View Annual Review - IAESTE

Forty Years of IAESTE
in the Czech and Slovak Republics
IAESTE Czech Republic
IAESTE Slovakia
This year we mark the 40th anniversary of
IAESTE Czech and Slovak Republics. As you will
know, Czechoslovakia was one of the Founding
Members of IAESTE in 1948. The country gave
up its membership, however, following
revolutionary political change.
The loosening
political
atmosphere of
1965 saw
Czechoslovakia
rejoin the
Association.
IAESTE has
granted exchange
programmes
without
interruption since
that year, sending
Czech students on
technical training
abroad, and
providing foreign students with practical
training in Czech businesses. The 1993 split of
Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and
Slovakia hardly had any effect on it.
For the last forty years, more than six thousand
Czech and Slovak students have been sent
abroad. Many of those students as well as
IAESTE members
responsible for the
exchange
programme went
on to benefit from
this vast
experience in top
positions in both
civil service and
private businesses.
Professor Miroslav Vlček, former Vice-
Chancellor of the Czech Technical University
in Prague is among former IAESTE members. He
was put in charge of the IAESTE office at the
University in 1981. This is how he recalls those
days:
“At that time, the IAESTE membership principally
consisted of academic staff and a few students
helping carry out the programme of practical
training, seeking training positions. In return, they
were given a better chance of travelling abroad; no
one obviously received salary for the activities. The
most challenging work was to prepare the
applicants’ documents and training programme in a
way that did not interfere with the obligatory
examination which any applicant wishing to travel
abroad had to go through during the Communist
era. Also, the work included publishing details of
the training programmes and holding information
meetings where former participants of the
programmes would give instructions to new
applicants.
The most frequent time of the year for training
courses taken abroad was summer, and the most
popular venues included Norway (with students
working on oil rigs), France (Schlumberger), West
Germany (Bosch, VW), Turkey, or Greece. Hardly
anyone would travel to East European countries.”
Students have become the most powerful
element in IAESTE Czech and Slovak Republics,
able to conduct key projects and make
decisions regarding the future. The high rate of
students among the members brings in fresh
and inventive ideas that are immediately
applied. For a number of students, IAESTE has
been a springboard for their future career,
which undoubtedly casts a positive light on the
Association, too.
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