  

Polytechnique University of Tirana, welcomed all the partners. After that, the current situation of the project was presented to all partners, in order to remind what was has been done and the future materials to be produced.All partners agreed that the project should be finished before summer. For that, learning courses and dissemination events should be taking place in the first months of 2022. The dates will be discussed in the following meetings depending on the development of the project.

ONLINE MEETING 12.05.2021 ON TRAINING PROGRAMMES

 After consortium get a general picture of the courses’ content proposed by each partner  organization, partners decided to discuss and take decisions regarding the courses that finally would  be developed within the project for each field of study. Working Groups were built for developing the final course proposals for the different study fields.

THIRD GENERAL MEETING 24.03.2021 

Partners in charge of producing the Aggregated Reports in the different fields of study introduced the reports.Partners have then discussed regarding the different possibilities of contents for VET and university levels.The coordinator explained partners the need of compiling and sharing with them the information for filling in the Interim Report, making a clear explanation of the required information and the dates to be delivered.IES Ribeira do Louro explained the financial files that must be kept for each partner and then introduced the templates for filling in the Timesheet and Joint Declaration and explained the details that all of them must content.

 

ONLINE MEETING 04.03.2021

Consortium partners’ representatives were invited to make a short presentation of the results of the implementation of the survey in their own countries, explaining the main outcomes for the different levels and areas of the education and training, including the VET level. Once finished the discussions for the first phase of the project (Research), consortium partners have analysed and organized the steps to follow for carrying out the activities of the second WorkPackage. The task for the development of this second WP have them been distributed among the different partners based on the areas of expertise of each of them.

ONLINE MEETING 27.01.2021

 Project coordinator, Alma Afezolli, from Polytechnique University of Tirana, have widely expressed her worries about the delay in carrying out the agreed activities related to the implementation of the survey and production of the National Report and Aggregated Report. Then, the different partners have introduced the situation of the survey implementation in their own countries.

2ND GENERAL MEETING, ONLINE 20.10.2020

A general overview of the project was introduced by UPT and IES Ribeira do Louro, holding discussions on different aspects of the current situation of the project progress:

1. Contract binding project coordinator with project partners and first payment. 
2. Level of project development.
3. Equipment
4. Intellectual outputs.

ONLINE MEETING 05.10.2020

During the meeting are discussed issues as: redistribution of questionnaires, Translation of questionnaires, Inclusion of VET in the survey, the size of the sample and also Equipment procedures.

        

ONLINE FOLLOW-UP MEETING 11.09.2020

This meeting was to discuss with the main partners for the technical issues the follow-up of the actual situation of the project, the impact of the global pandemic situation and steps to follow towards the implementation of the project.

ONLINE MEETING FOR EQUPMENT  10.07.2020

This meeting was to discuss specifically the proposed equipment, laptops, and software and see what is still pending in order to finalize the proposals.

ONLINE MEETING FOR EQUIPMENT 25.06.2020

The online meeting was attended by representatives of all associated countries partner organizations. This meeting was to discuss with the partners about the compilation of the proposal for the equipment to be purchased in the framework of the project.To use a standard form of presenting them and also the specifications that will meet the objective of the project. After consulting the format and the general outlines another online meeting will be held within 2 weeks in order to discuss more concretely on proposed equipment.

ONLINE MEETING 01.04.2020 Bilateral Meeting of BKSTONE

The online meeting was attended by representatives of all program countries partner organizations and coordinator to discuss about the impact of the Covid -19 on the project’s technical team. General comments of participants and contingency plan.

Njoftim - Zhvillohet takimi i parë i projektit “BKSTONE”
Në datat 17-18 shkurt 2020, në Universitetin Politeknik të Tiranës, në sallën “ Silvano Pedrollo”, u zhvillua takimi i parë i projektit “BKSTONE”.Universiteti Politeknik i Tiranës është në rolin e koordinatorit të projektit. Projekti “BKSTONE” nën programin “Ndërtim Kapacitetesh në AL” me titullin “Higher Education-Enterprise Platform for Fostering, Modernization and Sustainable Growth in Natural Stone Industry in WBs.”, është financuar nga programi Erasmus+.Për herë të parë në Shqipëri,po realizohet një projekt me këtë lloj gjithpërfshirjeje: Akademinë ,Institucione private dhe shtetërore, që kanë si fjalë kyçe “GURIN NATYRAL”.Në partneritetin prej 14 institucionesh të Arsimit të Lartë, dhe Qendra Kërkimore, nga vendet e Ballkanit dhe BE, 3 prej tyre janë nga Shqipëria: Universiteti Politeknik i Tiranës, Universiteti i Elbasanit, “ Aleksandër Xhuvani” dhe Universiteti i Gjirokastrës , “Eqrem Çabej”.