Every progress and development of the Educational System is a step forward for us as a society. Keeping this in mind, BEST as an organisation through their events and services stands for development of students and the education in any possible field. One of the main events that enable every Local BEST Group to contribute towards that purpose are the Local Events on Education.

What is the purpose of these events?

Having the students, faculties and companies in mind, our organisation aims to secure a middle ground where each side will have the opportunity to collaborate, strengthening their bond and working together towards bigger changes. LEoE does that through refining topics that are relevant to the education, with which we all make a small step towards a bigger purpose – ideal environment for students to develop.

Often the questions, as well as the answers and conclusions of the event are being documented and sent to the relevant bodies, organisations and institutions with the purpose of making a significant change. BEST Skopje is successfully organising these events a few years in a row and each event gives new hopes for the future of education.

On 17th December 2019, on the official opening of the engineering competition EBEC, BEST Skopje also held the Local Event of Education in the form of a panel discussion on the topic “Women in Engineering”. On this years edition, besides having a goal to look at the challenges women face in the engineering areas, it also focused on comparing the past, with the present as well as contemplation for the future, and how to support and motivate every woman starting or thinking of starting a career path in this area.

In order to provide more experiences and knowledge, there were people of different work positions related to engineering present on this event, such as professors, company representatives as well as students. This way we managed to have diverse opinions and a lot of perspectives were captured. Our panellists were FEIT professors Goga Cvetkovski and Hristina Spaseska, APTIV representative Elena Papazoska, MCA representative Jana Vladimirova, FEIT student Bojan Strachkovski, and FINKI student as well as the main organiser of the event, Marija Kiprijanova. Questions were asked from the moderator Ana Sekulovska and the discussion lasted for about an hour.

The topic covered questions about the lack of women in engineering, as well as the reasons for it, is there enough initiative to motivate those with motivation towards the profession, what actions would be taken for a gender balance in engineering, and a recommendation for young female students that wish to enter the field of engineering. The discussion brought the panellists to a couple of productive conclusions and progressive solutions for the future. Everyone, including the crowd had the chance to come up with their own conclusion about this topic and hear the opinion of professionals as well as students with personal experience. The panellists brought a fresh perspective, personal experiences and the discussion ended with a encouraging message to all the future women engineers:

“All obstacles aside, anyone that has the desire can make it, so don’t discourage yourselves. Have faith in yourselves and work for what you want.”

Every panellist contributed to the good ambience during the conversation and at the same time together managed to keep the audience’s attention the whole time, and even after the discussion there were still stalks about the topic between the people present. That’s why its important to start these conversations, encourage debates and discussions through which we can find solutions and reach personal, professional and societal progress, especially for the young engineers.

This event was organising with lots of love – from students, for students and its what makes it irreplaceable for anyone that has the opportunity to attend. The intense effort from all the organisers of the event is a really important step towards change and it is our honour that we managed to gather professors, students and professionals together to find solutions to higher educations.

Results from events such as LEoE are saved, and are then used to get good reports that will reach all those concerned with the topic. Attending an event of this kind is a irreplaceable experience, and BEST Skopje is hoping that all of you will have the chance to be a part of the change you will inspire.