The Technical University of Moldova (UTM), “Lafarge Ciment” company and the Francophone University Agency(AUF) will develop a partnership based program for master’s degrees in the field of construction and mineral material and processes’ engineering, Info-Prim Neo reports. The prime pro-rector of UTM, Petru Todos, has declared on Friday, October 15, during a press conference that the implementation of this program began earlier than its official launch, more exactly, on September 1, when 12 UTM bachelors continued their studies to deepen their knowledge. 1240 of UTM’s students are working on obtaining a master’s degree, within 38 programs, including the partnerships with other educational establishments. “This program will however be executed with the help of a private company and this is a very important thing for both partners, because our specialists will acquire the knowledge and skills that are needed today in a modern production process. We hope that this program will be supported by other enterprises”, Petru Todos said. The manager of “LaFarge Ciment Moldova”, Frederic Aubet, said that the enterprise has established good partnership relations with UTM, many of UTM’s graduates becoming company employees. “We are content with their performance. But an engineer can’t be only a technician. He also needs management skills. We have decided to support this program for this particular reason”, highlighted Frederic Aubet. Moreover, he’ll over to scholarships of 1000 lei per month to the best students. The AUF will be involved in this program by organizing some workshops for teachers. Likewise, there will be organized consultation mission for students and teachers. “We hope that at least 60 percent of the studies of this program will be held in French. French can even be a business language.”, said AUF’s manager, Serge Bellini Pierre Andrieu, the French ambassador in Moldova participated in the program’s launching. He was particularly happy with the fact that AUF is involved, a company with French capital, that affirmed itself over the last 11 years of activity in Moldova. The master’s degree program is scheduled for a period of one and a half years. The Ministry of Education offered 6 scholarships from the state budget for the program.