The aim of the RTU Talent Program is to attract talented young people from all regions of Latvia to study engineering. RTU will offer the students individual study plans, as they have much broader and more specific knowledge in exact subjects compared to some of their peers, besides that they will have the opportunity to improve their personality and skills in lectures and seminars and to work with individual mentors. The first studies in this program will be started by more than 30 new students – graduates from 10 Latvian schools, as well as graduates of RTU Secondary School of Engineering.
«For young people who study at RTU, the Talent Program will provide additional opportunities to learn all modern technologies, so that they could not only compete in the labour market, but also get a doctoral degree faster, which is the main drive of the program», said Leonīds Ribickis, RTU Rector.
In order to educate young scientists, in 2015 RTU established RTU Secondary School of Engineering, the graduates of which have already been studying at RTU for two years according to individual plans. Now they will be joined by students from other Latvian schools – ten in total.
For example, Arvīds Bāliņš, a graduate of Smiltene Secondary School, will study at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Transport and Aeronautics of RTU, in the study program «Engineering, Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering». His goal is to become a rocket engine engineer, and on his way to this dream, Arvīds has already built his first engine: «The very beginning was difficult because I did not realize how complicated it is and how much information is necessary. It took me several years, and last October I managed to test this engine for the first time».
RTU supports new talents so that after their studies they can work either in science or become excellent engineering specialists, innovators, company managers.
«RTU as a university of technologies plays an important role in the development of exact science studies in the country», says V. Dombrovskis. He reminds of labour market forecasts, which say that in the next five years there will be a shortage of about 17,000 specialists in the fields of engineering, natural sciences and information technology in Latvia, but still only a quarter of Latvian students study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), «all initiatives aimed at supporting STEM areas are important and should be supported».
Participants with excellent knowledge in exact sciences were selected in the RTU Talent Program. First, the best schools in Riga, Pierīga, Vidzeme, Kurzeme, Zemgale and Latgale were selected, based on the average assessment in centralized examinations in physics, mathematics and chemistry and students’ achievements in national school subject olympiads. After that, the schools selected the best 12th grade students to recommend for studies at RTU.