Matís and the Fisheries Research Institute before that have been partners in teaching at the United Nations University's School of Fisheries, UNU-FTP, from the beginning of the school's activities in 1998.
"The program emphasizes practical knowledge and experience, and students work closely with Icelandic instructors in project work and career presentations, which take up more than half of the six months that the program lasts. Each year, special studies are offered in 3-4 tracks, but the special studies last 4-5 months. Matís is in charge of teaching on a quality course, and there are between 5 and 10 students on that course. Every year, 15-20 Matís experts come for teaching and project instructions", says Heiða Pálmadóttir, subject manager at Matís.
It can be quite a puzzle to put together the program for the special course, "first there are lectures for 6 weeks and various people come and not just experts from Matís, but people from far and wide from the Icelandic fishing industry and related sectors such as transport and packaging. There are visits where companies welcome students, these are fun and informative visits for students and no less for accompanying persons. Fun discussions are created more during informal visits than when sitting in a lecture on the subject. I myself have found it fun and informative to go on these visits," says Heiða Pálmadóttir, who has been in charge of the classes for many years.
Benefits of the UNU-FTP school from the collaboration:
- Matís has a wide range of specialists with long experience in research and services in the fishing industry
- Matís' experts have good connections with the Icelandic fishing industry due to the small size of the country, from fishing to export and consumption.
- Matís' specialists collaborate in many ways with Icelandic universities and are connected to education in both undergraduate and graduate studies and form a bridge between industry and universities in Iceland.
Matís benefits from the collaboration:
- Matís contributes to development aid
- Matís' experts maintain links with the fishing industry and the fishing industry and preserve their basic knowledge in that field
- Creates new opportunities for increased projects in the international market
Students work on their final projects at Matís and this creates a connection with students who do not break up. Many return to further studies in Iceland, although some have entered doctoral and master's studies in recent years. By staying in Iceland for so long, a great and lasting connection is created between people. This has given rise to long-term projects and friendships.
"I have been in contact with students from SriLanka, he is setting up a quality system and sought advice on the implementation of individual measurements such as fish quality measurements and further explanations of methodology - this can be done via the Internet and takes little time for us to serve. Another example is a student in Kenya who has been in contact for fatty acid analysis, but she is particularly interested in increasing fish oil consumption, especially in young children and their mothers. Undeniably, one thinks of one's students when disaster strikes their nations, and one never knows what will happen to them, especially if the relationship is not stable. It was also a strong experience to receive students from North Korea and Cuba while the situation was at its worst," says Heiða.
"All of these are well-educated people in the beginning and extremely interested in learning and familiarizing themselves as best as possible with what we have to offer," says Heiða in conclusion.