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 supervisors in project work and job presentations that take up more than half of the six months of the program. Every year, special studies are offered in 3-4 courses, but the special studies take 4-5 months. Matís is in charge of teaching a quality program and students in that program range from 5 to 10. Every year, 15-20 Matís specialists come to teaching and project instructions ", says Heiða Pálmadóttir, Matís' subject manager.
It can be quite a puzzle to put together the program for the special study, "first there are lectures for 6 weeks and there are various people involved and not just experts at Matís, but people from all over the Icelandic fishing industry and related fields such as transport and packaging. We go on visits where companies receive students, these are fun and informative visits for students and no less for escorts. Fun discussions are created more during informal visits than when attending a lecture on the subject. I myself have found it fun and educational to go on these visits, "says Heiða Pálmadóttir, who has supervised the teaching 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 quality measurements on fish and further explanations of methodology - this can be done online and takes us little time. serve. Another example is a student in Kenya who has been in contact for a fatty acid diagnosis, 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 tragedy strikes their nations and one never knows what will happen to them especially if the ties are not stable. It was also a strong experience to receive students from North Korea and Cuba during the worst situation, "says Heiða.
"All of these are well-educated people in the beginning and extremely interested in learning and getting to know as much as possible what we have to offer," Heiða concludes.