This year Unipetrol extended its contract with Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze (VŠCHT), the biggest educational institution of its kind in Central Europe. Same as in previous three years, Unipetrol remains the strategic partner of this renowned school. "The Unipetrol Holding participates in many events, as, for example, presentation of VŠCHT Praha in high schools, various exhibitions or open-door days. We also cooperate on the Česká hlava project, intended to support scientific and technical knowledge," says the Registrar to the Rector of VŠCHT Praha, Ivana Cerhová. Also the school's Rector, Vlastimil Růžička, is happy about the cooperation. "In cooperation with the Unipetrol Holding we can offer a possibility of shadowing managers to about fifteen students per year. Also people from HR Departments of companies operating in the chemistry area work with us and take interest in our students," he said last year in his interview for Hospodářské noviny. "The partnership between the school and Unipetrol is absolutely logical. VŠCHT Praha plays a dominant role on the education market in this area and is the biggest educational institution oriented on technical chemistry in Central Europe, while the Unipetrol Holding is an important employer of the VŠCHT Praha graduates," Ivana Cerhová adds. The school with almost two hundred years of tradition is endeavouring to offer its students access to top technologies and foreign internships in order to prepare them as well as possible for the transition to the practical life. It is also strongly engaged in cooperation with the business sphere. This takes place especially in the research area, but also the educational one. Intensive contact with the practical side plays the main role in the professional development of each student, the share of the financial resources coming from orders for applied research in the school's budget is very good. On the other hand, contact with the academic sphere is often more than inspirational for managers and practical experts. The constantly growing database of collaborating companies contains over 1700 entries, about one tenths of which are companies cooperating very actively with VŠCHT Praha. VŠCHT Praha holds many patents and authors' certificates and belongs among the organisation holding greatest numbers of patents in the Czech Republic.