Galery

1

Tell me what happens to the professional rights of the engineers who are graduates of universities and those who receive degrees from colleges and vocational schools?

There is a mistake here, which I think is not only the fault of this government. There is a bug that affects some groups of scientists who have not determined their professional rights. Before the were saying - go with low scores in college and technical school and you will become an engineer. The truth is that people went into these colleges, because they could not get into university, but no one has ever become an engineer. And no one ever set out to determine precisely what the professional rights of these people are and to implement the technical pyramid. But at some point this became a problem and these people began to require professional rights. Today's government and in particular the Deputy Minister of Education Panaretos who I can not understand why he has such a strange position against universities, took out some presidential decrees, which make vocational schools essentially equivalent to the universities. We are not against the idea that graduates of technical schools should have professional rights, on the contrary. We want those people who have graduated from technical high schools, colleges and wherever else there are technical professions to have established professional rights that are clear and not disputed. So anyone who goes to a faculty or school to know what rights he will be given when he graduates. The worst thing is to leave schools without professional rights. In our opinion, a discussion should be held from the beginning about the professional rights of all. Not only of those who graduate from technical schools, but also graduates from the colleges in order to solve this issue and to be no ambiguities. We are not a supermarket. There is a science related to this profession and if someone does not have the necessary knowledge to build a house, it is impossible for the society to leave that person build and for people to come to live inside. It is very simple - every man should have the rights for what he has studied.

How many members does the union of the civil engineers have in which you are President and what activities you do?

We have 25,000 members - these are graduate civil engineers. According to the statute they should even be graduates from the Polytechnic University "Metsovio" or from another Greek university or equivalent school. We are a scientific union, and not a trade union body and our aim is to support the positions of civil engineers and to inform our members about new developments.

Students who graduate to be civil engineers overseas, how can they gain the right to practice their profession in Greece?

Any student who graduates in Greece undergoes through the exams in the Technical Chamber to obtain permission to practice their profession. When he successfully passes the exams, he enters in the register and may practice. Our colleagues who have graduated abroad must first pass through the National Information Centre for academic recognition of the diplomas - the office that approves whether the subjects and the system of education correspond to the one in the Greek universities. Then it may recognize that the graduate students is a civil engineer, or will require him to go through some exams which most often are on subjects relating to anti-earthquakes methods of construction.

Are there any optimistic forecasts for your profession in the country? How are the projects on  bioclimatic buildings developing?

In times of crisis it is strange to talk about prospects. The profession of Civil Engineers is a dynamic profession. It is constantly evolving new ways are opened, new materials come out, new methods. Bioclimatic design is a method that will be applied in our country. I would not say that this is perspective, i.e. that the entire profession will go that way. This is one way of design, which should be adopted. The prospectives of our profession are not clear. The future is bleak because it is not clear what the government wants to do. If the government says it will support the program for state subsidies, then there is a chance to open the profession, to have new members, to have new engineers. So this profession that has such a wide range, its perspective is set by the government. If the government came out and said that it removes the value added tax on construction works sales will pick up, because all buildings will become cheaper by 23%. And when sales pick up the construction industry will also pick up, because those who sell will start the construction of a new building and people will start to work.