The Second ESPRiT Commencement Ceremony took place on October 22, 2010, hosted by Faculty of Mechanical Engineering University of Belgrade. The ceremony was opened by Mr. Aleksandar Sedmak, Director of Innovation center of Mechanical Engineering, who, in his short welcome speech, pointed out the results and importance of the project. The 3rd Secretary Economic Section of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ms. Ulrike Altmann, expressed the satisfaction with the project which is the third one supported by German Government in the last 7 years. Representative of the Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technologies has elaborated the achievements of the project: 14 different 5-day courses prepared 21 instances of the courses held 843 participants of the courses 742 certified risk professionals 25 certified risk examiners and senor risk assessors 18 trained trainers for ESPRiT courses two universities have extended the education curricula using ESPRiT courses. In the end of the ceremony, certificates to the successful participants of ESPRiT training and education in the second round of the project, issued by Steinbeis University Berlin, were handed out (+200 certificates in this round and +550 certificates handed out on the First commencement ceremony held on October 28, 2009 in Novi Sad) See more photos from the ceremony.

ESPRiT project officially ended May 31, 2010. During the project 14 training modules in the area of risk management have been developed 21 instances of the training courses held with over 800 participants 17 project participants passed final exam for ESPRiT trainers on-the-job training was organized in Germany with about 40 participants... Preliminary results for main project indicators are available but in the next two months final results will be scored and report written.

Comparison of planned with achieved results allows to say that the project has achieved its goals. Currently web based survey is running seeking for answers how useful was and what are effects of ESPRiT training, education and certification.
All project participants and partners are kindly asked to answer the survey; result will be important feedback in process of project success evaluation as well as for all institution financing or supporting the project.

By the end of January 2010, three months extension of the project is agreed with DEG. This prolongation was proposed by the project management on the base of high allows to finish some of started activities and will allow improvement of some of ESPRiT project success indicators.

The following events are foreseen for the period February - May 2010:

1. ESPRiT Courses - Final exams, extraordinary round II
2. ESPRiT Final exams for trainers, rounds III and IV
3. ESPRiT certification process for the titles "risk examiners" and "senior risk assessors", rounds II and III
4. Workshops for HSE and Equipment track (to be considered as on-the-job training for participants not fulfilling additional requirements for certification)

You may see the preliminary plan of these events here and apply for some of them!
Based on received application, the preliminary plan will be updated and published again! All applicants will receive detailed information.

ESPRiT Project Presentation and Commencement Ceremony took place

October 27, 2009 in Novi Sad, 

in City Hall, Žarka Zrenjanina 2, 21000 Novi Sad.

485 certificates, issued by Steinbeis University Berlin, were handed out to the ESPRiT courses participants that have successfully passed final exams in the first round of ESPRiT courses, November 2008 - June 2009,  by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Johann Löhn, President of Steinbeis University Berlin and Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Jovanović, director of the Steinbeis Transfer Center Advanced Risk Technologies in Stuttgart.

 

The event and the ceremony is a part of the overall manifestation "Deutsche Tage 2009" ("Dani Nemačke 2009", "German Days 2009")

• Second round of ESPRiT Courses - updated info

Second round of ESPRiT Courses will be held in the period of

Preliminary plan and application formsfor each individual course are available and all partners and individual interested professionals are kindly invited to see this plan and conditions and to make applications to participate.

 

Deadline for these applications is extended up to September 25, 2009.

 

According to received applications the time plan for second round of ESPRiT courses will be reviewed, including courses to be held, date and hosting for each course.

• On-the-job-training abroad - Short stay

Based on the Article 1.5.f and Annex 2 of the Main Contract of the ESPRiT project, 31 person from Serbian companies have participated in the short-stay based part of on-the-job training. Form September 13 to Septeber 20, 2009 the group has visited PCK Refinery GmbH in Schwedt/Oder, BAM - Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin, Bayer AG in Leverkusen, BASF in Ludwigshafen, EnBW Power Plant Altbach, DEKRA Akademie and Steinbeis in Stuttgart.

Beside the visits to the plants or laboratories, training participants had the opportunity to discuss different issues related to the risk and safety management in the companies, thus, no wonder that this training has been extremely high evaluated by the participants.

The above picture is taken in Power Plant Altbach, September 17, 2009 where participants had the chance to see each part of this modern power plant of EnBW. Heat and power are generated from coal in Deizisau/Altbach district heating cogeneration plant. This plant has an electrical output of 1200 megawatts.

• Train the trainers

One of the goals of the project is to establish a pool of ESPRiT trainers which might be used as lecturers in second round of ESPRiT courses for certain ESPRiT topics, and/or as R-Tech trainers for the same, specific topics in the future.

 

To achieve this goal ESPRiT project management organizes specialized course to train future ESPRiT trainers. This two-day course is dedicated to those ESPRiT course participants wishing to become an ESPRiT trainer and having technical proven knowledge in certain ESPRiT topics (see the list of ESPRiT courses). The course will teach mainly methodology to held ESPRiT courses, taking into account technical knowledge in specific topics and presentation and communication abilities of participants.

 

Participants of ESPRiT courses (final exams for specific ESPRiT course, corresponding to the selected topics, passed with score higher then 85%) and/or persons having expressed the interest to become an ESPRiT trainer, are invited to apply for this training. ESPRiT project management will evaluate all received applications and accepted applicants will be notified about it and receive further instruction.

 

Three instances of the course will be organized and application for each instance is open. Please use one of the following links to apply for one of three instances of the course, the most suitable to your time schedule.

 

1. July 13, 2009, Novi Sad,
   application deadline July 7, 2009
2. August 31-September 1, 2009, Belgrade
   application deadline August 20, 2009
3. October 2009, date and place yet to be defined
   application deadline September 30, 2009.

Number of participants for each instance of the course is limited (7-8 persons), each application will be considered and applicant timely notified about status of his application.

• SBH rules for certification

Steinbeis-Hochschule Berlin has established official rulesfor certification process which will come into force June 1, 2009. Based on this, rules for qualification and certification within ESPRiT project will be updated.

• Time plan for the first round of ESPRiT courses and application for training

Based on signed partnership agreements with Serbian companies and individual applications, the time plan of ESPRiT courses for the first half of the year is prepared.
See the plan, see description of each course and, if interested, apply for the chosen courses.

• Results of ESPRiT Survey of needs

The survey was conducted in September and October 2008 and had the aim to determine actual needs for training and education in the field of industrial safety, environmental protection and risk management.
The situation in Serbia regarding industrial safety was estimated as "much worst" in comparison to EU by 49% of survey participants. Lack of qualified/certified personal and methods/tools/software, as well as regulation/legislation have been indicated as the main risk/safety related problems in Serbia.
Results of the survey have confirmed that initial topics of ESPRiT courses are well chosen. The highest interest was show for the course #1 Introduction to Risk and Safety Management in Industry, but the courses # 12 Occupational Safety and Health, # 10 Risk analysis of chemicals, # 6 HSE and HSSE Health, Safety, Security and Environment, # 2 Risk Analysis in Chemical / Petroleum Industries have almost the same level of interest.
Interest has been showm for financial risks and risks assessment methods in insurance thus, the initial list of ESPRiT courses has been extended with the course # 13 Business continuity risks & Insurance.
Based on results of this survey, concept for ESPRiT training is improved and program for each course updated. See objectives and description of the ESPRiT courses.

• First round of ESPRiT Course # 5: RCM and RCFA (Reliability Centered Maintenance and Root Cause Failure Analysis) is successfully finished.

The host of the course was Faculty for technical science Novi Sad. The course attendees, 38 of them, were from NIS Petroleum industry of Serbia, Electric power industry of Serbia, and Faculty for technical science Novi Sad. During 5 days of the course RCM and RCFA methodologies have been presented and main damage mechanisms for equipment in industrial plants elaborated. On Friday, Nov. 7, 2008., 28 of the course participants passed the final exam and a took first credits for the further education within ESPRiT project.
See the pictures from the course.

• Application for participation in the project has started as well!

Serbian organization can participate in the project as education supporter and/or beneficiaries. For any participation a Partnership Agreement has to be signed with the main contractor.
See the terms for the partnership and, if interested in, download the Partnership Agreement, fill it in and send on e-mail address esprit@risk-technologies.com.
Individual being interested in ESPRiT training and education, may participate as well. For this case, preliminary application is necessary.